Job Title: Associate Product Manager, Digital Assets
Department: Product Management
Location: New York, NY
About The Role
VanEck is actively launching and managing a growing portfolio of tokenized financial products. The pipeline spans tokenized funds, onchain distribution partnerships, DeFi protocol integrations, and co-developed products with ecosystem partners. The team is small and the pace is fast. Everyone executes.
This role exists because the volume of concurrent product work has exceeded what a lean team can manage without dedicated support. The right candidate will help drive new product launches from concept through go-live, coordinate across legal, compliance, operations, marketing, and technology, and keep complex workstreams moving in parallel. They will spend as much time in spreadsheets and cross-functional meetings as they will thinking about product strategy.
What makes this role unusual is the requirement to operate fluently in two worlds: traditional asset management, with its fund structures, transfer agents, custodians, regulatory filings, and compliance workflows, and onchain finance, with its smart contract logic, DeFi protocol mechanics, token distribution infrastructure, and wallet-level product considerations. Candidates who have only lived in one of these worlds will struggle in the other. The ideal candidate has worked in both.
Core Responsibilities
Product Launch Execution
- Own the end-to-end coordination of new tokenized product launches, from initial scoping through live distribution, including workstream tracking, stakeholder alignment, and issue resolution.
- Maintain and update product roadmaps, launch timelines, and status trackers across a portfolio of concurrent initiatives spanning tokenized funds, ecosystem partnerships, and DeFi integrations.
- Draft and manage product requirements, working with legal, compliance, operations, and technology teams to translate business objectives into executable specifications.
- Coordinate with transfer agents, custodians, and tokenization infrastructure providers to ensure operational readiness ahead of each launch.
- Identify blockers early, escalate appropriately, and propose solutions rather than just surfacing problems.
Onchain Product Operations
- Support the operational management of live tokenized products, including monitoring onchain activity, coordinating with infrastructure partners on technical issues, and tracking product performance metrics.
- Evaluate new DeFi protocol integration opportunities: assess technical requirements, understand governance processes, and develop internal recommendations on prioritization.
- Contribute to due diligence on new ecosystem partnerships, including reviewing integration requirements, assessing operational feasibility, and flagging compliance considerations.
- Maintain product documentation covering fund structures, distribution mechanisms, onchain mechanics, and partner integration details.
Cross-Functional Coordination
- Serve as the day-to-day coordination point between product, legal, compliance, marketing, operations, and technology on active initiatives.
- Prepare internal materials for leadership reviews, board presentations, and partner meetings, including status updates, product memos, and briefing documents.
- Support the sales and business development team with product knowledge, partner onboarding materials, and technical explanations of product structures.
- Track the competitive landscape across tokenized securities, onchain funds, and real-world asset distribution, and surface relevant developments to the broader team.
Required Qualifications
- 3 to 6 years of total experience, with meaningful time spent in both traditional finance and blockchain or onchain finance. These do not need to be sequential; overlapping experience in a role that bridged both worlds is also valued.
- Demonstrated understanding of investment fund structures, including how funds are created, regulated, distributed, and administered. Familiarity with transfer agents, custodians, and fund operational workflows.
- Hands-on understanding of onchain finance: how DeFi protocols work, what smart contract-based products look like in practice, how tokens are issued and distributed, and how onchain infrastructure differs from traditional financial plumbing.
- Experience coordinating complex, multi-stakeholder workstreams with competing timelines. This is a high-coordination role; organizational rigor matters as much as subject matter knowledge.
- Clear written and verbal communication. A significant portion of this role involves preparing documents for internal and external audiences, including senior leadership, partners, and regulators.
- Comfort with ambiguity. Many of the products and integrations this role will touch are novel. There is no playbook for most of it.
Preferred Qualifications
- Prior product management experience at a tokenization platform, digital asset-focused asset manager, crypto exchange with institutional products, or a traditional asset manager with a digital assets initiative.
- Familiarity with tokenized fund mechanics, including how token issuance, redemption, and transfer agent functions operate in a blockchain context.
- Working knowledge of DeFi protocol governance, liquidity mechanisms, and how real-world assets are integrated as collateral or yield-bearing instruments within lending and yield protocols.
- Experience with money market funds, ETFs, or structured products, particularly the operational and regulatory requirements for product launch and ongoing administration.
- Exposure to international distribution, licensing requirements, or multi-jurisdiction product structures.
- Technical literacy sufficient to read and understand smart contract documentation, integration specifications, and protocol whitepapers without needing a translator.
Licenses and Certifications
No specific licenses are required for this role at hiring. The following are beneficial and may become relevant as the role evolves.
- Series 7 / 65 Series 7 or Series 65 - Useful if the role expands to include any distribution-facing responsibilities over time.
- CFA CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) - Signals depth in investment product knowledge and financial analysis. Not required but a positive signal for candidates with a traditional finance background.
- DeFi Certifications Relevant blockchain or DeFi certifications - Less important than demonstrated hands-on experience, but signals proactive engagement with the space.
Compensation
If this position will be performed in whole or in part in New York City, the base salary range is $100,000 – 140,000. Individual salaries may vary based on different factors including but not limited to, skills, experience, job-related knowledge, and location. Base salary does not include other forms of compensation or benefits offered in connection with this position.
VanEck is committed to treating all applicants and employees fairly and to providing equal opportunity in compliance with applicable federal, state and local laws. VanEck does not and will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of race, religion, ancestry, color, gender, gender identity, pregnancy, age, physical or mental disability, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship status, covered-veteran or military status, genetic information, and/or any other factor protected by law. !
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