Business Development Lead

About Us The digital asset ecosystem, a multi-trillion-dollar market, is expanding at an unprecedented pace. This growth has outpaced the insurance industry's ability to provide the sophisticated risk mitigation strategies necessary for institutional adoption. With only 1 to 2 percent of total digital assets currently insured, a significant gap exists, driven by a lack of industry expertise, insufficient capacity, and products ill-suited for the unique, convergent risks of this space. Soter was established to solve this problem. We are not simply filling a gap, we are architecting the future of risk management for the future of finance. Backed by industry leaders including Galaxy Digital, Further Ventures, Brevan Howard Digital Assets, Coinbase and Franklin Templeton, and regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) and with a growing presence in the DIFC, Soter writes specialty cover across D&O, Professional Indemnity, Crime, Specie, Slashing and Cyber for digital asset risks. Our portfolio includes the world's first hybrid USD-BTC denominated policies and specialised ETH-denominated slashing coverage. Your Role The Business Development Lead, in partnership with the Director of Underwriting, MENA, own Soter's distribution and market development strategy across the Middle East North African region. Operating within DIFC, this role will develop and grow Soter's relationships with international and regional specialty brokers and with clients. They will drives qualified submissions, and will serve as the face of Soter across the region. Key Impact - Build the distribution network. Identify, onboard, and manage a panel of international and regional specialty brokers across MENA, while also developing relationships with insureds from digital-asset firms and financial institutions to corporates seeking specialty cover. Establish Soter as a preferred capacity partner across the region. - Source and drive submission flow. Generate opportunities from both broker channels and direct clients and route them to the appropriate Soter underwriting team. Maintain a CRM-tracked MENA submission pipeline, reporting weekly to the Head of Underwriting. - Educate the market. Provide product training, technology walk-throughs, and thought leadership to brokers and clients alike, and channel their feedback to Soter. Convert Soter's deep technical knowledge of digital asset risk into distribution capability across the region. - Represent Soter at industry level. Speak on panels and at industry forums across the region (Token2049 Dubai, Dubai FinTech Summit, Abu Dhabi Finance Week, Proof of Talk, Further Ventures Summit, GITEX, Money 20/20, Seamless Middle East, and equivalents) on digital asset risk, custody architecture, and specialty insurance evolution. Engage with regional regulators and industry bodies (DFSA, VARA, FSRA, CMA, CBUAE, and equivalents across Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Turkey and other jurisdictions) on industry-level initiatives, in coordination with the broader Soter team. - Provide market feedback. Channel broker and client feedback into action within Soter's product development and underwriting strategy. Identify emerging risks and product opportunities across DeFi, tokenisation, Layer-2 infrastructure, and institutional custody. - Build the regional platform. Help shape the strategic direction of Soter's MENA operation, including the evolution from an insurance intermediation office toward an MGA or coverholder structure, and the scaling of the regional team. Engage with local carriers and identify fronting partnership opportunities that allow Soter to issue policies to local insureds quickly and compliantly. What You Bring - Proven distribution leadership. At least five years of specialty financial lines experience across MENA. Established relationships with the global broking houses (Marsh, Aon, WTW, Howden, Lockton, Gallagher) and with regional brokers, and a track record of credible engagement with clients directly (with crypto-native focus a plus). - Multi-line expertise. Demonstrated ability to distribute or place Soter's lines of business: D&O, PI, Crime, Specie, Slashing, and Cyber. A specialty financial lines background is a strong plus, and digital asset domain experience is highly valued. - Digital asset literacy. A working understanding of digital asset risks (custody architecture, MPC and HSM-based key management, exchange operations, staking and slashing mechanics, DeFi protocol risk, bridge risk, tokenisation), enough to credibly engage with broker specialty teams and clients and to contribute to product evolution. - Systematic thinking. The ability to think across product lines, jurisdictions, and risk types. The digital asset insurance market requires holistic risk architecture, not single-product distribution. - Communication and presence. Excellent communication skills and the technical literacy to hold one's own in discussions with CTOs, custody architects, broker placement leads, and regulators. Comfortable being the public face of the company on stage and in the room. - Language and location. Fluent English is essential and Arabic is strongly preferred given the client and regulatory engagement across the region. French is a plus for North African markets. Based in or willing to relocate to Dubai, with the right to work in the UAE or the eligibility to obtain a UAE employment visa sponsored by Soter’s UAE entity. Regular travel across the GCC and the wider MENA region should be expected. Working at Soter We take a people-first approach to how we build this company, including: - Competitive Compensation Packages - Equity incentives - Learning & development opportunities - Full medical coverage for employees and their families - Ownership and autonomy in how you do your work