Fractional Business Development Lead-San Francisco AI Ecosystem

About the role

We're looking for a fractional business development lead based in San Francisco to help Arkadium build relationships in the AI ecosystem and create new partnership opportunities.

What You'll Do

• Build and manage relationships across the San Francisco AI community
• Attend industry events, meetups, dinners, and conferences regularly
• Identify and engage high-value contacts at AI labs, startups, and adjacent companies
• Create introductions that lead to partnership and business development opportunities
• Help Arkadium navigate complex organizations and find the right internal teams
• Conduct targeted outreach and consistent follow-up with prospects
• Share market feedback and intelligence from conversations in the ecosystem
• Coincide closely with Arkadium leadership on target accounts, messaging, and priorities

Requirements

• Deeply embedded in the San Francisco tech and AI scene
• A natural networker who is highly proactive and comfortable with outbound outreach
• Strong at follow-up, relationship management, and moving conversations forward
• Commercially minded and motivated by results
• Able to understand technical concepts well enough to communicate credibly with AI teams
• Likely comes from business development, partnerships, startup sales, or ecosystem roles
• Comfortable operating independently in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment
• Ideal Background: Existing relationships across the San Francisco AI/startup ecosystem, experience in tech sales, partnerships, business development, or founder-facing ecosystem work, familiarity with AI labs, model companies, tooling startups, or developer platforms, experience working in or around emerging technology markets, strong communication skills in both in-person and digital outreach settings