Director of Business Development

Director of Business Development

Nothing exists to make tech feel exciting again. Nothing is building a different kind of technology company, one that puts design, emotion, and human creativity at the heart of everything we do. From the way our products look and feel to how we communicate and show up in culture, we believe technology should make you feel something. Founded in London in 2020, we've grown from idea to global challenger in just a few years. Backed by GV (Google Ventures), EQT Ventures, and C Ventures, and investors like Tony Fadell (iPod), Casey Neistat, and Kevin Lin (Twitch), we're now sold in 40+ markets with millions of users worldwide.

About the role

Nothing is building the next generation of consumer technology AI-native devices with a design-led, challenger brand. As we scale in North America, our most important growth lever is a small number of high-leverage strategic technology partnerships that shape our product, our economics, and our position in the AI-device ecosystem. You will own and originate Nothing's most strategic technology partnerships across three fronts:

• AI labs model access, on-device AI integrations, exclusive or first-of-kind agreements with frontier and challenger labs
• Android / Google ecosystem platform-level relationships, OS and services agreements, distribution and integration terms
• Silicon / Qualcomm chipset roadmap alignment, commercial terms, co-engineering and co-marketing structures that materially move our COGS and product capability

These are few-in-number, high-stakes deals negotiated at C-suite level with some of the largest technology companies in the world from the position of a challenger brand without incumbent leverage. You'll be the architect and the closer.

What you'll do

• Define Nothing's technology partnership strategy with the executive team; identify where partnerships beat build-or-buy
• Originate relationships outbound with AI labs, Google/Android, and Qualcomm
• Structure multi-year, platform-level agreements: model access, integration, exclusivity, warrants/equity where relevant, silicon pricing and roadmap commitments
• Negotiate and close with C-suite counterparts, owning commercial, legal, and finance terms end-to-end
• Land deals that change product economics chipset cost structures, AI inference costs, revenue-share and services agreements
• Work as a player-coach across product, engineering, marketing, and finance so partnerships are built into roadmaps, not bolted on
• Make your own materials; operate with no playbook in a fast-scaling, ambiguous environment

What we're looking for

Must have

• 8+ years of enterprise / platform business development with named, multi-year strategic deals not distribution, licensing, reseller, or co-marketing arrangements
• Direct experience negotiating with at least one of: frontier/major AI labs, Google/Android platform teams, or major silicon vendors (Qualcomm, MediaTek, or similar)
• Proven outbound origination you've created partnerships from cold, ideally from a challenger or lesser-known company where the brand didn't open the door for you
• C-suite deal-making at scale: demonstrated large-deal history, with ownership of commercial and legal terms
• Current, active focus on the North American market
• Deep fluency in the consumer-electronics / device landscape: silicon, OS, AI stack, and how they connect to device economics

Strong plus

• Deals with warrant/equity or non-standard commercial structures
• On-device AI or model-integration deal experience
• 0-to-1 builder: founder, early-team, or built a BD function from scratch
• Genuine affinity for Nothing's brand and design-led, culture-forward mission

Salary Range: $220-300K