About us
Avara builds innovative products leveraging blockchain technologies. Avara’s suite includes the Aave Protocol, along with the native stablecoin GHO, Lens, an open social network, and Family, a design-first mobile crypto wallet. Avara’s vision is to build a people-powered internet that benefits all.
Aave Labs & Horizon
Aave Labs, part of Avara, is a core contributor to the Aave Protocol, the leading decentralized liquidity protocol, and the original developer of GHO, Aave’s native stablecoin. Horizon, Aave Labs’ institutional initiative, enables institutional investors to unlock liquidity against tokenized traditional assets using 24/7 repo-like markets.
About the Role
As an Institutional DeFi Associate, you’ll help drive Aave Labs’ institutional strategy by supporting the development and execution of key initiatives, including Horizon and broader efforts to grow Aave’s institutional footprint. You’ll play a key role in supporting the institutional business development pipeline, from managing leads and coordinating outreach to assisting with partner integrations and market research. This role blends hands-on execution with strategic exposure and offers deep insight into how institutions are adopting DeFi.
We’re looking for a financially fluent professional with a strong interest in DeFi and experience at a top-tier bank, asset manager, or fintech.
How you can make an impact:
- Support the institutional business development pipeline by sourcing and tracking leads, maintaining internal systems for reporting and prioritization, coordinating outreach and meetings, and preparing meeting materials
- Support the end-to-end execution of institutional DeFi initiatives, from ideation and strategy to go-to-market delivery across Avara’s product and partnership efforts
- Collaborate with product, engineering, legal, and marketing teams to advance integrations and strategic partnerships as program manager
- Help manage internal tools and processes used for partner tracking, pipeline reporting, and stakeholder updates
- Conduct research on prospective partners, competitive activity, and market trends to inform outreach and positioning
- Participate in external meetings with institutional partners and assist in relationship development efforts
- Contribute to the creation of external materials including pitch decks, case studies, and product overviews
- Monitor RWA developments, DeFi trends, and regulatory shifts to surface BD opportunities and support strategic planning
Let’s connect if you have:
- 3–4 years of experience at a Tier 1 investment bank, asset manager, or capital markets institution, with exposure to fintech or digital assets
- Understanding of DeFi primitives such as lending protocols and tokenized assets
- Proven ability to operate autonomously in fast-moving, cross-functional environments
- Strong team player who thrives in diverse environments and can adapt to different working styles and approaches
- Exceptional organizational, time-management, and communication skills, with a high attention to detail
- Track record of effectively managing multiple projects at the same time and ability to balance innovative / strategic focus with tactical implementation / execution
- High level of intellectual curiosity, combined with professional experience and a passion for decentralized finance and institutional adoption of DeFi
Nice to haves:
- Experience with tokenized assets, including fund structures or RWA tokenization initiatives, within a traditional finance context
- Demonstrated product thinking or experience contributing to product strategy, solution design, or user-oriented problem solving
- Comfort navigating between technical, strategic, and user-facing considerations in a fast-paced environment
- Background in traditional lending products or secured financing (e.g. repo, credit lines, collateralized lending)
Haven’t quite met all the criteria? Let’s not miss out on the chance to speak. Whilst you might not meet every single requirement, you might bring other, more exciting skills to the companies!
Equal opportunity statement:
Avara celebrates diversity and view each and every team member as a separate individual with their own unique identity. No matter your race, religion, gender, ethnicity, age, (dis)ability, sexual orientation or even the wallet you use, we welcome you at Avara.
As an equal opportunities employer, we take accountability and believe in everyone’s potential to build, create and inspire changes. With a mission to build a diverse workforce, we are proud to foster a working environment in which everyone can feel safe and valued for who they are.
