Business Development Manager

Company Overview: Makina, a crypto-native organization of builders and DeFi leaders, is seeking a full-time Business Development Manager. This is an excellent opportunity to join a dynamic and fast-growing team focused on building trust-minimized infrastructure for the next generation of onchain strategies.

Makina introduces a novel framework for onchain asset management that addresses a significant gap in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. While DeFi has successfully replicated many traditional financial primitives, asset management remains underdeveloped, and sophisticated yielding strategies are not broadly available to users across the space. Makina provides a highly adaptable and secure architecture designed to facilitate a broad spectrum of strategies.
Job Summary: We are seeking a full-time Growth & Business Development Manager to take ownership of the strategy, execution, and growth of Makina’s partnerships, integrations, and presence in the American market. This role requires deep DeFi expertise, a robust network, and a proven track record of closing high-value deals. The ideal candidate is both a strategic thinker and hands-on operator, capable of driving business development in a fast-paced, innovative environment.
Key Responsibilities:
Strategic Partnership Development

• Identify, evaluate, and prioritize potential DeFi partners (protocols, DAOs, liquidity providers, and institutional players) that align with the protocol’s goals.
• Manage the lifecycle of partnerships, from initial outreach to closing and ongoing relationship management.

Market & Ecosystem Expansion

• Map and analyze the DeFi landscape to spot emerging trends, new protocols, and innovative business opportunities for Makina.
• Develop and execute go-to-market strategies to expand Makina’s reach and drive adoption.
• Represent the protocol at major events, forums, and governance discussions to build brand presence and source new opportunities.

TVL growth strategy

• Develop and execute comprehensive strategies to grow Makina’s Total Value Locked (TVL) by attracting both retail and institutional capital.
• Monitor TVL metrics, analyze user behavior, and leverage data-driven insights to optimize growth tactics and address potential barriers to capital inflow.
• Build relationships with institutional players to onboard large-scale liquidity.

Key Requirements:

• Proven ability to source, diligence, and close high-value partnerships.
• Crypto-native level industry knowledge as well as expert-level knowledge of DeFi protocols, crypto ecosystems, and emerging trends in the space.
• Previous experience in a Business Development team, ideally in DeFi. 
• Ability to work autonomously and to be responsible for achieving the desired results while also contributing to the success of projects shared by the wider team.
• Strong project management skills and the ability to manage high-value relationships with key external stakeholders.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with a capacity for independent and flexible thinking.
• Integrity, humility, intellectual curiosity, honesty, and forthright communication. We are a team of open-minded intellectuals who utilize a dialectical approach to arrive at what is true.
• Fluency in English.

Nice-to-haves:

• The ability to support Makina's key business development tasks described above.
• 3+ years of experience in an ecosystem partnerships role for a DeFi project, either as a manager or individual contributor.
• Established network of high-potential partners that could be accretive to Makina's strategies and/or community.
• A strong focus on / presence in the US market, specifically New York.
• Demonstrated expertise in growth hacking to optimize and expand sales funnels.
• Strong quantitative and analytical skills. Data-science, coding, cryptography, or a technical background is considered an asset.

Benefits:

• Dynamic and collegiality in a small team working in fields that are shaping the future of our society.
• As a modern employer, we offer you contemporary working conditions, ample space to develop yourself alongside the company, and exciting and challenging projects.
• Competitive compensation, bonuses, and participation opportunities.
• Exposure to extremely talented people and very interesting clients who have unique investment profiles.
• Supportive work and team atmosphere with flat hierarchies and a strong entrepreneurial spirit.
• Makina is an equal opportunity employer.