Who We Are

The Solana Foundation is a non-profit based in Zug, Switzerland, dedicated to the adoption, decentralization, and security of the Solana network. Solana is a high performance blockchain that can deliver a fast and friendly user experience, without sacrificing security. The Solana Foundation is working to realize a world where individuals own their data, use permissionless networks, and transfer information and value freely around the world. We are looking for talented people who are willing to jump right in and use their expertise to help the ecosystem build.

The Opportunity

Solana Foundation is seeking a DeFi Growth Lead, Americas to support in developing and executing the DeFi growth strategy.

This role is primarily partnerships and growth-execution focused; you'll spend the majority of your time on supporting Solana native DeFi protocols with their GTM and growth strategies. The ideal candidate has deep DeFi fluency and a track record of moving the numbers that matter: TVL, volume, and institutional adoption.

To be successful in this role

You will:

• Be the primary day-to-day contact for DeFi venues on Solana — Work both startups and established teams to establish GTM strategy and help them in execution.

• Execute liquidity and incentive programs — Design the mechanics with DeFi or DeFi related teams, model payout-to-outcome before committing spend, run the program and craft data driven insights to help with subsequent programs.
  

• Source and qualify institutional counterparties — Desks, market makers, allocators, issuers. Bring qualified opportunities to the table and work with the rest of the DeFi and Trading team to onboard.
  

• Own the delivery of the core DeFi metrics — TVL, volume, desks onboarded, program ROI against internal targets.
  

• Feed the deal pipeline — Surface interesting and unique opportunities to the team often and be confident in thinking outside the box.

You ideally have:

Deep DeFi fluency — you understand DeFi deeply and how incentives transmit into volume and TVL; you hold your own with protocol founders and operators with traditional finance backgrounds.

A track record of moving numbers — you've run growth or BD at a protocol, exchange, market maker, or fund and can point to TVL, volume, or adoption you were directly responsible for.

Institutional credibility — you've sat across from allocators, market makers, or issuers and closed.

Comfort owning protocol relationships as your primary surface, since that's where this seat spends most of its time.

An operator mindset — you ship, and you're a global operator based in the US, able to run the Americas and coordinate across EU and APAC hours

Who We Are

The Solana Foundation is a non-profit based in Zug, Switzerland, dedicated to the adoption, decentralization, and security of the Solana network. Solana is a high performance blockchain that can deliver a fast and friendly user experience, without sacrificing security. The Solana Foundation is working to realize a world where individuals own their data, use permissionless networks, and transfer information and value freely around the world. We are looking for talented people who are willing to jump right in and use their expertise to help the ecosystem build.

The Mandate

The Bay Area is the global center of gravity for AI, venture capital, and the builders defining the next decade of technology. Solana Foundation is making it a strategic priority — and we are looking for a senior leader to own it, end to end.

As GM, AI Ecosystem, you will be the Foundation's most senior presence in Silicon Valley and the single point of accountability for Solana's growth in the region. This is not a community or events role with a bigger title. You will set regional strategy, control a dedicated budget, make funding decisions that seed new teams and initiatives, and personally carry the relationships that determine whether the most ambitious companies of this cycle build on Solana — or somewhere else.

Your defining mandate is to bridge Solana and the AI & emerging tech worlds. The convergence of AI and crypto — agents that transact, decentralized compute, verifiable inference, machine-to-machine payments — is one of the most consequential frontiers in technology, and it is being built here. You will be the person who convinces the people building it that Solana is the chain to build it on, and who turns that conviction into shipped products.

This is a high-autonomy, high-visibility, capital-backed leadership role. Physical presence in the Bay Area is a hard requirement.

What You'll Own

• Regional strategy and outcomes. Own Solana Foundation's entire strategy and presence in the Bay Area. You set the priorities, and you are accountable for the results.

• The AI × Solana bridge. Build deep relationships across the AI/ML startup, research, and infrastructure communities, and make the case — credibly and technically — for building cutting-edge AI products and use cases on Solana. Convert that conviction into real projects.

• Founder and developer ecosystem. Identify, cultivate, and activate the region's strongest builders, turning them into long-term Solana ecosystem participants.

• VC and capital relationships. Build trusted relationships with the Bay Area's top VCs, accelerators, and incubators to drive high-quality deal flow and co-investment into the Solana ecosystem.

• Flagship presence. Set the regional event strategy — hackathons, founder dinners, technical salons, and marquee side events at major conferences — and hold a bar of quality that matches the caliber of people you're trying to attract.

• Strategic partnerships. Forge partnerships across AI, fintech, and consumer tech that create compounding leverage for Solana's reach and narrative.

• Voice of the region. Represent the Foundation in high-stakes conversations with investors, founders, and press, and feed sharp market intelligence back to global leadership to shape Solana's broader strategy.

Who You Are

• A senior operator with a decade or more across venture capital, ecosystem leadership, company founding or scaling, product or growth at a top-tier technology organization — with a track record others can point to.

• Deeply networked in the Bay Area, with real, earned relationships among founders, investors, and operators that you can activate from day one.

• Fluent in both worlds: you understand crypto and Solana, and you can hold a substantive conversation with AI founders and researchers about what they're building and why it matters.

• The judgment of a capital allocator: you tell signal from noise quickly, concentrate on the few relationships and bets that compound, and deploy resources where they'll matter most.

• An exceptional communicator and closer — the kind of person who earns trust in a single meeting and is remembered after it.

• Comfortable with full ownership and ambiguity: you create your own surface area, set your own agenda, and don't wait to be told the priorities.

• Based full-time in the San Francisco Bay Area. (Hard requirement.)

Signals You'll Stand Out

• A demonstrated track record at the intersection of AI and crypto — you know where these communities overlap and what each side actually cares about.

• Existing, credible relationships in the AI/ML startup and research community.

• Prior experience deploying capital — grants, investments, or an ecosystem fund — and being accountable for the outcomes.

• Founder or early-operator experience: you know what builders need because you've been one.