TechShack are partnered with several DeFi trading firms and on-chain market makers expanding their trading, engineering and quantitative teams. We're hiring across firms with live on-chain infrastructure already in production - actively quoting liquidity across AMMs, running MEV-aware execution, and scaling tokenisation and RWA strategies.
Current openings include:
- Head of Trading (London or Dubai)
- DeFi Market Making Quant Trader (London)
- DeFi Quant Trader (London or Paris)
- DeFi / On-Chain Engineer (London or Singapore)
These are fast-scaling, DeFi-first proprietary trading firms, 50 to 250 heads, with real on-chain edge, serious capital deployed across concentrated liquidity pools, and live strategies running in production across Uniswap V3/V4, Aerodrome, PancakeSwap, Hyperliquid and other major venues. The Head of Trading seat is at a Tier 1 firm; the DeFi quant and engineering seats are at a high-performing Tier 2 with strong upward trajectory.
Compensation: competitive base + bonus / PnL share (varies by seat, seniority and location).
What you'll work on
- Own and scale live on-chain market making strategies in production across concentrated-liquidity AMMs, with direct influence over tick range selection, rebalancing logic, inventory management, and fee capture optimisation.
- Design, build and operate systematic quoting engines that price and manage liquidity positions across multiple DEXs and chains simultaneously, with real-time monitoring and automated risk controls.
- Develop and deploy MEV-aware execution strategies that protect LP positions from adverse selection, sandwich attacks, and toxic flow while maximising spread capture.
- For the Head of Trading seat: build and lead the trading desk from the ground up - define strategy direction, hire the team, set risk frameworks, and own the full P&L across token market making, tokenisation, and RWA trading.
- Research and implement delta-neutral hedging across CEX and DEX venues, including funding rate arbitrage, basis trading, and cross-venue inventory optimisation.
- Build and maintain low-latency on-chain infrastructure: smart contract integrations, RPC/node management, mempool monitoring, gas optimisation, and execution routing across L1s and L2s.
- Work at the intersection of quantitative research and on-chain engineering - backtest strategies against historical pool data, model impermanent loss dynamics, and deploy improvements directly into live environments.
- Operate in markets where execution quality is won or lost on-chain: block-by-block timing, gas auctions, pool state awareness, and transaction sequencing all matter.
What we're looking for
- Proven experience running live DeFi strategies with measurable results in one or more of the following: concentrated-liquidity market making, on-chain arbitrage, MEV extraction/protection, or delta-neutral CEX-DEX strategies.
- Deep understanding of AMM mechanics - Uniswap V3/V4 tick math, impermanent loss modelling, fee tier dynamics, and how liquidity positioning decisions translate into real P&L outcomes.
- For quant seats: strong quantitative foundation with hands-on ability to design, backtest, deploy, and iterate on-chain trading strategies in production. Not just research - you've run live books.
- For engineering seats: production Solidity, Rust, or low-level EVM experience. You've built systems that interact with on-chain protocols at speed and under real conditions.
- For the Head of Trading seat: track record of building a trading business or desk from early stage, with institutional pedigree and experience taking proprietary risk. You've owned a P&L and scaled it.
- Strong Python for research and analysis. Rust, TypeScript, or Solidity for execution-layer work. SQL for post-trade analytics.
- Clear evidence of live ownership - you can speak to what you built, what you changed, how you measured it, and what happened to performance afterwards.
Nice to have
- Experience across both CEX and DEX venues, including the operational complexity of bridging, settlement, gas management, and cross-chain rebalancing.
- Familiarity with RFQ/OTC protocols (1inch, 0x, Hashflow, CoW Swap) and how on-chain liquidity sourcing works in practice.
- Tokenisation or RWA trading experience - understanding how real-world assets are brought on-chain and how market making dynamics differ from native crypto tokens.
- Options or structured products experience in DeFi (Lyra, Aevo, Ribbon-style vaults) or traditional markets.
- Smart contract auditing awareness, protocol risk assessment, and operational security practices for on-chain trading.
- Multi-chain experience across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Solana, BSC, or other active DeFi ecosystems.
Why these roles
- High-ownership seats with direct impact on live on-chain books and trading outcomes — these are not back-office or research-only positions
- Firms with real capital deployed, real infrastructure in production, and real edge in on-chain markets
- The Head of Trading seat is a genuine desk-build opportunity at a Tier 1 firm with full autonomy over strategy, hiring, and risk
- DeFi is where the next generation of market structure is being built — these roles put you at the centre of it
- Strong upside through PnL share and performance-linked compensation
If you're running live DeFi strategies, building on-chain execution infrastructure, or you've built a trading desk and want to do it again in DeFi - let's talk.
