Director of Business Development

About the role

Nothing is building the next generation of consumer technology — AI-native devices with a design-led, challenger brand. The software experiences we're building run on inputs that come from other companies: the models, the compute, the data, and the platform rights underneath every AI feature we ship. Just as our hardware has a supply chain, so does our software — and the deals that secure it shape our product, our economics, and our position in the AI-device ecosystem.

You will own and originate Nothing's software supply chain partnerships, across four fronts:

• AI labs / model access — licensing frontier and challenger models, inference pricing, on-device model rights, first-of-kind integration agreements
• OS & services (Google / Android ecosystem) — platform-level relationships, OS and services agreements, integration and placement terms
• Cloud infrastructure — the multi-year agreements underneath our services: committed-spend structures, credits, and strategic terms that change the margin on every AI interaction
• Data partnerships — the supply, labeling, and licensing agreements that feed Nothing's AI capabilities, including newer and more sensitive data domains as our product roadmap grows

A smaller set of US hardware partnerships also sits with this role, but software is the mandate. These are few-in-number, high-stakes deals with some of the largest technology companies in the world, negotiated from the position of a challenger without incumbent leverage. This is a doing role, not a delegating role: you'll be the architect, the closer, and the person who makes their own materials.

What you'll do

• Define Nothing's software supply chain strategy with the executive team; identify where partnerships beat build-or-buy
• Originate relationships outbound with AI labs, Google/Android, cloud providers, and data partners
• Structure multi-year, platform-level agreements: model access and inference pricing, OS/services terms, cloud commitments, data supply and licensing
• Negotiate and close with senior counterparts, personally owning commercial terms end-to-end
• Land deals that change product economics — inference costs, cloud margins, services revenue per device
• Work as a player-coach across product, engineering, marketing, and finance so partnerships are built into roadmaps, not bolted on
• Operate hands-on with no playbook, no template library, and no big-company legal machine behind you

What we're looking for

Must have

• 8+ years of enterprise / platform business development with named, multi-year strategic deals
• Direct experience negotiating with at least one of: frontier/major AI labs, Google/Android platform teams, or major silicon vendors (Qualcomm, MediaTek, or similar)
• Proven outbound origination: you've created partnerships from cold, ideally from a challenger or lesser-known company where the brand didn't open the door for you
• C-suite deal-making at scale: demonstrated large-deal history, with ownership of commercial and legal terms
• Current, active focus on the North American market
• Deep fluency in the consumer-electronics / device landscape: silicon, OS, AI stack, and how they connect to device economics

Strong plus

• Deals with warrant/equity or non-standard commercial structures
• On-device AI or model-integration deal experience
• 0-to-1 builder: founder, early-team, or built a BD function from scratch
• Genuine affinity for Nothing's brand and design-led, culture-forward mission

Salary Range: $220-300K