Back to jobs
New

Research Lead

New York, NY

At dYdX you'll have an opportunity to build state-of-the-art decentralized technologies that will redefine global financial markets. By joining us at this stage in our growth, you will help make fundamental decisions that will shape the course of dYdX. 

Learn more about working at dYdX

ABOUT dYdX:

  • We’ve built the software underlying the world’s leading decentralized exchange for advanced trading of crypto derivatives
  • dYdX is founded by an ex-Coinbase, ex-Uber engineer, with a Princeton CS background. Our team has previous experience at Coinbase, Uniswap, Google, Amazon, Lyft, Meta and other top companies
  • We're a world-class team with top backers and advisors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain Capital, Brian Armstrong, Fred Ehrsam, Naval Ravikant, Elad Gil, and more 

RESPONSIBILITIES:

As the Research Lead at dYdX, you will drive strategic insights at the intersection of market structure, protocol and mechanism design, and user behavior. Your work will shape the core protocol and broader ecosystem narratives during a pivotal stage of decentralization and global expansion. 

Protocol & Incentive Research

  • Conduct cutting edge research into market structure, protocol design and mechanics, and incentive design, including
    • Internal-facing research to help the business understand user behavior, product performance, and growth opportunities
    • External-facing projects to contribute to the global conversation on protocol design, trading, and DeFi evolution
    • Educational content to help our audience become more sophisticated traders and product users 
  • Collaborate with Engineering team and other parts of the business and communicate research findings clearly across technical and non-technical audiences
  • Collaborate with the Growth team to identify and define key audience segments and leverage data-driven insights to inform growth strategies and guide product decisions
  • Take strong initiative in leading deep and exploratory research on open-ended questions that the team has around core product features and protocol development

Data & Infrastructure

  • Own and continuously enhance data infrastructure by optimizing systems, evaluating new tools, and promoting data best practices across the organization
  • Help define key metrics for protocol health and trader behavior
  • Build tools and pipelines to support research reproducibility and insight generation

Thought Leadership & Community

  • Help shape and clearly communicate dYdX’s product strategy through research-driven insights and external thought leadership 
  • Collaborate with dYdX ecosystem partners and actively engage with the broader user community to enrich the research perspective and stay aligned with ecosystem needs

REQUIREMENTS:

  • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in quantitative fields (Math, Computer Science, Physics, Statistics, Economics) or a related field
  • 4+ years working experience in a technical role (Developer, Analyst, Quant, Data Scientist) 
  • 2+ years of experience working with blockchain or order book data (e.g. experience indexing blocks, building dashboards in Dune or similar, working with market data from crypto exchanges)
  • Exceptional written and verbal communication skills
  • Project management, time management, and ability to multitask
  • Proficient with data visualization tools for generating insights and communicating findings effectively
  • Entrepreneurial and intellectually curious, with a passion for asking the right questions, exploring data, and developing well-reasoned hypotheses

NICE TO HAVES:

  • Experience in or knowledge of trading (especially HFT), market structure, and derivatives
  • Knowledge of and passion for everything in DeFi (especially dYdX!) and web3 with a track record
  • Ideally have an existing personal research/content brand
  • Experience with our technologies: SQL / Python / Pandas / xarray / Mode / Amplitude / BigQuery

Salary range for this job is $220K to $270K USD (NY). Compensation subject to experience and location. Published salary bands pursuant to transparency laws, and do not include possible variable compensation such as annual merit increases, bonus eligibility, commission, or equity incentive.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf


Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in dYdX’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.