Head of BD Staking - NYC

The Opportunity:

You will lead institutional business development for Nansen’s staking offering. Your primary objective is to drive Assets Under Management (AUM) from institutional clients (custodians, asset managers, banks, family offices, etc.). You will own deal flow end-to-end: sourcing prospects, structuring partnerships, negotiating contracts, onboarding, and scaling relationships.

Your success will be measured by institutional AUM growth, quality of client partnerships, and retention / expansion within accounts.

Responsibilities:

Strategy GTM

• Define the institutional go-to-market (GTM) strategy for staking AUM (addressable segments, pricing models, service tiers).
• Map the institutional landscape: custodians, asset managers, family offices, funds, sovereign / endowment, hedge funds.
• Build a pipeline of high-potential institutional targets.
• Work cross-functionally with product, operations, legal, risk, engineering to develop a scalable institutional staking product offering.
• Develop sales enablement materials, pitch decks, technical documentation, and ROI justifications for institutional clients.

Business Development / Deal Execution

• Prospect, qualify, and lead business development efforts (outbound + inbound).
• Lead negotiations with major prospects, especially custodians or custody platforms (e.g. integrating staking via custody APIs, white-label solutions, delegation partnerships).
• Structure commercial agreements: revenue share, SLAs, operational terms, risk sharing, slashing protection, reporting.
• Oversee onboarding and integration for institutional clients (coordination across technical, ops, legal).
• Manage the full sales cycle from lead to close, including post-signing implementation support.
• Cultivate strong relationships with key decision makers at institutions (CIOs, Heads of Digital Assets, custody / operations leads).

Partnerships Ecosystem

• Identify and manage strategic partnerships (custodians, wallets, exchanges, infrastructure providers) to expand distribution.
• Work with custodian / custody providers to embed staking capabilities or co-market.
• Represent Nansen at industry / institutional conferences, panels, and events.
• Monitor regulatory / custodial / institutional trends and feed insights back to product / legal / risk teams.

Account Management Growth

• Drive retention, upsell, and expansion within institutional accounts.
• Provide high-touch account management.
• Measure and track key metrics (AUM growth, churn, yield uplift, client satisfaction).
• Serve as the client advocate internally: ensure smooth operations, escalation resolution, and feedback loops to product.

Leadership Team Building

• As we grow, the role will expand to leading a small BD / partnerships team.
• Mentor, recruit, and set quotas / KPIs for team members.
• Drive cross-functional collaboration and communication across business, product, engineering, legal, operations.

Requirements

• 8+ years of B2B / institutional sales, business development, or partnership experience, ideally in financial services, fintech, or blockchain.
• Strong track record closing six- to seven-figure deals with institutional clients (custodians, asset managers, funds).
• Deep understanding of blockchain / crypto / staking, including validator operations, slashing risk, yield mechanics, custody models.
• Experience negotiating complex contracts (SLAs, risk allocation, service-level terms).
• Excellent network within institutional asset management, custody, banks, or digital asset ecosystems.
• Ability to sell both the technical and business value (bridge between product / engineering and institutional decision-makers).
• Strong communication, presentation, and storytelling skills.
• High emotional intelligence and relationship-building ability.
• Highly self-motivated, entrepreneurial mindset; able to operate in ambiguity and build structure.
• Willingness to travel and represent Nansen globally as needed.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Engineering, or equivalent; advanced degree (MBA) is a plus.

What We Offer:

• Competitive salary and equity package.
• Remote work environment with a flexible schedule
• Opportunity to work in a rapidly growing and cutting-edge industry.
• Collaborative and supportive company culture
• Opportunities for personal and professional growth as the company scales.
• Exposure to a global network of industry experts, partners, and influencers.