DeFi Risk Leader & Protocol Governance

Aave Labs; New York (NY); On-site; USD 220,000 - 380,000; Full time

Job summary

Aave Labs in New York seeks a Head of Risk to lead the Risk team and own risk-governance across the Aave Protocol and products. You will coordinate with external risk providers, set and monitor risk parameters, and sign off on collateral onboarding and material risk decisions.

This leadership role requires deep protocol knowledge, strong accountability, and the judgment to make high-stakes decisions at scale as the protocol expands into new markets and asset classes.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in risk management, with a strong preference for DeFi or crypto-native experience.
• Proven experience leading and managing a risk team.
• Deep understanding of the Aave Protocol, its markets, governance, parameters, and risk dynamics.
• Strong grasp of market structure, portfolio risk management, and stress testing methodologies.
• Experience governing risk for composable DeFi products or pooled strategies, including external protocol, liquidity, oracle and execution dependencies.
• Experience working with or managing external risk service providers.

Responsibilities

• Lead and build the Risk team, setting direction, priorities, and standards for the function.
• Own and evolve Aave’s risk management frameworks and policies.
• Set minimum review standards and provide independent challenge for product-specific risk frameworks.
• Establish model-risk and data-governance standards for material quantitative models and external risk inputs.
• Review product and engineering controls for approved risk requirements and own gaps, exceptions and incident response.
• Establish standards for external risk providers and data dependencies, including methodology and data quality.
• Own governance, approval thresholds and escalation for protocol-risk parameters; oversee monitoring and material change reviews.
• Approve collateral onboarding decisions and risk assessments.
• Review liquidation performance and suggest improvements to liquidation mechanisms.
• Lead risk governance processes and present risk analyses to the DAO.

Skills

Risk management

Leadership

Aave Protocol knowledge

Market risk

Stress testing

Governance

External risk providers

Data governance

Model risk

Job description

Aave Labs in New York seeks a Head of Risk to lead the Risk team and own risk-governance across the Aave Protocol and products. You will coordinate with external risk providers, set and monitor risk parameters, and sign off on collateral onboarding and material risk decisions.

This leadership role requires deep protocol knowledge, strong accountability, and the judgment to make high-stakes decisions at scale as the protocol expands into new markets and asset classes.