Head of Business Development

The Role

Kamino has an established protocol, strong institutional traction, and a track record of trust in the market. The next stage of our growth requires building the commercial engine to bring the world's leading asset managers and distribution platforms onto that infrastructure.

Kamino is hiring a Head of Business Development to build and own that commercial engine from the ground up, based in our New York office.

This is not an execution-only BD seat. It's a build-from-the-ground-up mandate: you'll define the strategy, build the team, design the process, and put the technology in place, while personally carrying and closing the most important institutional relationships yourself. Kamino already has strong relationship managers and real momentum; what's missing is the person to turn that into a true commercial function, and shape it entirely in your own image.

The role has two commercial motions to own. The first is new business: originating and closing partnerships with fintechs, wealth management and distribution platforms, banks, and asset managers who can issue or distribute tokenized credit and yield products through Kamino. The second is account management: keeping Kamino's existing institutional investor and liquidity base (funds, market makers, trading firms, family offices) warm, engaged, and growing, so TVL compounds rather than churns.

You'll manage Kamino's existing BD team globally and report directly into the CEO, representing Kamino in the room for the deals that matter most so leadership can step back from day-to-day deal involvement.

What You'll Do

• Own the strategy. Define the thematic focus areas that actually drive durable, compounding TVL, rather than chasing every deal that comes across the desk. Build the market map, segment the targets, and set the plan the whole team executes against.
• Build the commercial infrastructure. Stand up the pipeline, CRM, forecasting, account segmentation, and KPI framework from scratch: the operating muscle that lets the business run on data instead of instinct.
• Build and lead the team. Take ownership of Kamino's existing global BD group, introduce process, accountability, and a data-driven way of working, and hire junior, mid, and senior BD talent as the function scales.
• Originate and close at the top of the market. Personally source and structure partnerships with fintech lenders, wealth platforms (think iCapital, Wealthfront, and Equity Trust), banks, RWA originators, and asset managers, designing the tokenized credit, liquidity, and incentive structures that get deals across the line.
• Manage the existing institutional base. Build the cadence and process for staying in front of Kamino's current investors and liquidity providers so relationships compound instead of going cold.
• Represent Kamino. Be a senior, credible commercial face of the business across institutional crypto and TradFi, at industry events, investor meetings, policy conversations, and with ecosystem partners.
• Close the loop with product. Bring market and partner feedback back to leadership and product so it shapes what Kamino builds next.

First 30 Days

• You've met the team, audited the current pipeline, tooling, and relationships, and ramped on the protocol and the vision.
• You've set initial commercial priorities and started building the pipeline and CRM foundation.

First 3 Months

• You've made the first team and process changes needed, formalized a clear set of strategic target segments, and you're personally in the room for senior conversations, representing Kamino without leadership needing to be there.
• Pipeline and forecasting are operational.

First 6 Months

• Team structure, hiring, and accountability are in place.
• You've launched or expanded flagship partnerships, materially moved TVL toward an ambitious target, and established yourself as a leader whose input shapes the product roadmap.

What We're Looking for

• Crypto-native, with deep, real DeFi fluency and no learning curve. You should be able to teach the team something new, not the other way around.
• A track record of building a BD or commercial sales function from scratch (process, systems, and team), not just carrying an existing book.
• Experience personally originating, structuring, and closing complex institutional partnerships: capital markets products, financial infrastructure, crypto rails, or structured credit.
• Real people leadership. You've hired, managed, and held a team accountable, and you know how to run a high-performance, no-bullshit, merit-based culture without losing empathy.
• Strategically minded, with the ability to define a small number of high-conviction themes (for example, fintech integrations, wealth management, asset managers on-chain) rather than pursuing every opportunity that appears.
• Comfortable operating with data. You decide and act on numbers, and you'll bring that discipline to a team that currently doesn't have it.
• Strong existing relationships across institutional crypto, fintech, wealth platforms, and/or capital markets.
• High ownership and autonomy. You build structure rather than wait for someone to hand it to you.

Nice to Have

• Experience at a crypto infrastructure company (lending, trading, custody, payments) or leading BD/commercial teams there.
• Experience structuring capital markets transactions, structured credit, or RWA tokenization deals.
• Direct relationships with fintech distribution platforms, wealth managers, or asset managers exploring on-chain strategies.
• Experience integrating with or selling into TradFi distribution rails.

Location

New York, in-office. In-person relationship building with institutional counterparties, and hands-on leadership of the team in the room, is core to this role.