Head of Business Development Asia
at Wintermute
Job Description
About Wintermute
Wintermute is a leading market maker of digital assets globally. We manage hundreds of millions in assets and trade more than $3B+/day across dozens of different trading platforms. Culturally, we combine 1) the best-in-class trading and technology professionalism coming from 70+ years of combined team’s expertise in traditional HFT companies like Optiver and 2) technology startup culture, as we are moving very fast and empowering people to act like owners.
Wintermute provides liquidity algorithmically across most vested exchanges in crypto, across CeFi and DeFi, on-screen and OTC, as well as supporting high profile blockchain projects. At Wintermute, we believe in the decentralization of finance and we believe that trading companies of the future are technology companies, not financial services providers.
Wintermute is a proprietary trading business. We are a Series B highly profitable startup backed by Lightspeed, Pantera Capital, Sino Global Capital, Blockchain.com Ventures and other top tier investors. Learn more about our team and culture on our website and Evgeny’s post here.
Working at Wintermute
We are looking for Head of Business Development & Partnerships Asia who will bring our Asia business to completely new heights. We are looking for someone who knows the Asian crypto market and is excited to make a big impact for Wintermute in China and beyond.
You will be responsible for building new as well as growing Wintermute's existing business in Asia. You will own opportunities in the region from end to end and develop your own strategic growth plan, while also getting advice and guidance from Management Team and CEO. We have the best market making product on the market, we work with crypto's top projects, we have many strategic growth opportunities in the pipeline, a long line of counterparties wanting to develop relationship with us, no legacy processes, no corporate bureaucracy, no multiple levels of approvals, yet coupled with the highest standards of professionalism. It is up to you to make an impact! You will act like an owner and your incentives will be completely aligned with those of the company!
What will you work on
As we are a high growth startup in one of the most dynamic industries, we are constantly changing and so do the roles of everyone in the company. Your role will be truly varied and will include some of the core ownership areas, as well as various projects based on both your talents/preferences and business needs of the company. There is a lot of room to shape and exapnd this role - there is no limit set by the company! Some representative responsibilities and projects are described below.
A selection of responsibilities or projects
- Grow the OTC business in Asia - this includes developing and executing your own growth plan which will have many of angles to it: acquiring new counterparties, developing existing relationships, cooperating with developer teams on productizing the solution and execution of trades
- Grow the crypto project market making business - deepen relationships with existing crypto projects and acquire new ones
- Develop new relationships with high-profile crypto projects, crypto VCs, institutional investors, miners and other parties of the crypto eco-system; note that we are connected to many of these parties or can get introduced, so this is all about systematically developing the relationships and brining them to the next level
- Develop existing relationships with exchanges globally and bring them to the next level
- Keep track of key launches and news in the crypto eco-system and proactively identify cooperation and business development opportunities
Hard Skills Requirements
- BSc/MSc in Business/Economics/Finance or any other degree with a quantitatve element to it
- Native Mandarin; fluent English; other languages (Korean, Japanese) would be a plus
- Deep understanding of both Asian and Western mindsets and ways of doing business
- Top tier MBA is preferred (or other proven ability to see the bigger picture, understand new functional areas quickly, having a cross-functional mindset)
- 2-5 years of experience with Asian (focus on China) crypto market
- Experience in business development or any client-facing role (management consulting, investment banking, B2B sales, etc)
- Strong quantitative and reasoning skills - we will test
- Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written - this is not about pitching, but being convincing, concise, precise, a good listener; being clear on next steps and always following up on promises
- Experience building things and delivering results - this could be professional, academic or personal, but we need to see ownership and value-creation beyond execution or functional responsibility typical in an "average corporate" function
- Experience in BD or similar role facing institutional crypto and traditional finance is an advantage
- Deep trading knowledge isn’t required but willingness, aptitude and curiosity to understand the fundamentals of algorithmic trading and market making is crucial
Other Requirements
- Have an owner mentality - you focus on the ultimate result (short and long-term P&L for the company), focus on strategically growing the business for the future vs “cashing-in” fast
- Love problem solving, and love seeing the results of your work come to life
- Do whatever it takes to do what’s needed, to "grow the pie" beyond maximizing own piece of the pie
- Determined, hungry, ambitious yet humble, willing to work hard and learn along the way
- Like meritocracy and being judged based on what you deliver
- Have an entrepreneurial mindset versus 9-to-5 “work to pay bills”mindset; prepared to work non-standard working hours (since we are a high-growth startup operating in 24/7 crypto world)
- Like working in the team environment working from our London office (as much as Covid restrictions allow)
Wintermute Offer
- A unique opportunity to work on very interesting projects, get the level of responsibility and ownership that would mormally take 3-5 years longer to achive in a traditional financial services company
- A unique opportunity to join a high growth profitable startup and one of the strongest and highest potential startups in crypto
- Great company culture: informal, non-hierarchical, ambitious, highly professional yet startupy, collaborative, and entrepreneurial
- Aligned incentive structure: on top of a competitive fixed salary, a significant part of your compensation is performance-based cash bonuses and equity, and the best thing - your contribution directly impacts the size of the pie
- A cool office in central London with sci-fi touch (Note: ideally person starts in London and relocated to Singapore, but this is negotiable given COVID environment and we may be open to a remote position from China/Hong Kong)
- Weekly team events, such as team lunches, team dinners, team board games and Dota playing sessions; these are not obligatory in any sense, but this is what we like to do
Tips for Successful Application
- Only apply to us if you are genuinely interested or curious about this role and the space; this is not for someone who is just looking for just "a job" or is looking to maximize their short-term fixed salary
- Do your research: look at our website and social media channels
- Write us a short, honest, and direct message if you'd like to apply. Tell us about why you are interested in Wintermute and in this role in particular.
- Do not send us generic copy paste applications, we are looking for authentic people who share our interests, values and ambitions!
- If you don't have some obviously matching experience or skills, make sure you state very clearly what you can bring or how your experience is relevant (but note, we do require some finance backgroun/expertise)
- Do your homework on what hft/market making/algo trading is. (Hint: we are not in the business of position taking, directional betting, stock/token picking, technical analysis, "AI" (as in the buzz-word) and we are not a research business for the sake of research)
- We get a lot of applications, so unfortunately, we won't be able to proceed if you simply press "submit button"; we do promise to reply to everyone who puts time and effort into making the application relevant!
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