Location: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Type: Full-time
The Ethereum Institute is a nonprofit focused on accelerating institutional adoption of Ethereum. We engage with leading financial institutions, market infrastructure providers, and industry participants to advance understanding and real-world use of Ethereum-based systems.
We are seeking a Head of MENA to lead our institutional presence across the Middle East and North Africa. This role is focused on building deep relationships within traditional finance, driving high-quality market engagement, and positioning Ethereum as foundational infrastructure for the next generation of financial services in the region. Abu Dhabi is a strong base for the role given its concentration of major institutional investors, including sovereign capital, as well as its established digital-assets ecosystem.
Key Responsibilities
- Build and maintain senior relationships across MENA-based financial institutions, including banks, asset managers, sovereign wealth funds, quasi-sovereign entities, family offices, market infrastructure providers, and fintech firms.
- Act as the Institute's lead representative in MENA across industry events, private roundtables, workshops, and executive forums.
- Design and deliver workshops, briefings, and tailored sessions for institutional audiences exploring Ethereum use cases, including tokenization, stablecoins, payments, and onchain finance.
- Identify and develop strategic partnerships that advance institutional engagement with Ethereum across the region.
- Translate institutional needs and market feedback into insights that inform the Institute's global strategy.
- Support the development of high-quality content and thought leadership targeting institutional audiences in MENA.
- Collaborate with ecosystem participants, including infrastructure providers, researchers, and application-layer teams, to connect institutions with relevant builders.
- Contribute to fundraising and sponsorship efforts, particularly with MENA-based partners and donors.
Candidate Profile
- 10+ years of experience in traditional finance, such as banking, asset management, capital markets, payments, or financial infrastructure.
- Strong understanding of institutional workflows, products, and client dynamics across the region.
- Meaningful exposure to digital assets and Web3, with a clear view on Ethereum's role in financial markets.
- Based in Abu Dhabi, or willing to relocate, with strong existing networks across the UAE and broader MENA financial ecosystem.
- Established credibility with senior stakeholders and proven ability to originate and develop strategic relationships and partnerships.
- Strong communication and presentation skills, with experience engaging executive audiences.
- Self-directed and entrepreneurial, comfortable operating in a lean and fast-evolving environment.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience working on digital-asset initiatives within a financial institution, fintech, or market infrastructure business.
- Familiarity with Ethereum ecosystem tooling and key infrastructure layers, including custody, staking, L2s, and tokenization stacks.
- Track record of convening institutional audiences through events, roundtables, workshops, or working groups.
- Commercial instinct and ability to identify high-impact opportunities for ecosystem growth.
- Experience engaging sovereign wealth funds, sovereign platforms, or government-linked investment institutions is a strong plus, particularly in the Gulf where sovereign capital plays an outsized role in regional market development.
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