Head of DeFi Markets

About Valinor

Valinor is building a new kind of credit institution — one with the rigor and judgment of a financial firm and the speed and ambition of a technology company. We originate, structure, and distribute institutional-grade credit products natively on blockchain-based rails, with AI-driven operations and in partnership with the broader digital asset ecosystem. We recently raised a $25M seed round and are a small, high-conviction team operating at the frontier of capital markets.

The Role

We are hiring a Head of DeFi Markets to own the strategy, partnerships, and operational execution required to bring Valinor's credit products into DeFi. This person will be the connective tissue between our deal origination team, legal and structuring functions, and the DeFi ecosystem, translating institutional credit into onchain products and distribution channels.

This is a hands-on, high-autonomy role. You will not be managing a large team. You will be owning the playbook and building it from scratch: evaluating infrastructure partners, structuring onchain vehicles for deployment, and forging the commercial relationships that underpin Valinor's DeFi strategy.

You will report directly to the CEO and work closely with the co-founders, deal team, and technical contributors.

What You'll Do

Product Design & Structuring

• Determine how Valinor's credit products get packaged and deployed onchain — mapping credit facilities to vault structures, waterfall mechanics, NAV methodologies, and redemption logic
• Evaluate new product forms at the intersection of institutional credit and DeFi primitives, including synthetic yield, tokenized fund positions, and DeFi-native distribution
• Work with legal counsel to ensure onchain vehicles are structured on a compliant and scalable basis

Infrastructure Partnerships

• Own the evaluation and selection of onchain infrastructure partners across the full stack — capital formation, lending, custody, identity, data, and distribution
• Lead commercial negotiations and structure partnership terms that align partner incentives with Valinor's origination strategy
• Define and maintain the framework for assessing partner capabilities across product forms, and drive build-vs-partner decisions

Ecosystem Development

• Serve as Valinor's primary point of contact across the DeFi credit ecosystem — protocols, marketplaces, curators, LPs, L1/L2 foundations, and stablecoin issuers
• Identify whitespace opportunities: new distribution channels, co-investment structures, and emerging infrastructure that expands Valinor's addressable market
• Stay close to what's shipping and what's broken in onchain credit, surfacing insights that inform product and partnership priorities

Why Valinor

• Early-stage and high momentum. $25M seed, active deal pipeline, partnerships with tier-1 counterparties, and a clear thesis on where credit markets are going.
• High-impact role. The DeFi markets strategy you build and lead will be a core pillar of the company.
• Exceptional team. Small team with deep institutional credit and technology backgrounds. We move fast, think rigorously, and hold each other to a high bar.
• Right timing. We are at an inflection point for credit moving onchain. Valinor is positioning to be the trusted platform at the center of this market transition.

• Deep DeFi fluency. You understand lending protocols, vault architectures, stablecoin mechanics, and onchain credit infrastructure at a granular level. Not just conceptually, but from having operated, built on, or integrated with them.

• Structured thinker with credit intuition. You can whiteboard how a credit facility maps to a vault structure, think through waterfall mechanics, and reason about NAV calculation methodologies. You don't need to have been a credit analyst, but you need to have a grasp of that language or be able to learn it quickly.
• Doer, not a delegator. This is a building-stage role at a small company. You will write the RFPs, take the partner calls, build the comparison grids, and draft the memos. You need to be comfortable owning the full stack of work.
• Strong commercial instincts. You can assess a partnership opportunity, think through the economics, and negotiate terms that make sense for Valinor.
• AI-native mindset. You enjoy challenging yourself to operate more agentically and productize your own workflows. You are excited to help us build AI-native systems from the ground up.
• Self-starter with low ego. You are excited about building something from scratch, bought into the vision that credit markets are moving onchain, and hungry to be part of defining how that happens.
• Excellent communicator. You can translate between DeFi-native language and institutional finance language.

Nice to Have

• Experience as a DeFi vault curator, risk manager, or protocol contributor
• Background in structured finance, securitization, or fund administration
• Familiarity with smart contract architecture and security audit processes
• Experience building production-grade tooling or applications using LLMs
• Understanding of US securities regulation as it applies to tokenized products

• Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)
• Retirement Plan (401k, IRA)
• Stock Option Plan