Overview:
The Business Development Manager – Broker-Dealer OTC is responsible for driving revenue growth for the Company's VARA-regulated virtual asset broker-dealer business in the UAE, focusing on institutional, corporate, professional, and high-net-worth clients, while supporting controlled expansion into approved retail segments.
The role leads disciplined commercial development across OTC flows, brokerage, partnerships, and market-entry channels, ensuring all client engagement and business activities are accurate, compliant, and aligned with VARA requirements on conduct, client classification, financial promotions, and risk management.
Key Responsibilities:
- Build and manage a pipeline of UAE-based and approved cross-border institutional, corporate, and professional clients for OTC broker-dealer and virtual asset services
- Develop controlled retail opportunities (affluent, self-directed, partnerships) within licensing scope and target market governance
- Lead commercial positioning of the OTC offering, ensuring alignment with approved execution, settlement, and operational capabilities
- Drive UAE market expansion through sector prioritisation, client coverage strategy, and whitespace identification
- Ensure all client communications and proposals are accurate, balanced, and compliant with approved disclosures
- Partner with Compliance, Legal, and Operations to ensure full onboarding completion (KYC/KYB, classification, approvals) prior to activation
- Maintain alignment with client segmentation, jurisdictional restrictions, and target market frameworks
- Develop and manage introducers, partners, and commercial channels with appropriate due diligence and governance
- Coordinate with internal teams (Trading, Ops, Product, Finance) to support client execution and service delivery
- Escalate client, conduct, regulatory, or onboarding issues to relevant stakeholders in a timely manner
- Maintain accurate pipeline tracking, reporting, and revenue forecasting
- Monitor market trends, competitor activity, and client demand to inform growth strategy
- Ensure marketing and financial promotions are compliant and appropriately targeted
- Support post-sale client engagement, issue resolution, and remediation where required
Qualifications & Experience:
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Marketing, or related field
- 7+ years of experience in business development, institutional sales, brokerage, OTC markets, capital markets, or commercial expansion
- Strong background in regulated financial services such as securities, brokerage, fintech, payments, FX, commodities, or virtual assets
- Proven experience covering institutional and sophisticated client segments, with understanding of onboarding, client classification, and lifecycle dependencies
- Good knowledge of the UAE market, including institutional, corporate, and family office dynamics
- Practical understanding of regulatory expectations across conduct, financial promotions, and escalation frameworks
