Institutional Sales Associate

As an Institutional Sales Associate at Hercle, you own a book of new opportunities end to end, from first inbound or outbound touchpoint through qualification and commercial structuring to a live, transacting client. You work alongside senior sales leads, the OTC desk, product and operations to be the person prospects remember: the one who understood their flow, put the right Hercle product in front of them, and made onboarding feel effortless. You report to Institutional Sales leadership and operate with a high degree of autonomy from early on.

What you'll do

• Own the inbound pipeline by triaging every request quickly and qualifying it against Hercle's ideal customer profiles (PSPs, exchanges, brokers, consumer apps with emerging-market presence, EU-established financial entities).
• Map each prospect's flows (corridors, currencies, volumes, settlement needs, licensing) to the right Hercle solution (OTC, HercleX, BaaS, collections/payouts, EM corridors).
• Collect information needed to assess fit and risk, prepare and lead introductory calls, and run discovery with a clear qualification framework.
• Hand-hold prospects through KYB and onboarding, technical integration and first trades together with Compliance, Operations and Product until the account is active and growing.
• Keep the CRM (Attio) impeccable: stages, volumes, next steps and notes always current so pipeline and forecasts can be trusted.
• Build and execute a structured outreach plan targeting small and mid-sized PSPs, remittance players, exchanges and fintechs, with new-logo acquisition as a core KPI.
• Research markets and accounts, build targeted lists, and run multi-channel sequences through email, LinkedIn, events and referrals.
• Represent Hercle at industry events and conferences, and convert conversations into qualified meetings.
• Feed market intelligence such as competitor pricing, corridor demand and product gaps back to sales leadership and product.
• Support senior sales on contract drafting and negotiation (master agreements, pricing schedules, fee annexes) working with Legal and Compliance.
• Act as the key link between senior sales, Revenue Ops and middle/back office, always as the front-facing owner of the client relationship.
• Identify repetitive sales tasks and drive their automation through CRM workflows, templates, reporting and AI tooling.
• Prepare high-quality pitch decks, proposals, RFP/RFI responses and client materials.

What you bring

• Proficient professional English (written and spoken).
• 2-4 years of professional experience. Experience in financial services is preferred, particularly market-facing backgrounds such as a junior broker, sales-trader, FX/OTC desk or other market operator role. Experience in payments or fintech (sales, business development, partnerships) is equally relevant.
• A broker mindset: commercial instinct, speed, comfort picking up the phone, and the drive to turn a conversation into a deal.
• A proven track record of sourcing and closing B2B deals, with comfort managing a pipeline and hitting new-business targets.
• Solid understanding of payments and/or FX: SEPA, SWIFT, local rails, settlement and liquidity. Working knowledge of stablecoins and digital assets.
• Exceptional organisation, attention to detail and ownership: you close loops without being reminded.
• Executive presence: you are credible in front of a Head of Treasury or a PSP founder.

Nice to have

• An existing network among PSPs, remittance companies, exchanges or EMIs in Europe, Africa or Latin America.
• Experience with RFPs, KYB-heavy onboarding or regulated-entity sales.
• Familiarity with CRM automation and AI productivity tools.
• Italian and/or French, or additional languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, German or Arabic.

What we offer

• A front-office seat in a fast-growing, newly dual-licensed (MiCA + EMI) company at the intersection of payments, trading and infrastructure.
• Real ownership of clients and revenue, and a clear path to senior sales responsibilities as the company expands internationally.
• Exposure to fintech, tokenisation and trade finance alongside a team with Tier 1 backgrounds.
• Flexibility to be based in the Milan or Geneva office.
• An onboarding programme that includes a few days in both Milan and Geneva to meet all key team members across sales, trading, product, operations and compliance.
• Competitive compensation with a performance-linked component.

About Hercle

Hercle is a fast-growing fintech building institutional-grade infrastructure that bridges fiat, stablecoins and digital assets, enabling cross-border payments and banking infrastructure for global trade. Serving over 200 clients globally, Hercle provides banks, brokers, payment service providers, fintechs, commodity traders, corporate treasuries and other NBFIs with seamless solutions for cross-border payments and treasury management.