Senior Business Development Manager

About the role

In this role, you will be instrumental in enhancing liquidity and trading volume for DreamDEX, an innovative on-chain exchange. Your primary responsibility will be to cultivate essential relationships with market makers, institutional investors, and developers, positioning DreamDEX as a premier trading venue. You will act as a key strategic partner, identifying high-impact opportunities that drive sustainable user acquisition and network effects. This position requires a proactive approach to shaping the competitive landscape of on-chain trading. Success in this role will be measured by your ability to forge alliances that create a robust and dynamic trading environment. You will bridge the gap between cutting-edge blockchain technology and real-world financial application.

What you'll do

• Actively contribute to the broader business development initiatives at Somnia, leveraging your existing network for ecosystem projects, stablecoin partnerships, and Layer 1 treasury deals.
• Provide valuable market insights to the product team, helping to shape the product roadmap based on feedback from market makers and institutional partners.
• Represent DreamDEX and Somnia at industry conferences and key negotiation settings, promoting the platform and its offerings.
• Identify and engage with potential market making firms and institutional liquidity providers to establish strategic partnerships.
• Analyze market data to pinpoint gaps and opportunities for enhancing liquidity depth on the DreamDEX platform.
• Collaborate closely with the engineering and product teams to ensure seamless integration and optimal trading experiences for partners.
• Develop and execute targeted outreach campaigns to build a robust pipeline of high-quality institutional and professional traders.
• Negotiate and structure mutually beneficial agreements that align incentives and promote long-term collaboration.
• Track and report on key performance indicators related to partnership success and market engagement.
• Stay abreast of regulatory developments and market trends to ensure compliance and informed strategic decision-making.

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience in business development within a cryptocurrency exchange environment (whether centralized, perpetual decentralized, or spot decentralized), with a focus on market makers, institutional clients, or listings.
• A well-established network in both crypto and traditional finance sectors, including connections with trading firms, market makers, hedge funds, prime brokers, and OTC desks.
• A proven history of closing deals that have significantly enhanced trading volume, liquidity, or total value locked (TVL), with the ability to present quantitative results.
• Strong understanding of exchange operations, including order books, bid-ask spreads, market depth, perpetual futures, margin trading, liquidations, and the economics of market making.
• Ability to independently manage the entire lifecycle of deals, from initial outreach to post-agreement relationship management.
• Comfort and adaptability in a startup environment, where articulating a compelling future vision is as crucial as the current product offerings.
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills, capable of conveying complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
• A high degree of self-motivation and discipline, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced remote setting.

Nice to have

• Previous experience in traditional finance roles, such as prime brokerage, electronic trading, or institutional sales.
• Existing relationships with decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregators, digital wallets, custodians, or vault operators.
• Experience in successfully launching a new trading venue and effectively addressing initial liquidity challenges.
• Familiarity with structuring deals that involve tokens or incentive programs.
• Knowledge of decentralized finance (DeFi) concepts, including Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) DEXs, vaults, stablecoins, and yield-generating products.
• Experience in sales and partnership development with Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) and protocol treasuries.

Skills & tools

• Business Development
• Negotiation
• Relationship Management
• Crypto Exchange Operations
• Market Making Economics
• Institutional Sales
• DeFi Protocols

Practical notes

This position is fully remote, allowing you to work from anywhere while aligning with the company's operational hours. Somnia is backed by Improbable, a prominent UK tech unicorn, and has secured initial funding from MSquared, with notable investors including a16z crypto, SoftBank, Mirana Ventures, CMT Digital, and SIG. The company is focused on developing the Agentic Chain, a high-performance Layer 1 network tailored for autonomous, decentralized applications. DreamDEX, a core offering, aims to deliver centralized exchange-like execution with decentralized custody and sub-10ms latency. The organization is targeting a launch budget exceeding $1 million for 2026.

About the company

If you're an tech enabled, data astute problem solver who wants to enhance our marketing team's performance at the cutting edge of Web3 through your analytical capabilities, this is the role you've been waiting for. SOMNIA is the Agentic L1 - a hyper-performance Blockchain operating at an order of magnitude faster than existing networks.