Head of Business Development

Who We Are:

Horizen Labs is a web3 technology company building the infrastructure of the verifiable web. We work in applied cryptographic research, including zero-knowledge proofs, trusted execution environments, and protocol design, turning that research into production systems that make privacy practical and truth verifiable at scale. Our flagship systems, including Horizen and zkVerify and have verified over 100 million proofs for institutions operating in high-stakes environments where security and trust are non-negotiable. We are headquartered in Austin, TX, with a remote workforce and offices in Puerto Rico and Milan.

At Horizen Labs, our people are our greatest asset, and we are creating a culture of empowered individuals who are eager to bring their ideas to life. We believe diversity drives the innovation and engagement necessary to build a truly remarkable product. We operate on a hybrid model with a distributed global workforce who works in partnership with our satellite offices in New York City, NY and Milan, Italy. Are you ready to help us change the future with the next cutting-edge blockchain technology? Join us!

About the role Horizen Labs is hiring a Head of Business Development to build and lead our commercial engine as quantum computing moves from research into real enterprise value. You'll own partnerships and revenue: finding the enterprises, ecosystem partners and research institutions who will adopt our solutions, and turning early interest into signed, recurring contracts.

Reporting to the CEO, you'll set our BD strategy, build the pipeline, close our most strategic deals, and grow a team as revenue scales. You'll work closely with our Engineering and Product teams, who lead deep technical discovery, while you lead the relationship, the deal and the partnership.

Key Responsibilities

Set the BD strategy. Define target verticals such as Defense, finance, pharma, and logistics, along with ideal customer profiles and priority accounts; and own the annual BD plan and revenue targets.

Build and own the pipeline. Generate and qualify opportunities through outbound, executive networks, events and partner referrals, with disciplined forecasting.

Lead strategic deals end to end. Negotiate design partner agreements, paid pilots and proofs of concept, and multi-year platform access and co development contracts, partnering with Legal and Finance on terms.

Convert pilots into recurring revenue. Agree success criteria up front and drive early engagements into multi-year commercial agreements.

Build strategic partnerships. Develop co-sell and channel relationships with cloud providers and marketplaces, HPC vendors, systems integrators, hardware partners, universities and national labs.

Shape pricing and packaging. Work with Product and Finance to define how we price and package access, software and services.

Bring the market into the company. Share customer, partner and competitive insight with Product and Engineering to inform roadmap priorities.

Represent Horizen Labs externally. Build our profile at conferences, in industry consortia, and with analysts, investors and government stakeholders.

Pursue non-dilutive funding. Identify and secure co-development grants and government programs alongside partners.

Build the team. Hire and lead a BD and partnerships team as revenue scales.

Qualifications

7+ years in enterprise business development, strategic partnerships or strategic sales in deep tech, HPC, cloud, AI infrastructure or other complex technical platforms, including 3+ years leading a function or team.

A track record of building commercial traction from an early stage, such as taking a frontier technology from $0 to $1M+ ARR, or landing marquee design partners and multi-year contracts with Fortune 500 enterprises.

Experience closing complex, high-value deals with long cycles and many stakeholders across the C-suite, R&D and procurement.

An established network in Defense, enterprise R&D, the cloud and HPC ecosystem, or the quantum industry.

Technical fluency in quantum computing, HPC or advanced simulation, enough to discuss use cases, constraints and value credibly. Quantum experience is strongly preferred.

Comfort being both strategic and hands-on: setting direction one day, personally running outbound and negotiations the next.

Relevant backgrounds include BD or GTM lead at a Series A–C quantum or deep tech startup, Director of Strategic Partnerships or Alliances at a cloud or HPC vendor, or an enterprise sales leader for complex technical platforms.

Horizen Labs is an equal opportunity employer

Horizen Labs is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please send an email to [email protected] and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.