Institutional Sales Lead

Optimism; Northern, New York (KY, NY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

OP Labs, builder of Optimism, is seeking a Sales Lead to drive adoption among the world’s largest financial institutions. You’ll identify, secure, and expand high-impact partnerships central to our growth strategy.

This role blends strategy and execution. You’ll collaborate with Optimism leadership, product, marketing, and partnerships to shape onchain financial primitives and bring them to market with ambitious traditional-finance builders.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in enterprise sales.
• Proven track record of closing and scaling complex deals with institutional clients.
• Deep understanding of fintech infrastructure: wallets, custody, card issuing, stablecoins, compliance tooling, and developer platforms.
• Familiarity with crypto infrastructure with a focus on Ethereum, Layer 2s, and wallet abstraction concepts.

Responsibilities

• Own and execute strategy.
• Define and lead institutional strategy end-to-end.
• Identify high-leverage market entry points and translate protocol advantages for institutions.
• Originate and close high-impact partnerships with institutions.
• Collaborate with product, engineering, and partner teams for successful integration.
• Channel market feedback to influence roadmap decisions.
• Shape Optimism offerings to meet partner needs.
• Represent Optimism at industry events and conferences.
• Publish thought leadership on programmable money and payments infrastructure.
• Build and maintain relationships with ecosystem players.

Skills

Enterprise sales

Deal closing

Fintech infra

Crypto infra

Strategic thinker

C-level liaison

Partnership programs

Cross-functional

Crypto fluency

Communication

Job description

OP Labs builds Optimism, an open-source blockchain network that powers the next generation of financial infrastructure. Hundreds of companies, from the world’s largest enterprises like Sony, Coinbase, Kraken, Uniswap, OKX, and Bitpanda to the most ambitious early-stage builders, use the OP stack to launch their own blockchains and bring their users onchain. Today, over 65% of Layer 2 activity on Ethereum runs through the OP stack.

We are a small team building at the speed of the ecosystem we support. We’re remote-friendly but the NYC office is our center of gravity. We’ve raised $178M from a16z, Paradigm, and others. We have our work cut out for us and are looking for exceptional people to join us.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Sales Lead to drive Optimism’s adoption among the world’s largest financial institutions. You’ll identify, secure, and expand the high-impact partnerships central to our growth strategy.

The role is both strategic and executional. You’ll work directly with Optimism leadership, product, marketing, and partnerships to shape new financial primitives that are only possible onchain, and bring them to market with the most ambitious builders in traditional finance.

What are the role responsibilities?

• Own and execute strategy

  • Define and lead Optimism’s strategy for institutions end-to-end. Act like a GM

  • Identify high-leverage market entry points (e.g., stablecoin corridors, embedded finance use cases, B2B/B2C rails)

  • Translate protocol advantages into compelling narratives tailored to institutional decision-makers

• Originate and close deals

  • Source, structure, and close high-impact partnerships with institutions

• Drive product alignment

  • Collaborate closely with product, engineering, and partner teams to ensure successful integration and onboarding

  • Channel market feedback to influence roadmap decisions (e.g., compliance features, wallet UX, account abstraction)

  • Shape internal Optimism offerings (e.g., SDKs, liquidity support, ecosystem programs) to better meet institution partner needs

• Lead externally

  • Represent Optimism at industry events, institutions conferences, and global policy forums

  • Publish thought leadership on programmable money, composable compliance, and the future of payments infrastructure

  • Build and maintain strong relationships with ecosystem players (wallets, stablecoin issuers, banking-as-a-service providers, L2s)

What skills do you bring?

• Experience

  • 10+ years of experience in enterprise sales

  • Proven track record of closing and scaling complex deals with institutional clients

  • Deep understanding of fintech infrastructure: wallets, custody, card issuing, stablecoins, compliance tooling, and developer platforms

  • Familiarity with crypto infrastructure with a focus on Ethereum, Layer 2s, and wallet abstraction concepts

• Skills & Approach

  • Sharp strategic thinker who can map fragmented fintech value chains and craft compelling BD theses

  • Independent deal-closer who’s comfortable interfacing with C-level stakeholders and navigating multi-party partnerships

  • High agency operator who can build 0→1 partnerships, GTM strategies, and partner programs with minimal oversight

  • Strong communicator who can translate between business, technical, and ecosystem stakeholders across varying levels of crypto fluency

  • Comfortable navigating ambiguity in a fast-moving, frontier market and iterating quickly based on learnings

• Culture & Mindset

  • Motivated to rebuild the global financial stack on open, composable rails

  • You value results over recognition

  • Thrive in collaborative, cross-functional teams but can also move quickly on your own

  • Always looking to create scalable impact via product, partnerships, or ecosystems

We are aware of fraudulent individuals falsely claiming to represent OP Labs in recruitment activities.
Please note:

• All official communication will come from an @oplabs.co email address, or from a verified Linked profile.

• We will never ask for payment, banking information, or personal identification details at any stage of our hiring process.

• All current openings are listed exclusively on our official careers page and linked from our verified social profiles.

• If you’re ever unsure about a communication that claims to be from OP Labs, please contact us directly at [e-mail] to verify authenticity.

Your safety and trust are very important to us. Thank you for helping us prevent fraud.