Director of Risk Management - RootstockLabs

About the Role

Rootstock Capital is building a BTC capital markets business, and we're hiring a small, senior team of two to three people to shape, grow, and deliver it. Its first product is an institutional-grade, BTC-denominated investment fund that lets institutional and private Bitcoin holders earn yield and manage credit risk through a mixed portfolio of strategies, bridging traditional institutional demand and Bitcoin-native yield.

As Director of Risk Management, you'll build and lead Rootstock Capital's risk function. You'll own the risk framework across market, credit, counterparty, liquidity, operational, and protocol risk, spanning BTC, digital assets, and traditional finance, and covering OTC, bilateral, and exchange-traded activity. You'll be a founding member of the team, working alongside the VP Fund Management.

Key Responsibilities

Risk Framework and Governance

• Design and own Rootstock Capital's risk framework: risk appetite; exposure, concentration, and leverage limits; liquidity buckets; collateral haircuts; margin and drawdown triggers; and escalation procedures.
• Take risk policies and limits through board approval, and report regularly to the board and investment committee.
• Give independent risk sign-off on new strategies, products, venues, and counterparties before launch.

Risk Modelling and Analysis

• Build the models and analytics that measure market, credit, counterparty, liquidity, and protocol risk across traditional and digital positions, including VaR, scenario analysis, and stress testing.
• Stress-test the portfolio against BTC price shocks, liquidity crises, venue or counterparty failure, depeg events, protocol exploits, and liquidation cascades.
• Model and evaluate complex transactions (secured lending, repo, basis and derivatives, structured products) and assess how risks interact and compound across on-chain and off-chain components.
• Monitor positions and exposures daily, and flag early when outcomes drift from limits or assumptions.

Counterparty and Credit Risk

• Lead counterparty, venue, and protocol due diligence: creditworthiness, custody arrangements, and smart-contract, bridge, oracle, and governance risk.
• Set and monitor counterparty limits, collateral eligibility, and margin terms.

Legal and Transaction Documentation

• Review and negotiate the risk terms in fund, OTC, and bilateral documents (ISDA/CSA, lending and repo agreements, collateral and margin terms, termination events and close-out provisions) with the Fund Asset Manager and legal counsel.

Operational Risk, Controls, and Compliance

• Design operational risk controls across the trade lifecycle, settlement, reconciliation, custody, and treasury that scale with both traditional and digital asset activity.
• Shape the processes that connect risk, execution, and finance across digital and traditional OTC, bilateral, and exchange-traded transactions.
• Work with compliance, legal, the fund administrator, and auditors on regulatory obligations, audits, and reporting.

Product Delivery

• Work with the Fund Asset Manager and commercial, technology, legal, and compliance teams to take new products from idea to launch, making sure they are investable and structurally sound.

What You Bring

• Postgraduate degree in Finance, Computer Science, or Mathematical Finance, plus a professional qualification in finance or risk (CFA, FRM, PRM, or equivalent).
• 10+ years in risk management at asset managers, funds, banks, trading firms, or digital asset businesses, including several years leading a risk function.
• Deep capital, asset, and risk management experience across BTC, digital assets, and traditional finance, including DeFi protocol risk.
• Strong financial modelling and risk analysis skills (stress testing, scenario analysis, VaR) across traditional and digital instruments, with hands-on Python, R, or SQL.
• Hands-on experience designing operational risk controls across the trade lifecycle, custody, and treasury for OTC, bilateral, and exchange-traded activity.
• Experience reviewing and negotiating risk terms in fund, OTC, and bilateral documents, and working within fund regulatory and compliance requirements.
• Proven leadership of high-performing teams, and the ability to explain complex risk clearly to boards, investors, and regulators.

Benefits

At RootstockLabs, we don’t just offer a job, we offer a community. Here’s what you can expect when you join us:

• Competitive compensation package and unique benefits designed to support your growth and well-being.
• 100% Remote Work from Europe & Latin America, with access to global CoWorking spaces.
• Work-Life Balance: Paid vacation and sick leave days.
• Continuous Learning: Access to training programs, language courses, and learning sponsorship annually.
• Unique Projects: Work with cutting-edge blockchain technology in a global, diverse team.

About RootstockLabs

RootstockLabs is a key contributor to Rootstock, Bitcoin's Financial Infrastructure for lending, yield, and onchain capital markets. We build and commercialize the institutional infrastructure that turns Bitcoin into productive capital.

• What we do: Develop and commercialize Bitcoin-backed lending, tokenized real-world assets, and onchain financial strategies.
• Who we work with: Leading custodians, asset managers, and financial institutions.
• Why it matters: Rootstock is secured by 80%+ of Bitcoin's hash power and has run with 100% uptime since 2018 (bringing Ethereum-style programmability to the world's hardest money).
• Proof it works: 200+ dApps live on Rootstock, from BTCFi protocols like Sushiswap and Oku to institutional names like Mercado Bitcoin, Animoca Brands, and Paystand.