Business Development Lead

About the Company:

Tools for Humanity (TFH) designs and builds technology behind World. World is building a real human network designed to accelerate people in the age of AI. As bots and autonomous agents reshape the internet, people, institutions, and applications need a trusted way to confirm who is a real human while preserving privacy. The TFH and World tech stacks make this possible: the Orb verifies real, unique people, World ID proves it privately, and World App puts these capabilities, and more, in people's hands. Together, they add a human layer to an AI-driven internet.

World is already running at a global scale. More than 17 million people across 160 countries have verified with World ID, and more new Orb verifications take place each week. World App is already among the most used wallets globally. Developers are integrating World ID to build safer online experiences and create spaces where real people can participate, earn, and be recognized in ways AI simply can't replicate.

Founded in 2019, TFH has more than 400 people across hardware, software, AI, cryptography, mobile engineering, and global operations. Our teams come from OpenAI, Tesla, SpaceX, Apple, Google, Stripe, Meta, Coinbase, Palantir and MIT Media Lab. We're backed by leading investors, including a16z, Khosla Ventures, Bain Capital Crypto, Blockchain Capital, Variant, Tiger Global, and Coinbase Ventures, as well as prominent operators and founders across fintech and AI.

TFH and World have been featured on the cover of TIME Magazine, highlighted in Fast Company's Next 5 in Fintech, and explored in a Bloomberg deep dive. The New York Times, Bankless and TechCrunch have all recognized our collective progress in identity, cryptography, AI, and global-scale hardware deployment. Our leadership is also named to the Time AI 100. Learn more about the newest product launches from our Liftoff event.
About the Opportunity

The World ID team is on a mission to empower every person on the planet with a unique digital identity that distinguishes humans from AI online. As the Business Development Lead for the US, you will own and scale World ID's commercial presence across our highest-priority enterprise, consumer, and agent ecosystem partnerships in North America.

You will be responsible for developing and executing the go-to-market strategy for World ID across enterprise authentication, consumer use cases, and the emerging agentic economy. This role is both strategic and hands-on: you will shape long-term partnership strategy while ensuring tight execution on deals, pilots, and revenue-generating relationships. You will report to the VP of Sales/ Chief Revenue Officer and collaborate closely with global teams across Product, Engineering, Legal, Marketing, and Finance.

Responsibilities

• Identify and prioritize high-impact partnership opportunities across Enterprise, Consumer, and Agents: map the partner ecosystem, evaluate strategic fit, and develop business cases for partner growth.
• Build and manage partner relationships: engage new and existing partners, structure deals, design partnership and channel economics models, and serve as the primary relationship lead across the partnership lifecycle.
• Drive execution of partnership initiatives: lead cross-functional alignment across Legal, Product, Marketing, and Engineering to launch and scale partnerships; track milestones, monitor performance, and iterate on models.
• Develop and maintain the partnership strategy and playbook: collaborate with the Head of Commercialization to define the partnership roadmap, pilot new models, and build replicable frameworks and documentation.
• Represent the company externally: engage senior partner executives, build networks across the enterprise security, identity, AI and other ecosystems (e.g., social media, gaming, fintech), and leverage external relationships to source and accelerate partnership opportunities.
• Support internal enablement: provide partner context to internal stakeholders, surface market insights, and ensure internal readiness for partner commitments across Legal, Marketing, Product, and Ops.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in business development, enterprise sales, or strategic partnerships in the tech industry.
• Proven track record of structuring, negotiating, and closing complex enterprise or platform partnerships.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with a bias toward execution in fast-moving, ambiguous environments.
• Deep understanding of the identity, security, or SaaS ecosystem preferred.
• Mission-aligned and curious about privacy-preserving identity, proof of human technology, and the agentic economy.
• Must be based in San Francisco and available to work in-office 5 days a week.

Nice to Have:

• Experience scaling channel partnerships or ISV programs.
• Familiarity with enterprise authentication, IAM platforms, or identity verification.
• Existing relationships with enterprise security or IT buyer communities.

Pay transparency statement (for CA and NY based roles):

The reasonably estimated salary for this role at TFH ranges from $212,000 - $250,000 , plus a competitive long term incentive package. Actual compensation is based on factors such as the candidate's skills, qualifications, and experience. In addition, TFH offers a wide range of best in class, comprehensive and inclusive employee benefits for this role including healthcare, dental, vision, 401(k) plan and match, life insurance, flexible time off, commuter benefits, professional development stipend and much more!