Director of Business Development
Sales & Business Development
San Francisco, CA, USA
About Nothing
Nothing exists to make tech feel exciting again.
Founded in London in 2020, we’ve grown from idea to global challenger in just a few years. Backed by GV (Google Ventures), EQT Ventures, and C Ventures, and investors like Tony Fadell (iPod), Casey Neistat, and Kevin Lin (Twitch), we’re now sold in 40+ markets with millions of users worldwide.
About the role
Nothing is building the next generation of consumer technology — AI-native devices with a design-led, challenger brand. As we scale in North America, our most important growth lever is a small number of high-leverage strategic technology partnerships that shape our product, our economics, and our position in the AI-device ecosystem.
You will own and originate Nothing's most strategic technology partnerships across three fronts:
- AI labs — model access, on-device AI integrations, exclusive or first-of-kind agreements with frontier and challenger labs
- Android / Google ecosystem — platform-level relationships, OS and services agreements, distribution and integration terms
- Silicon / Qualcomm — chipset roadmap alignment, commercial terms, co-engineering and co-marketing structures that materially move our COGS and product capability
These are few-in-number, high-stakes deals negotiated at C-suite level with some of the largest technology companies in the world — from the position of a challenger brand without incumbent leverage. You'll be the architect and the closer.
What you'll do
- Define Nothing's technology partnership strategy with the executive team; identify where partnerships beat build-or-buy
- Originate relationships outbound with AI labs, Google/Android, and Qualcomm
- Structure multi-year, platform-level agreements: model access, integration, exclusivity, warrants/equity where relevant, silicon pricing and roadmap commitments
- Negotiate and close with C-suite counterparts, owning commercial, legal, and finance terms end-to-end
- Land deals that change product economics — chipset cost structures, AI inference costs, revenue-share and services agreements
- Work as a player-coach across product, engineering, marketing, and finance so partnerships are built into roadmaps, not bolted on
- Make your own materials; operate with no playbook in a fast-scaling, ambiguous environment
What we're looking for
Must have
- 8+ years of enterprise / platform business development with named, multi-year strategic deals — not distribution, licensing, reseller, or co-marketing arrangements
- Direct experience negotiating with at least one of: frontier/major AI labs, Google/Android platform teams, or major silicon vendors (Qualcomm, MediaTek, or similar)
- Proven outbound origination — you've created partnerships from cold, ideally from a challenger or lesser-known company where the brand didn't open the door for you
- C-suite deal-making at scale: demonstrated large-deal history, with ownership of commercial and legal terms
- Current, active focus on the North American market
- Deep fluency in the consumer-electronics / device landscape: silicon, OS, AI stack, and how they connect to device economics
Strong plus
- Deals with warrant/equity or non-standard commercial structures
- On-device AI or model-integration deal experience
- 0-to-1 builder: founder, early-team, or built a BD function from scratch
- Genuine affinity for Nothing's brand and design-led, culture-forward mission
Salary Range: $220-300K