Senior Product Manager, Aqua

1inch · UAE - Dubai

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Role at a Glance

Aqua's dedicated product lead at 1inch — Dubai, hybrid. End-to-end ownership of a DeFi liquidity protocol: vision, roadmap, KPIs, and investment cases. Hard floor: 6+ years PM experience plus hands-on DeFi expertise covering AMM/RFQ mechanics, MEV, and solver economics. Quant finance background and an MBA are meaningful differentiators. Salary not disclosed.

What This Role Actually Involves

Aqua is 1inch's shared liquidity protocol — it enables market makers to provide liquidity directly from their own wallets and run on-chain strategies, while order-takers reach that pool through 1inch's routing layer. As the Senior PM, you carry full accountability for where this product goes: setting investment priorities across a constrained engineering budget, grounding every roadmap call in on-chain evidence and competitive analysis, and keeping a diverse cross-functional team — from protocol researchers to executive leadership — aligned on a coherent multi-year direction.

About 1inch

1inch builds DeFi infrastructure and consumer-facing tools with the goal of giving users full self-custody over their digital assets. Its protocols and APIs serve as core liquidity routing infrastructure across the decentralised finance ecosystem, while its consumer dApp surfaces that infrastructure through an interface designed for individual traders. The company frames its mission around expanding financial access — enabling people to trade, hold, and track crypto assets without ceding control to intermediaries. Aqua is a core protocol layer within that stack, focused on enabling market makers to deliver on-chain liquidity efficiently.

What You'll Be Responsible For

  • Set and own Aqua's long-term vision, product strategy, competitive positioning, value proposition, and multi-year roadmap.
  • Maintain a structured product portfolio with documented priorities, clear measurable objectives, and success metrics tied directly to company-level goals.
  • Treat each roadmap initiative as a capital allocation decision — weighing customer value, financial return, engineering cost, technical feasibility, and risk before committing resources.
  • Drive structured product discovery through first-hand customer research, hypothesis testing, controlled experimentation, and measurable learning cycles.
  • Build and present evidence-backed investment cases using opportunity sizing, on-chain analytics, competitive benchmarking, and cost-benefit modelling.
  • Define the KPIs that genuinely reflect Aqua's product health and hold each investment accountable to its stated business outcomes.
  • Apply approved AI tooling to market research, strategic analysis, and documentation — while independently validating AI-generated outputs and retaining full accountability for every decision.
  • Track shifts in the competitive landscape, regulatory environment, and macroeconomic conditions, converting relevant signals into concrete roadmap adjustments.
  • Assess smart contract, protocol, liquidity, operational, financial, and security risks as standard inputs to strategic decisions — not post-hoc reviews.
  • Align Engineering, Research, Security, Design, BD, Marketing, Legal, and Executive Leadership around Aqua's direction; communicate trade-offs and performance in terms each audience can act on.

Must-Have Qualifications

  • Six or more years managing complex technology products end-to-end, from strategy definition through to delivered, measurable business outcomes.
  • Exceptional, first-hand DeFi expertise — active experience using and critically analysing live DeFi protocols, not just familiarity with the space.
  • Ability to articulate AMM versus RFQ design trade-offs, reason through MEV dynamics, and critically evaluate intent-based execution architectures and solver/resolver economics.
  • Deep knowledge of liquidity aggregation, liquidity provisioning, market microstructure, execution quality, and protocol economics across both decentralised and centralised venues.
  • Working knowledge of solver networks, cross-chain execution, intent-based order flows, and advanced routing architectures.
  • Solid understanding of smart contract security principles, protocol risk vectors, and operational resilience practices in production protocol environments.
  • Proven track record leading structured product discovery, building rigorous business cases, and defending investment decisions with evidence before executive stakeholders.
  • Strong dual capability in technical and commercial communication — translating complex, multi-disciplinary information into clear decisions tailored to each audience.
  • Demonstrated, hands-on experience using AI tools throughout the product lifecycle, with the critical judgement to validate AI outputs rather than accept them uncritically.

What Will Strengthen Your Application

  • Direct experience shipping liquidity aggregation, trading, order execution, exchange, or blockchain infrastructure products.
  • Background in quantitative finance, market making, or electronic trading system design.
  • Prior collaboration with protocol researchers, smart contract engineers, or blockchain security specialists.
  • MBA or advanced degree in Finance, Economics, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline.
  • Scrum certification or formal agile credentials.

Skills That Matter Most Here

The hard technical floor is unusually specific: active, hands-on DeFi experience is non-negotiable — meaning first-hand protocol use and critical evaluation, not background familiarity. Layered on top: AMM/RFQ mechanics, MEV reasoning, solver economics, liquidity microstructure, and cross-chain execution are all must-haves. Quantitative finance, market-making experience, and a track record shipping trading or exchange infrastructure are differentiators that will meaningfully narrow the shortlist. Scrum certification and an MBA are the lightest factors — useful signals for a borderline candidacy, but not gatekeepers.

Salary & Compensation

1inch has not disclosed a salary range, equity structure, or any other compensation detail for this position. The listing contains no figures whatsoever. Candidates should raise compensation expectations directly with 1inch's recruiting team early in the process — come prepared with a number grounded in your own market research, as this posting provides no benchmark to anchor from.

Location & Work Arrangement

This position is based in Dubai, UAE on a hybrid schedule. The job description does not specify how many days per week are required on-site. No information about visa sponsorship or relocation assistance is included in the posting. Candidates currently based outside the UAE should confirm these details directly with 1inch before investing time in the application process.

Frequently asked questions

How much product management experience is required for this role?

A minimum of six years of PM experience is required, specifically owning complex technology products end-to-end — from strategy definition through to measurable, delivered business outcomes.

Is hands-on DeFi experience a hard requirement or a preference?

It is a hard requirement. The posting calls for exceptional, hands-on DeFi expertise including first-hand experience actively using and critically evaluating DeFi protocols — not theoretical knowledge or general sector awareness.

What are the in-office expectations for this hybrid Dubai role?

The role is based in Dubai, UAE on a hybrid schedule, but the posting does not specify how many days per week are required on-site. No information about relocation support or visa sponsorship is provided in the job description.

Is an MBA required to be considered for this position?

No. An MBA or advanced degree is listed as a nice-to-have, meaning it can strengthen a candidacy but is not a disqualifying absence.

Which cross-functional teams will this Senior PM work with at 1inch?

Based on the job description, the role involves direct collaboration with Engineering, Research, Security, Product Design, Business Development, Marketing, Legal, and Executive Leadership.

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