[Hiring] Business Development Lead @Lightning Labs

Role Description

Lightning Labs is looking for a Business Development Lead who is passionate about bringing bitcoin to the next billion people by expanding Lightning’s reach across enterprise and fintech ecosystems. This role will focus on go-to-market strategy, monetization, and high-leverage selling, translating Lightning’s technical advantages into concrete business outcomes for banks, payment processors, exchanges, AI startups, fintechs, and large merchants. The ideal candidate has a strong track record in enterprise sales and strategy at a fintech, payments, AI, or infrastructure company, deep familiarity with bitcoin and the Lightning Network (including stablecoin use cases), and exceptional executive communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Strategy & OKRs
  • Set and own high-level BD OKRs across target regions, verticals, and segments; work with the BD team to translate company strategy into a quarterly plan with measurable outcomes.
  • Identify the most promising use cases and companies for Lightning, agentic payments, and stablecoins; prioritize accounts and partners with the highest network growth potential.
  • Collaborate with product and engineering on roadmap priorities and feature timelines given feedback from external customers and developers.
• Monetization and Sales
  • Design pricing, packaging, and deal structures aligned to product value (e.g., volume-based, tiered, usage-based, partner revenue shares).
  • Personally lead and close strategic, multi-stakeholder deals with exchanges, AI companies, PSPs, wallets, fintechs, miners, and enterprise adopters.
  • Stand up a lightweight forecast and pipeline cadence (coverage, stage definitions, velocity, win/loss) in partnership with Finance—without turning the team into a quota-only sales org.
• Developer Community and Market Development
  • Source and prioritize net-new partners and channels; develop joint GTM with key ecosystem players (processors, liquidity providers, compliance vendors, custody, and infra).
  • Architect distribution flywheels (developer adoption → merchant enablement → payment volume) and unlock high-value corridors.
  • Connect customers’ business goals with the right technical integrations, integration partners, and liquidity resources.
• Executive Communications
  • Craft crisp, executive-ready materials (narratives, pitch decks, requests for proposals (RFPs), board/partner updates) that tie Lightning’s capabilities to business impact.
  • Represent Lightning Labs at senior-level meetings, conferences, and media/analyst engagements; contribute thought leadership that advances the category.

Requirements

• 7–10+ years in business development, strategic partnerships, and/or solution-oriented enterprise sales at a fintech, payments, AI, or other relevant tech company.
• Demonstrated track record of crafting GTM strategy and closing complex, multi-party commercial agreements.
• Strong technical and product fluency: able to translate bitcoin/Lightning concepts (routing, liquidity, settlement, Taproot Assets/stablecoins, agentic payments) into clear commercial outcomes.
• Fluency with frontier LLMs and AI tools and willingness to integrate them at every level.
• Comfortable leading a small team and operating as a senior individual contributor.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication; confident with C-suite, product, legal, and technical stakeholders.
• Analytical, data-driven decision-maker; comfortable building ROI/TCO models and deal economics.
• Ability to work autonomously across time zones; willing to travel for key customers and events.

Preferred

• Public writings or talks on global payments, bitcoin/Lightning, AI, or stablecoins.
• Deep network among exchanges, AI companies, PSPs, wallets, fintechs, and payment facilitators—especially in LATAM, Asia, or Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Experience launching or scaling developer-led distribution and partner channels.
• Familiarity with compliance considerations in crypto/payments and how they affect GTM.