Director, Ecosystem Partnerships

We are looking for a crypto-native candidate for the role of Director, Ecosystem Partnerships to lead our efforts to engage and drive adoption of middleware, tools and solution providers in the Polygon ecosystem. In this role, you will be responsible for establishing, nurturing, and growing partnerships with key Solution Providers in the Polygon ecosystem, including but not limited to exchanges, wallets, RPC providers, Bridges, Infrastructure, Tools and other strategic partners. You will also be responsible for launching and growing a sustainable network for ecosystem partners to create value in the Polygon ecosystem.

Key Job Responsibilities

• Own, manage and improve the full lifecycle of building partnerships with Solution Providers including initial outreach, onboarding, product deployment, co-marketing, ongoing feedback, and relationship management
• Identify leading and innovative partners across the spectrum of web3 verticals (DeFi, NFTs, gaming, etc.), conduct due diligence, and execute high-value strategic partnerships with teams that are considering developing on Polygon and other types of companies that bring value to the ecosystem.
• Develop a tiered management approach to manage relationships with highly strategic partners directly with the support from a small team. Collaborate with business development and marketing leads to drive visibility and adoption for partner solutions and products.
• Additional, launch and manage a scalable, self service program to engage with and create value for all other providers in the ecosystem with structured benefits, support and exposure
• Build and maintain a mechanism to streamline partnership integrations and communicate product updates with various accounts.
• Become a go-to expert within Polygon about solution providers across all categories and leverage this knowledge to identify appropriate solutions for dapp developersDefine and lead new initiatives within the partnerships team to expand the reach of the Polygon ecosystem and build these via internal teams and community partners
• Identify and evaluate new partnership opportunities to support the growth of our ecosystem.

A Day in the Life

• Strategising ways to acquire, manage and scale Ecosystem partners / Solution Providers
• Manage a team of Ecosystem Partner Managers and guide/support them to serve our top partners Build, manage and scale a program to manage Solution Providers in a self-serve manner
• Capture insights regarding our partners and report Highlights and ways to improve
• Be a part of events and hackathons to build and foster relationships with partners
• Work with Product Managers to seed better UX for existing tools and build more tools from the ecosystem

About the Team

• Developer Studio is a thriving unit inside Polygon Labs that takes care of enhancing user experience on the chain, you will be a part of this team. Ecosystem Partnerships team sits inside Developer Studio and is mainly responsible for creating, managing and scaling partnerships with Solution Providers in our ecosystem
• The goal is to build a very vibrant ecosystem of Solution Providers and build best in class program to manage the Solution Providers and partners
• The team has an entrepreneurial vibe and culture, you will be given autonomy and be expected to navigate challenging situations seamlessly
• The team is a mix of senior and junior folks - will offer the necessary learning curve along with support.

What you’ll need

• Proven track record of success in managing partnerships / BizDev within the crypto industry
• Previous experience in working with other Layer 1 or L2 ecosystems
• Prior experience managing or operating a ecosystem partner program in the software industry
• Clear understanding of Blockchain technology, specifically Polygon's stack and Middleware solutions.
• Ability to interact and develop strong relationships with partners
• Experience with DAOs and decentralized governance a plus
• Ability to think strategically and develop creative solutions to complex challenges
• Ability to present and speak in public to both technical and non-technical audiences

Preferred Qualifications (Preferred, not Required)

• Engineering degree
• MBA