Research Ops Specialist

Location: Remote

Orca’s vision is to build a financial system that puts people first. We envision a future where the majority of global financial transactions are driven by CLAMMs and other Decentralized Finance (DeFi) products. Our ambition reaches beyond becoming the leading provider of financial primitives in crypto—we aim to reshape the foundation of finance itself. We are building the next NASDAQ. If you are someone who is tired of just working another job and wants to build something meaningful, then we invite you to join our team.

What you’ll do

• Own participant operations — Lead end-to-end recruitment: design and iterate screeners, creatively source elusive crypto-native users, coordinate scheduling, and manage incentives that keep participants engaged.

• Spot opportunities in the wild — Stay plugged into crypto-Twitter, Discord, and DeFi communities to surface recruitment leads and meet users where they are.

• Systematize research workflows — Define and maintain SOPs; own and optimize our tooling stack (Tally, Sprig, Notion, Zapier, etc.); and ensure every study adheres to GDPR and ethical standards.

• Keep research knowledge tidy — Own participant databases and documentation; maintain small “always-on” panels so the team can reach the right profiles fast.

• Command logistics & budget — Track timelines, incentive spend, and the annual Research Ops budget; surface operational KPIs (lead time, show-rate, cost per participant) and drive continuous improvement.

What you’ll bring

• Operational expertise + people skills — familiarity or motivation to learn Research Ops, participant recruitment, community, or support in crypto or high-growth tech, ideally DeFi. You know how to connect with people, keep them engaged, and keep details organized.

• Crypto-native perspective — familiarity or motivation to learn how to engage with crypto communities and culture; extra points if you “get” CT.

• Curiosity for user behavior — You think about who’s the right fit for each study and why. You empathize with different user profiles and adapt recruitment to match.

• Organizational strength — You keep our research records clear, searchable, and action-oriented, modeling best-in-class organization for others to follow.

• Automation mindset — Comfort or motivation to learn how to work with spreadsheets/databases, Zapier, or light scripting to remove repetitive manual work.

• Bonus: A background or familiarity with finance/TradFi, enabling us to better connect with advanced or institutional audiences.

What Orca offers

• Salary: 55,000 - 65,000 USDC (Range for US employees)

• Token allocation: 10,000 - 20,000 ORCA over 4 years (Range for US employees)

• Flexible work schedule.

• Home office stipend.

• Wellness stipend.

• Option to work remotely or from Orca’s office in New York City.

• Paid subscriptions to GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, or other tools that make you more productive.

Hiring Process

We like to be transparent and efficient. We move fast. We believe this process gives candidates the best experience in getting decisions quickly instead of long, drawn out interview rounds that last weeks.

Initial Screen (30 min)
This is an opportunity for us to better understand your experience and knowledge of Solana and DeFi and an opportunity for you to learn more about the role and the company.

COO Interview (30min)

This will be a conversation with Isaac, our COO. It's a chance for you to learn about Orca's history, present status, and its bright future. He will also gauge your knowledge of AMMs and DeFi.

Hiring Manager Interview (60 min)

Raph (Head of Product Insights & Hiring Manager) will do a deep dive on the product and role.
Panel Interviews (60 min each)
This round will consist of 2 open-ended interviews back-to-back all conducted the same day. It will be with Tyler (Designer), and Matias (Head of Product Management).

Our stack

• Rust, Timescale, Postgres

• Next.js, Typescript, Zustand, Tailwind

• Solana's Geyser plugin, Yellowstone gRPC

• Solana smart contracts using Anchor

• Terraform, AWS ECS, Datadog, Vercel

• GitHub, Linear, Notion, Slack

About: https://orca.so

Twitter: https://x.com/orca_so

Discord: https://discord.orca.so

Podcast: https://orcapod.orca.so

Orca is an equal opportunity employer.