Business Development, Africa

Company: Stellar Development Foundation

Location: Remote (Africa)

Employment Type: Full-time

About the Company

Since 2014, the mission-driven team at the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has helped fuel the tremendous growth of the Stellar blockchain network, an open-source platform that operates at high-scale today. Developers and companies around the world build on it, and the SDF team is expanding to support the rapidly growing and changing Stellar ecosystem.

Africa is not a future opportunity for Stellar — it is an active one. SDF has live integrations with fintech and payment companies across West and East Africa and a growing cohort of builders developing on Stellar rails, with relationships with some of the continent's leading financial institutions and ecosystem partners.

About the Role

SDF is hiring a senior, Africa-based leader to own and scale business development momentum across the continent. You will operate at the intersection of business development, ecosystem strategy, and institutional relationship-building, and will serve as SDF's most visible and accountable presence on the continent. You will define how SDF shows up in Africa, shape the strategy that gets executed, and be directly accountable for outcomes — builder pipeline, live integrations, institutional partnerships, and the long-term health of Stellar's African ecosystem.

Responsibilities

• Own SDF's Africa business development effort — defining priorities, allocating effort across five hub markets (Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Ethiopia), and adapting the playbook by market needs and expectations.
• Lead in-market execution across all five hub markets, including structured annual visits to each hub that deliver across a full engagement programme: conference presence, owned ecosystem meetups, top-tier builder roundtables, incubator and accelerator partnerships, strategic institutional meetings, and policy and regulatory introductions.
• Build and close high-value partnerships with fintech companies, payment platforms, wallets, ramps, and developer teams building on Stellar, driving active pipeline companies through to live Stellar integration and sustained network volume.
• Develop and manage SDF's institutional relationships across the continent — including major telcos (MTN, Airtel Africa, Vodacom), tier-1 banks (Access Bank, Equity Bank, Standard Bank, GTBank, KCB Group), and development finance institutions — identifying and progressing partnership opportunities that drive volume at infrastructure scale.
• Cultivate relationships with Africa's leading incubators and accelerators — including iceaddis, iHub, Mowblox, LoftyInc, Tony Elumelu Foundation, and 88mph — to generate sustained builder pipelines and increase Stellar's visibility among early-stage founders making infrastructure decisions.
• Serve as the internal champion and voice of the African market within SDF — translating on-the-ground intelligence into strategic recommendations, influencing product priorities, and ensuring the broader organisation understands the region's nuances, opportunities, and constraints.
• Serve as SDF's primary relationship owner for Africa-based ecosystem partners throughout their journey — from initial engagement through integration and growth — facilitating connections across the Stellar ecosystem that accelerate partner success.
• Build and maintain rigorous pipeline discipline across HubSpot and Airtable, ensuring integration status, relationship health, and strategic context are accurately captured and accessible to the broader team.
• Drive post-visit content production in partnership with the marketing team — including trip reports, video, blog posts, and social content — that amplifies SDF's presence and narrative across African markets.
• Represent SDF at flagship regional conferences and events, and own the design and execution of SDF's owned events on the continent, including builder roundtables and ecosystem meetups in each hub city.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree (required); Master's Degree or MBA (preferred)
• 8+ years of business development, partnerships, or ecosystem experience, with substantial time spent working at senior levels in or closely with African markets
• Deep, senior-level relationships across the African fintech, payments, blockchain, and institutional landscape — including builders, accelerators, banks, telcos, and regulatory stakeholders
• Experience in blockchain, digital assets, stablecoins or tokenization
• Understanding of crossborder payments, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and financial inclusion
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, multi-stakeholder partnership negotiations and closing deals that require internal alignment as well as external relationship management
• Experience navigating regulatory environments in African markets
• Exceptional communication skills across diverse audiences — ability to distill a complex technical value proposition into a compelling narrative
• Fluency in English; proficiency in French or Swahili is a strong advantage given SDF's Francophone West Africa and East Africa presence
• Based in Africa, with the ability and willingness to travel extensively across the continent and occasionally internationally

Benefits

• Competitive health, dental & vision coverage with most plans covered at 100% for the employee and any dependents
• Flexible time off + 15 company holidays including a company-wide holiday break
• Generous paid parental leave for all parents, plus paid pregnancy disability leave for birthing parents
• Gym reimbursement ($80 per month)
• Life & ADD (up to $50K)
• Short & Long term disability
• 401K with 4% match
• Health & Dependent Care FSA Accounts
• Commuter benefits with $250/month employer contribution
• Health Savings Account (HSA) with monthly employer contribution
• Family building benefits through Kindbody
• Wellbeing benefits (One Medical, Rightway, Headspace)
• L&D budget of $1,500/year
• Daily lunch and snacks in office
• Company retreats
• Lumen-denominated grants

Compensation

Competitive pay with a base salary range for this position, depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and location.