Sr. Business Development Manager / Strategic Partnerships - Fintech, Investment & Institutional Relationships

Location: Candidates must be Bay Area-based; the role is mostly remote with light periodic in-person collaboration required in the Palo Alto, Mountain View, or Sunnyvale area. Team collaboration site/location is currently being finalized.

Travel: Travel for relationship-building with family offices, hedge funds, RIAs, fintechs, conferences, institutional meetings, demos, and partnership development. Realistically, probably 10-20%, depending on how aggressively you scale partnerships.

KORE1, a nationwide provider of staffing and recruiting solutions, has an immediate opening for a Senior Business Development Manager / Strategic Partnerships - Fintech, Investment & Institutional Relationships

The Role

We are looking for a Senior Business Development Manager, Strategic Partnerships to help build our U.S. market presence through high-trust financial relationships, institutional credibility, and professional investor networks.

This role is focused on strategic relationship development and trust-based distribution - not generic user acquisition, transactional outbound sales, or high-volume cold calling.

You will identify, develop, and manage relationships with family offices, hedge funds, investment firms, RIAs, brokerages, fintech platforms, professional investor networks, and other strategic financial partners that can help accelerate institutional credibility, qualified demos, and high-value user adoption.

The primary goal is to establish meaningful relationships within sophisticated investor and institutional financial ecosystems that help build long-term trust, visibility, credibility, and strategic distribution opportunities.

This person should already understand how trust, reputation, relationship quality, and credibility operate within investment, fintech, wealth management, trading, and professional investor communities.

What You Will Own

• Build and manage strategic relationships across family offices, hedge funds, investment firms, RIAs, brokerages, fintech platforms, and professional investor ecosystems
• Generate high-trust introductions, qualified demos, and strategic relationship opportunities within institutional and professional investor communities
• Develop relationships that can lead to pilots, endorsements, referral partnerships, co-marketing initiatives, strategic introductions, or long-term institutional partnerships
• Help position the platform as a credible AI-native investment product for sophisticated financial audiences
• Build trusted relationships capable of accelerating institutional credibility, investor trust, and long-term market positioning
• Identify high-quality partnership opportunities that improve strategic visibility within the U.S. investment ecosystem
• Work closely with leadership to develop outreach strategies, partner narratives, institutional messaging, and partnership positioning
• Support strategic partnership conversations from initial outreach through demos, follow-up discussions, and ongoing relationship management
• Represent the company credibly in conversations involving AI-native investing, investment workflows, financial technology, and professional investor use cases
• Translate market feedback, investor concerns, and partnership insights back to leadership and product teams
• Track relationship pipeline, partnership progress, strategic opportunities, feedback, and conversion outcomes
• Collaborate with content and marketing stakeholders when partnerships require webinars, events, thought leadership, or public-facing educational initiatives

Target Partner Segments

• Family offices and private wealth networks
• Hedge funds and investment firms
• RIAs and professional advisor networks
• Professional investor communities
• Institutional financial relationships
• Brokerages and fintech platforms
• Asset managers and investment research firms
• Financial media and investor-focused event organizations
• Strategic partners capable of accelerating institutional trust and credibility within the U.S. market

What Success Looks Like

First 3 Months

• Build a qualified partnership pipeline across institutional and professional investor ecosystems
• Secure qualified demos and strategic introductions with high-quality financial partners and investor communities
• Identify priority partnership channels and relationship strategies aligned with the company's current stage
• Establish a repeatable relationship management, outreach, and follow-up process

6 Months

• Develop active strategic relationships with high-quality financial institutions, investor communities, and partnership channels
• Support early pilots, endorsements, co-marketing opportunities, referral relationships, and strategic partnership initiatives
• Help introduce the platform to qualified professional investor audiences and institutional usersDeliver actionable market and investor feedback to leadership and product teams

12 Months

• Establish a credible U.S. strategic partnership network within the investment and fintech ecosystem
• Build relationships that materially improve institutional credibility, trust, and visibility
• Create repeatable channels for strategic introductions, qualified demos, and partnership-driven growth
• Help position the platform as a serious AI-native investment product within the U.S. financial market

Job Requirements

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in business development, strategic partnerships, institutional sales, fintech partnerships, or related roles
• Deep experience within fintech, investing, wealth management, trading, financial services, institutional investing, or professional investor ecosystems required
• Existing network within family offices, hedge funds, RIAs, investment firms, fintech, brokerages, institutional finance, or professional investor communities required
• Experience selling, positioning, or developing partnerships around AI-native, fintech, investment, trading, or financial decision-support products required
• Strong relationship-building skills with financial professionals, institutional investors, family offices, hedge funds, advisors, or strategic financial partners
• Experience operating within relationship-driven, trust-sensitive, or credibility-dependent financial environments
• Ability to credibly engage sophisticated financial audiences and professional investors required
• Strong understanding of how professional investors evaluate trust, risk, credibility, compliance, and financial technology platforms
• Ability to explain complex financial or technology products clearly and credibly to sophisticated audiences
• Strong communication, relationship management, follow-up, and pipeline management skills
• Strong judgment around relationship quality, partner credibility, and long-term strategic value
• Ability to operate independently in a fast-moving, early-stage environment
• Comfortable operating in highly iterative startup environments with evolving processes and priorities
• Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the ability to work in a highly collaborative remote environment with periodic in-person meetings

Preferred

• Existing warm relationships with institutional investors, family offices, hedge funds, RIAs, brokerages, or fintech ecosystems
• Experience supporting demos, pilots, strategic partnership proposals, referral partnerships, or co-marketing initiatives
• Experience introducing emerging technology or AI-native products into trust-sensitive financial environments
• Familiarity with regulated or compliance-sensitive financial environments
• Experience working with cross-regional or globally distributed teams
• Ability to support partnership discussions through later-stage negotiation or closing is a strong plus
• Fluency in English and Mandarin Chinese is preferred due to cross-regional collaboration

Working Style

• Relationship-driven and commercially minded
• Understands that trust matters more than lead volume in financial products
• Values relationship quality over transactional outbound activity
• Strong ownership mentality with excellent follow-through
• Comfortable speaking with professional investors and institutional financial stakeholders
• Practical, direct, collaborative, and comfortable creating structure in ambiguity
• Comfortable helping build credibility for an emerging AI-native investment platform
• Strong judgment around partner quality, institutional reputation, and long-term strategic value
• Startup-minded and comfortable wearing multiple hats in a fast-moving environment

Not a Fit If

• You focus primarily on high-volume outbound activity or generic cold outreach
• You measure success primarily through lead volume rather than strategic relationship quality
• You lack comfort engaging sophisticated investors or institutional financial audiences
• You primarily come from broad consumer marketing or non-financial B2B sales environments
• You are uncomfortable positioning emerging AI-native financial products to sophisticated financial audiences
• You expect highly structured processes and mature GTM infrastructure from day one
• You are not comfortable operating in an early-stage startup environment

Key Metrics

• Number and quality of institutional and professional investor relationships developed
• Qualified demos and strategic introductions generated
• Strategic partnership opportunities created
• Referral, endorsement, pilot, or co-marketing opportunities developed
• Professional investor and institutional user introductions generated through partner channels
• Quality and usefulness of market feedback delivered to leadership and product teams

Compensation

• Base salary range: $140,000 - $190,000 USD annually, depending on experience and qualifications
• Performance-based bonus or milestone incentives may be available based on partnership outcomes
• Actual compensation may vary based on factors including experience, skills, and location

Benefits

• Health insurance, paid time off, and other standard benefits

Work Authorization

• Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States

ABOUT KORE1
Specializing in professional and technical recruiting, KORE1 is committed to supporting top IT, Engineering, Creative, Scientific, Accounting and Finance professionals in their career paths. We build deep relationships with leading companies, connecting them to exceptional talent every day. With extensive industry expertise and unmatched opportunities, our goal is to provide a unique experience for our contractors and consultants as they prepare for their next role. We are passionate about matching the right people with the right companies.

Kore1 provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Kore1 complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training. Kore1 expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status. Improper interference with the ability of Kore1's employees to perform their job duties may result in discipline up to and including discharge.