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KAIROS
On-chain interest rate swap protocol (Ethereum + Base)
Last verified August 17, 2026 · Updated daily
What KAIROS is building
Interest rate swaps are the most widely traded derivative on earth, with a notional market of $500 trillion in traditional finance. They serve one foundational function: letting lenders offer fixed rates by hedging their floating-rate exposure. Without them, long-duration fixed-rate lending is too risky to write. DeFi, despite surpassing $40 billion in outstanding loan balances, has no equivalent infrastructure. Almost every DeFi loan still runs on a variable rate because no one has built the hedging primitive that makes fixed-rate lending viable at duration. Kairos builds that primitive. The protocol is permissionless and non-custodial: anyone can create a swap market by setting the underlying rate, tenor, collateral, and oracle parameters. Liquidity providers can allocate to either the fixed-rate or floating-rate side of a market based on their directional view. Markets are constructed around any yield or interest rate, on-chain or off: Aave borrow rates, Morpho lending yields, ETH staking yields, RWA benchmarks, or SOFR. The protocol launched live on Base during beta, generating over $300M in notional volume before the mainnet launch.
Why this matters
DeFi's lending infrastructure is stuck in a structural limitation that has constrained its applicability to institutions and long-duration borrowers since the beginning. Variable rates work for short-term crypto leverage. They break down for anything that looks like real credit: real estate financing, business lending, structured credit products, or any duration beyond a few weeks. The absence of interest rate swaps is not an inconvenience. It is the reason DeFi has not become a serious competitor to traditional credit markets. Kairos is building the missing primitive. Alliance co-founder Imran Khan's quote is unusually direct: 'Kairos is solving one of the most important unsolved problems in DeFi, without interest rate swaps, there is no real credit market. This is the layer that unlocks everything else.' 6th Man Ventures, the lead investor, has a portfolio built around DeFi infrastructure and derivatives infrastructure. Lattice Fund backs early-stage crypto protocol infrastructure specifically. The cap table tells you this is a sophisticated bet on DeFi credit infrastructure, not a speculative token play. The whitepaper published the same day as the funding announcement shows the technical work is done and the team is moving fast toward mainnet.
Open roles at KAIROS
2 positions we're tracking. Roles are re-checked daily and removed when filled.
Know when KAIROS is hiring before anyone else
A role stays uncontested for about four days. Here's the window — and where we put you in it.
From $9/month, cancel any time.
Watching KAIROS
0 applicantsRole spotted & verified
1You get the alert
1You've applied
~8Hits the job boards
250+Hiring outlook
Very High. One role live right now: Solidity Developer, fully remote, $175K-$225K + 0.5-1.5% equity + token grant. Additional roles highly probable post-mainnet launch.
Working at KAIROS
KAIROS is On-chain interest rate swap protocol (Ethereum + Base), founded in and now <50 people. What this means for you: broad remit, direct access to founders, and equity that still means something if the company works out.
San Francisco, CA, USA is where most KAIROS positions are located.
How to actually get hired at KAIROS
Why applying the normal way doesn't work
At this size (<50 people), KAIROS has no recruiting function. Founders handle hiring alongside everything else. Reach them directly or get lost in the inbox.
Who to contact at KAIROS
Founding team
Thomas is a third-time founder in crypto credit infrastructure, and his track record is unusually clean for someone at seed stage. His first company, Whatsgoodly, was an anonymous polling app. His second, Blockrize, was a crypto rewards credit card launched in 2017, specifically designed to bring people into the crypto ecosystem through a product they already understood. The concept was acquired by Gemini in 2020 at the Winklevoss brothers' exchange, and Thomas then led the development and launch of the Gemini Credit Card, which he scaled from zero to hundreds of millions of dollars in loan volume. That is a remarkably specific credential for someone building DeFi credit infrastructure: he has actually run a credit programme at scale inside a regulated crypto exchange. His third company before Kairos was Rocko, a platform for crypto-backed loans, which deepened his understanding of the gap between what DeFi lending can offer and what borrowers actually need. He studied Finance at Santa Clara University.
Vince brings an unusually rare combination of TradFi and crypto technical depth. He led engineering teams at Goldman Sachs, where the infrastructure standards for financial products are exacting, and then at Gemini, where he and Thomas overlapped and built the operational experience that became Kairos's founding thesis. His quote on the ETH staking yield problem is precisely calibrated: 'Large DAOs and institutional stakers managing eight and nine-figure treasuries demand rate certainty. Kairos gives them the ability to lock in a fixed staking yield for a defined period, which is par for the course in traditional fixed income, but has never been possible onchain.' That framing, rate certainty as table stakes for institutional DeFi, comes from someone who has operated at both Goldman and Gemini and understands what institutions expect from financial infrastructure.
What to show them
The core protocol is live on Base and headed to Ethereum mainnet. The Solidity Developer will own smart contract development for swap market mechanics, collateral systems, oracle integrations, and the vault adapter layer that connects to Morpho, ERC-4626, and future integrations. This is deeply technical protocol work with immediate production exposure. Core skills: Solidity, EVM architecture, AMM and derivative protocol design, oracle integration, Foundry or Hardhat, formal verification or auditing familiarity, interest rate mathematics a strong plus. Proof of work: Read the Kairos whitepaper at docs.kairosswap.com. Write a 300-word technical note identifying one potential edge case or attack vector in the described settlement mechanics, and propose a mitigation. Send it with your application. Shows protocol-level thinking before the first interview.
A cold email that works at KAIROS
What KAIROS screens for
The Solidity Developer role on the careers page is live and remote, with compensation of $175K-$225K plus 0.5-1.5% equity and a token grant. That compensation structure is unusually transparent and unusually high for a seed-stage DeFi startup, which signals the founders know what Solidity talent costs and are paying for it. Beyond that one role, the mainnet launch on Ethereum and Base is weeks away. A protocol with $300M in beta notional volume going live on mainnet will need: smart contract security oversight, protocol parameter management, integration with existing DeFi protocols like Aave and Morpho, and eventually business development with institutional counterparties (DAOs, large stakers, RWA platforms) who are the target customer for fixed-rate products. Thomas has explicitly named DAOs and institutional stakers managing "eight and nine-figure treasuries" as the target user, which means a growth/BD role oriented toward institutional DeFi is likely coming.
Tailor your CV to the specific KAIROS role rather than sending a general one. Applications that mirror the language of the job description clear automated filters at a materially higher rate.
Don't make these mistakes
Approaching Kairos without having read the whitepaper. Both founders have deep technical and financial backgrounds and have spent years building in credit infrastructure. Generic DeFi enthusiasm will get ignored immediately. The protocol is technically novel and the founders know it. Engage the mechanics: the settlement design, the oracle architecture, the liquidity provider incentive model, the fixed/floating separation. Show you've understood what they built before you've asked for anything.
Mistakes that kill KAIROS applications
Don't send the same CV you sent everywhere else. At <50 people it's obvious, and it's the fastest rejection there is.
Lead with their problem, not your ambition. KAIROS is focused on DeFi's lending infrastructure is stuck in a structural limitation that has constrained its applicability to institutions and long-duration borrowers since the beginning — show you understand that.
Most B2B, Infrastructure applications get ghosted. A day-five follow-up can double your response rate.
Applying to KAIROS? Get the contact, not the form.
The KAIROS interview process
3 stages · 7 days typical · take-home: no · modelled from similar companies
We don't yet have verified candidate reports for KAIROS. What follows is the typical process for a <50-person B2B, Infrastructure company — treat it as a model, not confirmed detail.
Interview stages
Intro Call
Video call · 30 min
Culture fit and role expectations
Founder or hiring manager
Technical Deep Dive
Video call or in-person · 60 min
Past projects and problem-solving approach
Technical founder or lead
Final Round
In-person or video · 45 min
Team fit and offer discussion
Founding team
KAIROS interview timeline
KAIROS runs about days from first contact to offer. The median for B2B, Infrastructure companies at <50 people is 10 days, so KAIROS is faster than most.
Interviewed at KAIROS?
Tell us how it went — stages, questions, timeline. Takes 90 seconds and it's how this page stays accurate for the next person.
Submit your KAIROS interview experience →KAIROS jobs, frequently asked questions
How many jobs does KAIROS have open?
We're tracking 2 active openings at KAIROS (verified March 2026).
Does KAIROS hire remotely?
Currently, KAIROS only has in-office roles in San Francisco, CA, USA.
What roles is KAIROS hiring for?
KAIROS is hiring across Engineering, Product. The most recent opening is Solidity Developer.
How do I apply for a job at KAIROS?
Click through to apply, or see our detailed guide on landing a job at KAIROS.
Does KAIROS respond to cold emails?
We haven't verified response rates at KAIROS yet.
Who is the hiring manager at KAIROS?
At this size, hiring is usually run by a founder or department head.
What ATS does KAIROS use?
KAIROS uses Greenhouse.
How competitive is it to get hired at KAIROS?
Roles at <50-person B2B, Infrastructure companies typically draw 50-100 applicants in the first two weeks. Applying inside 72 hours of a posting going live is the single biggest lever you control.
How many rounds is the KAIROS interview?
3 stages: Intro Call, Technical Deep Dive, Final Round.
Is the KAIROS interview hard?
The interview emphasizes relevant experience and culture fit over abstract problems. Hardest stage: Final Round.
Does KAIROS give a take-home task?
No, KAIROS does not include a take-home stage.
How long does KAIROS take to get back to you?
Around 7 days across the full process.
What should I prepare for the KAIROS interview?
Prepare for relevant experience and culture fit. A <50-person startup wants proof you can ship, not that you can whiteboard.
Where is KAIROS based?
KAIROS is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, USA.
Get KAIROS roles before they're posted
A role stays uncontested for about four days. Here's the window — and where we put you in it.
From $9/month, cancel any time.
Watching KAIROS
0 applicantsRole spotted & verified
1You get the alert
1You've applied
~8Hits the job boards
250+