Product / Project Manager

Defuse Labs develops NEAR Intents to enable seamless cross-chain interactions in an automated world — connecting AI, services, and financial applications. At Defuse Labs, we design intent-driven liquidity layers where smart contracts breathe, AI transacts, and chains sync in real-time. With expertise in AI, cryptography, and decentralized finance, our team is redefining how intelligent agents interact across blockchain networks.

We are looking for a technically strong Product / Project Manager who can operate at the intersection of product, engineering, and strategic partnerships. This role is ideal for someone who is comfortable discussing blockchain infrastructure with engineers while also managing external partners, institutional clients, and cross-functional execution.

Responsibilities

• Act as a bridge between external partners and internal product, engineering, and operations teams across the NEAR Intents ecosystem
• Manage day-to-day communication and coordination with partners, including institutional counterparties, wallets, exchanges, market makers, solvers, infrastructure providers, and strategic ecosystem integrations
• Identify high-impact integration opportunities and drive initiatives from concept through production launch
• Collect, synthesize, and structure technical and business requirements from partners into actionable implementation plans
• Work closely with Product Managers and Technical Program Managers to support prioritization, execution tracking, and alignment across multiple concurrent initiatives
• Translate highly technical partner needs and ecosystem requests into clear product requirements, workflows, specifications, and engineering deliverables
• Coordinate cross-functional execution across engineering, product, BD, and partner teams to ensure integrations and launches move efficiently
• Monitor timelines, dependencies, blockers, and operational risks across partner-facing initiatives and proactively drive resolution
• Support implementation and onboarding processes for integrations related to chain abstraction, intents infrastructure, settlement flows, liquidity routing, and cross-chain interactions
• Maintain a strong understanding of the Web3 infrastructure landscape, competitive market developments, and evolving ecosystem requirements to help inform product direction and prioritization
• Prepare and maintain partner-facing technical documentation, integration materials, process flows, and operational playbooks
• Help establish scalable partner management and communication processes as the ecosystem and institutional engagement footprint continue to grow
• Serve as an operational and technical coordination layer between external stakeholders and existing internal product and engineering leadership, helping reduce execution overhead and improve delivery velocity

Requirements

• 5+ years in technical delivery, program management, or partner integrations roles.
• Proven experience leading complex cross-functional technical initiatives
• Strong technical understanding of blockchain infrastructure, APIs, integrations, wallets, intents, DeFi, or cross-chain systems
• Ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Experience gathering and documenting product and technical requirements
• Strong organizational and project coordination skills
• Experience working directly with external partners, clients, or institutional stakeholders
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced startup environment with shifting priorities
• Excellent written and verbal English communication skills

Nice to Have

• Experience with NEAR ecosystem or chain abstraction infrastructure
• Understanding of market makers, solvers, liquidity routing, or intent-based architectures
• Previous experience working with institutional crypto clients or exchanges
• Technical background or hands-on experience with APIs, SDKs, or blockchain integrations
• Familiarity with agile product development processes
• Experience coordinating distributed remote teams across time zones