Smart Contract Lead

About the role

ether.fi spans decentralized ETH staking (weETH), the Liquid vault range, and Cash, a card and neobank product. This role owns the company's commercial and partnership agenda across the board: the payments stack behind Cash, ecosystem and chain deals, and the institutional relationships that drive distribution. You take over a portfolio of live commercial negotiations currently run by the COO and become the single owner of partner strategy, deal execution, and ongoing partner management.

What you'll own

Commercial agreements & partner stack (primary)

• Own and manage the full partner stack behind ether.fi Cash: Card network relationships and memberships, payment and ramp providers across fiat and stablecoin corridors.

• Negotiate new agreements end to end: pricing, minimums, exclusivity, term, and commercial structure

• Evaluate build-vs-partner tradeoffs (e.g. direct network membership vs. sponsor models) and own the business case

• Manage counterparty relationships with trading, lending, and treasury partners.

Ecosystem & chain partnerships

• Source large-scale capital and distribution opportunities across the product suite; structuring and ongoing ownership sits with the relevant product teams

• Negotiate incentive deals and rev-share agreements

• Drive native deployments of ether.fi assets on new chains where they unlock distribution

• Structure launch partnerships for new products

Expansion

• Identify and negotiate partners for new markets and corridors (local ramps, regional payment networks, licensing partners) alongside the compliance and legal teams

What we're looking for

• 5+ years in partnerships, BD, or commercial roles spanning fintech/payments and crypto

• Track record closing complex multi-party commercial agreements: pricing schedules, volume minimums, exclusivity, rev shares

• Strong DeFi fluency: LSTs, vaults, lending markets, incentive design, enough to originate credible vault deals and speak to protocol teams

• Commercial structuring ability, comfortable modeling deal economics and defending them

• Operates independently with full ownership: builds and defends own pipeline, terms, and forecasts without needing gaps corrected from above

• Comfortable inheriting in-flight negotiations and running them without a ramp-up period

Nice to have

• Experience with card network membership processes or issuer programs

• LatAm or emerging-market payments experience (local ramps, pix and similar local networks)

• Existing relationships with L2 foundations, exchanges, and vault curators

How success is measured

• Commercial agreements signed and renewed on favorable terms (economics vs. benchmark, time to close)

• Partner stack health: coverage, redundancy, and cost of the payments/card stack

• Chain and ecosystem deals signed and value delivered (incentives, rev share, distribution)