About the Role
You'll set the direction for how Utila approaches the financial institutions market, build the partnerships that accelerate adoption, and equip our sales team with the segmentation, positioning, and playbooks they need to win. You'll work closely with Leadership, Sales, Product, and Marketing to ensure Utila's platform and go-to-market meet the bar institutional buyers expect. If you understand how financial institutions evaluate, procure, and adopt new infrastructure and you excel at turning that insight into an executable strategy, this role is for you.
Requirements
- 8–10+ years of experience in go-to-market strategy, sales, partnerships, or business development focused on financial institutions in the US
- Deep understanding of how financial institutions operate, including their organizational structure, decision-making processes, and procurement/compliance requirements
- Proven track record of shaping how companies win with FIs, with strong knowledge of their buying cycles, ICPs, and what drives adoption of new infrastructure
- Experience building and executing partnership strategies with banks or other regulated financial institutions
- Strong understanding of on-chain primitives such as stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and tokenized assets, and how FIs are approaching them
- Solid grasp of the underlying infrastructure - custody, wallets, settlement, security models that support institutional digital asset operations
- Ability to translate complex technology into clear business value for risk-conscious institutional buyers, and to arm sales teams to do the same
- High ownership, autonomy, and execution mindset, comfortable operating in a fast-growing startup environment
- Deep understanding of how regional, community, and tier 1 banks operate across all levels
Responsibilities
- Own and lead Utila's strategy for engaging financial institutions across North America, defining target segments, ICPs, and priority use cases
- Build and execute a partnership strategy with FIs, identifying opportunities for co-development, integration, and joint go-to-market
- Develop deep relationships with key decision-makers across treasury, innovation, digital assets, and compliance functions at target institutions
- Translate FI buying cycles, procurement processes, and risk/compliance requirements into actionable go-to-market plans, playbooks, and enablement for the Sales team
- Support the Sales team throughout FI deal cycles as the segment's strategic expert, informing account strategy, positioning, and navigation of institutional procurement and compliance processes
- Partner with Product and Leadership to ensure Utila's roadmap and positioning align with what FIs need to adopt on-chain infrastructure
- Define and track success metrics for the FI segment, including market coverage, partnership progress, and pipeline health