Head of Business Development

About Catena

Catena Labs is building the first AI-native financial institution to provide the new financial infrastructure and services AI systems need to conduct commerce. We’re giving AI agents the tools to identify themselves and use money safely and efficiently. At the same time, we’re providing businesses with a trusted, licensed financial partner with the capability to manage risk and compliance. By building a financial institution with AI and stablecoin infrastructure, we are breaking down the legacy financial system barriers that prevent an AI-driven economy.

Backed by leading venture investors, we’re assembling a team of engineers, designers, data scientists, and finance professionals working together to build a stronger, more resilient global economy that creates broad prosperity. We’re looking for people with the talent, curiosity, and passion to invent an entirely new category of financial services.

The Role

As Head of Business Development for our AI financial services products, you will be on the front lines, building the foundational partnerships and customer relationships that will define our success. This is a strategic, zero-to-one role where you will be responsible for translating our vision and technological capabilities into a go-to-market strategy, from initial customer discovery to closing commercial contracts to building a team to grow partnerships.

You will work directly with the founding team as a key strategic partner, shaping the business model and market narrative. This is an opportunity for someone who thrives in ambiguity and is excited to build a business from the ground up, with the goal of scaling a world-class partnership and commercial function.

What You'll Do

• Business Development Strategy & Execution: Design and execute the business development strategy. You will identify and validate target customer segments through deep customer discovery and market analysis.
  

• Establish Customer Partnerships: Lead the entire sales cycle to close design partners, pilots, and commercial customers, creating the playbook for our future sales motion.
  

• Strategic Partnership Development: Identify, source, and build a diverse ecosystem of partners, including key technology providers, banking partners, and channel partners.
  

• Business Model & Pricing: Collaborate closely with product management and leadership to test and refine our business model, including value proposition, pricing, and packaging.
  

• Serve as the Voice of the Market: Systematically synthesize insights from customer and partner conversations to directly influence GTM strategy, the product roadmap, and our overall business model.
  

• Shape the Narrative: Partner with the team to shape how Catena shows up in the world, ensuring our market positioning and narrative resonate with our target customers and partners.

Who You Are

• You have 7+ years of experience in business development, strategic partnerships, or enterprise sales, with a proven track record in early-stage GTM for complex technology products, ideally in fintech.

• You are a creative deal-maker, capable of structuring novel, non-standard partnerships that create mutual value in a nascent market.

• You possess deep domain expertise in financial services, with a strong understanding of payments, fintech business models, and/or enterprise AI.

• You are a strategic thinker with strong business acumen, comfortable with everything from market analysis and financial modeling to contract negotiation.

• You are an exceptional relationship builder and communicator, capable of engaging and building trust with a wide range of partners and senior executives at customer accounts.

• You thrive in ambiguity and high-ownership cultures, with a talent for creating structure and driving commercial results in a fast-paced startup environment.

Nice to Haves

• Experience building a business development function from scratch.

• A strong existing network in financial services, fintech, or enterprise AI.

• Experience selling to both technical (e.g., Head of Engineering) and business (e.g., CFO, Head of Ops) buyers.

Join Us

If you're passionate about pushing the boundaries of what AI agents can do in financial services and want to be part of building the trusted financial infrastructure for the agentic economy, we want to hear from you. You'll have the opportunity to work on challenging problems that have never been solved before, with a team that's defining an entirely new category of financial services.

This is more than a job; it's a chance to be part of the startup team that makes the AI economy possible. Your work will directly enable millions of AI agents to participate safely in commerce, unlocking trillions in economic value and increasing prosperity around the world.