Director, Strategic Institutional Partnerships - Special Projects Lead

As Director of Strategic Institutional Partnerships, Special Projects Lead at OKX, you take each bespoke partnership from signed intent to live, growing volume. You are the single point of accountability to the client and to every internal team involved: Legal, Compliance, Product, Engineering, Operations, and Institutional Coverage. Your initial market focus is the EU, where OKX operates under MiCA and MiFID II, though the role itself is global. You report to the Global Head of Strategic Partnerships.

What you'll do

• Act as the central coordinator for commercial project execution with strategic partners, ensuring timely delivery of high-scale projects and knowledge transfer across the Strategic Partnerships team.
• Determine the ideal product solution and commercial setup to maximize value with strategic partners, validating feasibility and alignment with product and local market teams.
• Lead or co-lead negotiations with OKX office representatives, from term sheet through final terms including pricing, rebates, volume commitments, SLAs, liability, exclusivity, and service scope, aligning final terms with the Head of SIP before C-level sign-off.
• Run the contract process with OKX Legal and the client's legal team, supplying commercial inputs and guiding negotiations.
• Own the client relationship with decision makers and project sponsors throughout the entire lifecycle, running steering meetings, managing expectations, resolving escalations, and nurturing key relationships.
• Turn commercial agreements into delivery plans with Product and Engineering, covering integration model, custody and settlement flows, fiat and stablecoin rails, and reporting, while owning scope, timelines, and trade-offs.
• Coordinate due diligence, KYB, outsourcing assessments, and regulatory notifications between OKX Compliance and the client's compliance and risk teams to prevent regulatory requirements from blocking go-live.
• Plan go-live with the client, including commercial launch for B2B2C partners with end-client communication, marketing support, and GTM incentive structures.
• Track volume and client ramp post-launch against the business case and act when performance falls behind.
• Hand over live, stable partnerships to Institutional Relationship Managers with documented terms, technical setup, open items, and ramp targets, remaining accountable until handover acceptance.
• Manage and report on portfolio status, risks, and business impact to SIP leadership, maintaining accurate pipeline and project records.
• Share implementation learnings to improve future deal structuring and gradually originate and close partnerships independently.
• Help build a small delivery team of project managers and solution engineers as deal flow grows.

What you bring

• 10+ years in commercial roles at banks, crypto exchanges, brokers, payment or stablecoin companies, or fintech infrastructure providers, with at least 3 years leading client-facing delivery of complex B2B or B2B2C partnerships.
• Banking knowledge from the trading, wealth management, or transaction banking side, including how banks make product decisions, onboard vendors, and approve new products.
• Working knowledge of crypto trading systems, including order routing, API and FIX connectivity, custody models, settlement, and pre-funding and credit arrangements.
• Understanding of stablecoin ecosystems, including issuance, on- and off-ramps, and stablecoin use cases in payments and treasury.
• Demonstrated experience leading commercial negotiations and taking contracts through legal review to signature.
• Proven ability to run projects across legal, compliance, product, and engineering teams on both the client and your own side, taking them live.
• Strong proficiency with AI tools such as Claude and GPT for project management, stakeholder coordination, and reporting to manage a large portfolio with a small team.

Nice to have

• Experience on the bank or payment provider side of launching a crypto or stablecoin product.
• Additional European languages.
• Background in investment banking, consulting, or another structured deal-execution environment.
• A track record of originating, structuring, and closing your own deals.

What we offer

• Competitive total compensation package.
• Learning and development programs and education subsidy for your growth and development.
• Flexible location with initial market focus in the EU.

About OKX

OKX is a leading crypto exchange and developer of OKX Wallet, providing millions of users access to crypto trading and decentralized applications, while serving hundreds of large institutions seeking access to crypto markets. OKX is part of OKG, a group bringing blockchain value to users worldwide through products including OKX, OKX Wallet, and OKLink.