Director, Ecosystem Growth
Ripple provides crypto and blockchain solutions for enterprises, enabling global financial entities to move, manage, and tokenize value. They focus on improving existing financial systems through partnerships and regulatory compliance, with products used in over 50 countries.
About Ripple
Ripple is an enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions company that aims to enable the world to move value as seamlessly as information moves today. Their mission is to build breakthrough crypto solutions for a world without economic borders. Using blockchain technology, Ripple facilitates global financial institutions, businesses, governments, and developers to move, manage, and tokenize value, thereby unlocking greater economic opportunity. The company works within existing financial systems to improve them, partnering with customers to streamline infrastructure and collaborating with regulators to ensure solutions are secure and compliant. Ripple's products are in commercial use by hundreds of customers across more than 50 countries, helping them expand into new markets, access liquidity solutions, and generate crypto-enabled revenue streams. They also support developers by providing tools for building on the XRP Ledger, a fast and sustainable public blockchain. Ripple’s payments, custody and stablecoin solutions empower financial institutions to integrate blockchain and digital assets into their business in a simple, secure, compliant way—all in one place. From instant payments to asset tokenization, blockchain and crypto are happening right now, across the world. It’s happening to suppliers, to retailers, to exchanges, to currencies, to sectors, to industries, to markets, and to global businesses. And it’s happening with Ripple.
Skills
About the Role
You will lead strategic partnerships with independent ecosystem operators, validator networks, and regional hubs across the US, Europe, APAC, and emerging markets, while guiding DeFi strategy through dedicated external partners. This is a senior, strategic, and hands-on role where you'll set milestones, drive accountability, and align partner outputs across regions to deliver measurable ecosystem growth. You'll design governance frameworks and milestone structures for external partners, guide DeFi ecosystem strategy spanning AMMs, DEXs, lending, and liquidity protocols, and enable independent operators to build vibrant developer, startup, and retail communities. You'll orchestrate multi-regional ecosystem strategy, establish KPIs and scorecards for partner performance, and partner cross-functionally with Product, DevRel, Engineering, Legal, and Executive teams to translate ecosystem insights into strategy recommendations.
Requirements
- 10+ years in ecosystem development, strategic partnerships, DeFi, blockchain infrastructure, or venture building
- 5+ years managing external partnerships, independent organizations, or decentralized networks
- Proven track record leading complex partnership governance and external entity management
- Experience enabling developer programs, accelerators, startup support, and community building at scale
- Director-level experience with strategic decision-making authority
- Deep crypto/blockchain ecosystem experience with strong DeFi fluency
- Strategic partnership management with ability to influence without direct authority
- Deep DeFi knowledge: AMMs, money markets, DEXs, liquidity dynamics, incentive design
- Experience designing developer programs, grants operations, startup frameworks, and community engagement strategies
- Exceptional governance and framework design capabilities
- Data-driven decision making with strong analytical skills
- Cross-cultural competency and experience managing across geographies
- Outstanding communication and comfort navigating ambiguity
Responsibilities
- Manage strategic relationships with independent ecosystem operators, regional hubs, and partner organizations
- Design governance frameworks, milestone structures, and accountability models for external partners
- Set strategic direction while enabling operational autonomy for each entity
- Coordinate cross-entity initiatives to prevent duplication and maximize impact
- Ensure external partner outputs align with RippleX ecosystem priorities
- Guide DeFi ecosystem strategy across external partners with focus on AMMs, DEXs, lending, and liquidity protocols
- Oversee DeFi initiatives requiring market making, liquidity depth, and OTC trading expertise
- Evaluate and prioritize DeFi partnership opportunities based on strategic impact
- Enable independent operators to build and activate developer, startup, and retail communities across regions
- Guide community engagement strategies including meetups, hackathons, and educational content
- Ensure external partners maintain quality community standards while allowing regional adaptation
- Track community health metrics including engagement, sentiment, and conversion to active participants
- Orchestrate ecosystem growth across the US, Europe, APAC, and emerging markets
- Align regional strategies with global priorities while respecting local market dynamics
- Identify white space opportunities and strategic expansion areas
- Establish KPIs, dashboards, and scorecards for external entity performance
- Conduct strategic reviews with ecosystem operator leadership teams
- Identify performance gaps and implement course corrections
- Ensure milestone achievement and budget accountability across entities
- Partner with Product, DevRel, Engineering, Legal, and Executive teams on ecosystem strategy
- Translate ecosystem insights into product and company strategy recommendations
- Produce executive-level reports, opportunity assessments, and long-term roadmaps
- Synthesize partner, community, and market feedback into actionable insights
Benefits
- Professional development budget
- Bi-weekly all-company meeting with Leadership Team
- Team offsites, team bonding activities, happy hours
- Competitive bonuses and equity
- Competitive benefits covering physical and mental healthcare, retirement, family forming, and family support
- Employee giving match
- Mobile phone stipend
- R&R days
- Generous wellness reimbursement and weekly onsite & virtual programming
- Generous vacation policy
- Industry-leading parental leave policies
- Family planning benefits
- Catered lunches, fully-stocked kitchens with premium snacks/beverages