Protocol Director

Who We Are: Galaxy is a global leader in digital assets and data center infrastructure, delivering solutions that accelerate progress in finance and artificial intelligence. We believe that blockchain and digital asset innovation will transform how value moves through the world – and we’re building the products and services to make that future a reality. Our institutional digital assets platform spans trading, investment banking, asset management, staking, self‑custody, and tokenization technology.

We also invest in and operate cutting‑edge data center infrastructure to power AI and high‑performance computing, addressing the growing demand for scalable energy and compute in the U.S. We work at the intersection of finance and technology, helping institutions, startups, and developers navigate a digitally native economy. Led by CEO and Founder Michael Novogratz, our team blends deep crypto expertise with institutional experience and a shared commitment to shaping the future of Web3 and AI.

Galaxy is headquartered in New York City, with offices across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

• Be Selective To Be Effective.
• Be Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled.
• Disagree Transparently.
• Build Dream Teams.

• Lead the protocol teams.
• Manage the leads of the validators, Solana, and Chainlink teams. Develop them as technical leaders and hold the bar for the engineers beneath them.
• Provide protocol‑level technical guidance to the teams, not just escalation management but genuine depth that helps them work through hard problems faster.
• Set a consistent operating rhythm across the three teams: planning, reviews, incident response, and continuous improvement.
• Own headcount health, retention and performance within your scope. Raise issues early and don't let team problems compound.
• Own protocol strategy.
• Develop and maintain a forward‑looking view across the protocols the business participates in. Understand where each protocol is heading technically, what that means for our infrastructure and services and how it maps to business opportunity.
• Be the connective tissue between protocol evolution (upgrades, forks, new mechanisms) and the engineering teams that have to respond to it.
• Advise the Head of Blockchain Engineering and broader leadership on protocol‑level risk, opportunity, and emerging areas worth pursuing.
• Identify where emerging protocol developments represent material opportunities or threats for the business. Examples would be new L1s, staking mechanisms, oracle integrations, cross‑chain primitives, etc.
• Operate the function.
• Hold the operational picture across the three teams: who is on what, what is at risk, what is blocked, what is shipping.
• Make staffing and sequencing calls within your scope. Work with the Head of Blockchain Engineering and hiring to plan ahead.
• Run the cadences and rituals that keep the function coherent without adding bureaucratic overhead.
• Coordinate across DIS, client‑facing teams, and engagement leads to ensure the protocol function is pointed at the highest‑leverage work.
• Support client and commercial work: step into client conversations where protocol expertise at leadership level is needed, supplying technical depth, not just seniority.
• Represent the protocol function in commercial discussions, scoping conversations and delivery reviews when protocol capability is at the core of what's being sold or delivered.
• Translate protocol complexity into clarity for non‑technical stakeholders internally and externally.

• Demonstrated protocol depth across at least two of:
  Ethereum (validator/consensus layer), Solana, or Chainlink/oracle networks. You should be able to hold technical ground with senior engineers on these stacks.
• A track record managing technical teams, not just senior ICs but building and developing teams, holding people accountable, and navigating the harder parts of people leadership.
• Experience operating in a fast‑moving, high‑stakes environment where protocol decisions have real business and client consequences.
• Strong technical communication so you can take a protocol problem and explain it clearly to engineers, to clients,…