Partnerships Lead, Defi

OP Labs builds Optimism, an open-source blockchain network that powers the next generation of financial infrastructure. Hundreds of companies, from the world's largest enterprises like Sony, Coinbase, Kraken, Uniswap, OKX, and Bitpanda to the most ambitious early-stage builders, use the OP stack to launch their own blockchains and bring their users onchain. Today, over 65% of Layer 2 activity on Ethereum runs through the OP stack. We are a small team building at the speed of the ecosystem we support. We’re remote-friendly but the NYC office is our center of gravity. We've raised $178M from a16z, Paradigm, and others. We have our work cut out for us and are looking for exceptional people to join us. Role and Responsibilities This role is focused on accelerating Total Value Locked (TVL) growth across OP Stack chains. You will achieve this by setting the overall DeFi strategy for the OP Stack and managing key relationships with top-tier protocols, including asset issuers, decentralized exchanges, and liquidity providers. A core component of the role is structuring and executing high-ROI, multi-party initiatives, as well as sharing knowledge and best practices with our chain partners. What are the role responsibilities? - Own relationships with top-tier DeFi protocol teams, serving as the primary point of contact, running quarterly business reviews, proactively removing blockers, and ensuring those DiFi partnerships can deliver on joint OP and partner objectives. - Contribute to OP Mainnet and the OP Stack DeFi strategy and execution, by owning the asset pipeline, and working with partners to create new markets, vaults, and sustainable DeFi yield strategies. - Design and deploy milestone-based incentive programs, track grant ROI, and work with internal partners (Growth, Data, Product) to optimize incentive strategies to drive towards sustainable business outcomes. - Lead strategic initiatives and thought leadership for the OP Stack DeFi ecosystem (e.g., create and deploy playbooks for TVL growth across OP Stack chain partners), build narrative and content to showcase the ecosystem’s growth and wins, represent Optimism at industry events, and surface emerging trends and opportunities. What success looks like: 3+ OP Stack chains with a $1B TVL in the next 12 months What skills do you bring? - 4–7 years in DeFi partnerships / protocol ops experience - Deep understanding of the EVM DeFi ecosystem including DeFi protocol mechanics and onchain behaviors of various user archetypes from yield-seekers, liquidity providers, farmers/degens, to institutions. - Demonstrated experience with tokenomics and incentive programs, with sharp business intuition to choose incentive campaigns that drive durable outcomes. - Hands-on product/technical fluency, obsessed with understanding how DeFi protocols, apps, and the infrastructure required for successful DeFi ecosystem - Strong cross-functional execution and negotiation skills. - Excellent written/verbal communication — exec-level presence. What will you like about us? - We take care of our employees. Competitive compensation, fully paid medical, dental, and vision, and a 4% 401K match. - We take pride in the accomplishments of our teammates and support each other in doing the best work of our careers. - Our team is a diverse group of people from varied backgrounds. We cherish our eclecticism and consider it a great strength. - We're remote-friendly with an NYC office where we like to collaborate in person. - We think long-term. Our founders have been scaling Ethereum since 2015. - Learn more about our interviewing here! https://oplabs.notion.site/Interviewing-at-OP-26cf153ee1628080ab4fd1ddca5b5998 We are aware of fraudulent individuals falsely claiming to represent OP Labs in recruitment activities. Please note: - All official communication will come from an @oplabs.co http://oplabs.co email address, or from a verified Linked profile. - We will never ask for payment, banking information, or personal