Vice President, Institutional Business Development

As Vice President of Institutional Business Development at Aquilon Labs, you own how the company wins and grows institutional clients. You build the pipeline, run the full sales cycle from first meeting to funded account, and turn early relationships into long-term revenue. You work directly with leadership to shape go-to-market strategy, pricing and product roadmap.

What you'll do

• Build and execute the business development plan, defining priority client segments, target accounts and decision-makers.
• Source and win institutional clients, including hedge funds, asset managers, family offices, quantitative and proprietary trading firms, market makers, fintechs and other traditional and crypto-native institutions.
• Own the full sales cycle: qualification, discovery, product presentations, proposals, term negotiation and closing.
• Match client needs across lending, borrowing, financing, custody and liquidity with the right Aquilon solutions, and bring back requests that point to new products.
• Lead clients through due diligence, KYC/KYB, legal documentation (including MLAs and credit agreements), technical integration and first transaction, working with Legal, Compliance, Risk, Operations and Engineering.
• Build lasting relationships with senior stakeholders (CIOs, portfolio managers, heads of trading, treasury and operations) and grow each account through cross-selling and higher volumes.
• Keep an accurate sales pipeline and report regularly on activity, forecast and results against targets.
• Track market conditions, competitor offerings and client feedback, and share clear recommendations with leadership.
• Represent Aquilon at client meetings, industry conferences and events.

What you bring

• 7+ years in institutional sales, business development or coverage at a digital asset firm, prime broker, bank, securities firm, asset manager or fintech.
• A track record of sourcing, negotiating and closing institutional business on your own, with quantifiable results.
• An active network of institutional decision-makers you can engage from day one.
• Solid knowledge of digital asset market structure and the basics of institutional trading, lending, financing, custody and settlement.
• Experience running long sales cycles with multiple decision-makers, including due diligence, KYC/KYB/AML and legal negotiation.
• Ability to explain a clear value proposition to investment, trading, risk, operations and executive audiences.
• Excellent written and spoken English, and comfort working across time zones.
• A builder's mindset: you are comfortable without a large team or established playbook and enjoy creating both.

Nice to have

• Experience at a crypto lender, prime broker, OTC desk, exchange, custodian or institutional DeFi platform.
• Knowledge of credit and collateral management, derivatives, structured products, stablecoins or real-world asset tokenization.
• Experience opening a new market, client segment or product line.
• Daily use of AI tools for prospect research, account planning, pipeline management and proposal writing.
• Additional languages relevant to global institutional clients.

What we offer

• Total compensation depends on experience, network and location, and may include a performance-based bonus or commission and equity.
• Remote work within the United States, with the option to work hybrid from the New York office.
• Consideration for strong candidates outside the US with deep institutional networks.

About Aquilon Labs

Aquilon Labs builds institutional-grade infrastructure for digital asset markets, connecting institutional borrowers, lenders, investors and custodians so they can access digital asset lending, financing, custody and liquidity with the controls, transparency and compliance they expect from traditional finance.