Summary

Shelby is a decentralized storage network, purpose-built to deliver secure, high-performance, and developer-friendly data infrastructure. Shelby’s goal is to bring data driven revenue on-chain. Shelby can serve any chain and even non-blockchain workloads. Designed for builders, Shelby uses on-chain smart contracts to coordinate and manage storage activity, ensuring full transparency and trustless integrity. Shelby enables developers to store, retrieve data at the same performance as big clouds, while being multiple times cheaper on egress costs. Whether powering DePIN protocols, gaming platforms, AI models, or analytics engines, Shelby is redefining what high performance, read optimized storage can do—bridging protocol-grade architecture with production-ready performance. Built by the collaboration of Aptos and Jump Crypto, Shelby engineers have experience building Facebook infrastructure and Jump’s HFT stack.

The Role

Shelby’s north star metrics are - a) Revenue generated by the protocol and b) Revenue the protocol helps generate. To drive these metrics forward, we’re seeking a Head of Business Development to drive Shelby’s go-to-market motion, own strategic partnerships, and build the commercial foundation of our decentralized storage ecosystem. This is a rare zero-to-one leadership role where you will shape the business trajectory of a protocol from the ground up. 

Responsibilities

1. Go-to-Market Strategy: Define and execute Shelby’s BD strategy across AI, media, and enterprise verticals. Shelby is built for decentralized as well as centralized systems. 
2. Partnerships & Ecosystem Growth: Identify, negotiate, and close high-impact partnerships with protocols, storage providers, enterprises, and large ecosystem players.
3. Revenue & Adoption: Drive adoption of Shelby’s storage solutions by securing design partners, pilot customers, and lighthouse use cases.
4. Market Development: Build a pipeline of opportunities, from strategic accounts to grassroots developer initiatives, balancing near-term wins with long-term ecosystem growth.
5. Cross-Functional Leadership: Work closely with product, engineering, and marketing to ensure commercial feedback informs roadmap, positioning, and technical priorities.
6. Team Building: Lay the foundation for a future BD/growth organization as Shelby scales.

What We’re Looking For

1. 7+ years of experience in sales, business development, partnerships, or strategy roles, ideally within storage, cloud, or related infrastructure.
2. Proven track record of originating, structuring, and closing complex partnerships.
3. Strong network across protocols, enterprise technology, and/or AI ecosystems.
4. Deep understanding of storage, and cloud services blockchain, or adjacent infrastructure.
5. Entrepreneurial mindset with experience scaling early-stage projects from zero to one.
6. Excellent communication, negotiation, and relationship-building skills.

Why Shelby

1. Define the commercial future of a new protocol from day one.
2. Work alongside a world-class founding team with experience scaling Aptos and other industry-defining technologies.
3. Shape how high performance storage powers decentralized systems, AI, and the next wave of internet applications.

Skills

• Business Development
• Communications Skills
• Negotiations Skills
• Strategic Thinking
• Team Collaboration