Description
Block is building a new generation of AI-powered products with the potential to create entirely new ways for businesses to operate, engage with customers, and grow.
We are looking for a self-starting, experienced business development lead to turn these emerging products into meaningful business.
This is a highly entrepreneurial role, and requires someone who has done this before: taken technically complex, early-stage products into the market, secured sophisticated enterprise customers and partners, built and converted pilots, and informed pricing and commercial models for scale.
What You'll Do
- Win lighthouse enterprise customers and strategic partners
- Source, develop, and close relationships with sophisticated enterprise customers and strategic partners.
- Engage with senior executives across technology, product, operations, business development, and commercial organizations.
- Identify where strategic partnerships can accelerate distribution, unlock new use cases, or create differentiated product capabilities.
- Sell products that may still be evolving, creating conviction around the vision while setting appropriate expectations about what exists today.
- Build a portfolio of lighthouse customers and partners that provides product validation, commercial proof points, references, distribution, and a foundation for broader adoption.
- Build pilots that become scaled commercial relationships
- Drive commercial pilots with enterprise customers and partners with clear objectives, success metrics, economics, timelines, and paths to production and expansion.
- Own the progression from initial conversation → pilot → production deployment or partnership launch → scaled commercial relationship.
- Work directly with customers, partners, Product, and Engineering throughout early implementations.
- Distinguish between strategically important market feedback and bespoke requests that should not drive the roadmap.
- Use early engagements to rapidly test product-market fit, willingness to pay, partnership models, implementation requirements, and the durability of demand.
- Drive partner GTM and own the relationship end to end
- Sign and launch partners, and own their success end to end: From pitch, negotiations, deal signature, through launch and optimization.
- Partner with the cross-functional team to refine pitch materials, partner marketing motions and operations.
- Actively share learnings back with internal stakeholders to refine and optimize the product strategy, while optimizing the partnership for success.
- Exercise sound judgment and discretion around executive and cross-functional relationship mapping.
What We're Looking For
- 10+ years of relevant commercial enterprise experience.
- Direct, demonstrated experience taking new or emerging technology products from early market entry through commercial scale.
- A track record of personally securing lighthouse enterprise customers and strategic partners, structuring pilots and partnerships, and converting them into scaled commercial relationships.
- Deep experience selling complex technology to large enterprises and working with sophisticated strategic partners.
- Established credibility engaging senior technical, product, business development, and commercial executives.
- Experience commercializing AI, data infrastructure, developer platforms, cloud infrastructure, or similarly complex and rapidly evolving technology.
- Strong understanding of how enterprises and strategic partners evaluate, pilot, procure, integrate, distribute, and scale emerging technologies.
- Strong product judgment and a history of working as a true partner to Product and Engineering.
- Experience building a new business inside of a technology company
- The ability to operate at both the strategic and execution levels , from informing a market strategy to getting a difficult enterprise deal or strategic partnership across the line.
Pay Transparency: Block takes a market-based approach to pay, and pay may vary depending on your location. U.S. locations are categorized into one of four zones based on a cost of labor index for that geographic area. The successful candidate's starting pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions.
Salary Range: Zone A: ($198,000 - $297,000) Zone B: ($184,200 - $276,200) Zone C: ($174,200 - $261,400) Zone D: ($164,300 - $246,500)