Ethos Life
Business Development Manager
Job Summary
The role involves leading partner acquisition and growth efforts by identifying, negotiating, and managing relationships with organizations such as financial advisors, institutions, nonprofits, and benefit platforms. The candidate will develop a pipeline of potential partners, negotiate deal terms, and serve as the main relationship manager post-signature to ensure partner success. The position requires extensive experience in business development within regulated industries, strong relationship-building skills, and effective communication abilities. Collaboration with marketing, product, and legal teams is essential to align messaging and ensure compliance.
Required Skills
Benefits
Job Description
About Ethos
Ethos was built to make it faster and easier to get life insurance for the next million families. Our approach blends industry expertise, technology, and the human touch to find you the right policy to protect your loved ones.
We leverage deep technology and data science to streamline the life insurance process, making it more accessible and convenient. Using predictive analytics, we are able to transform a traditionally multi-week process into a modern digital experience for our users that can take just minutes! We’ve issued billions in coverage each month and eliminated the traditional barriers, ushering the industry into the modern age. Our full-stack technology platform is the backbone of family financial health.
We make getting life insurance easier, faster and better for everyone.
Our investors include General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Google Ventures, SoftBank, and the investment vehicles of Jay-Z, Kevin Durant, Robert Downey Jr and others. This year, we were named on CB Insights' Global Insurtech 50 list and BuiltIn's Top 100 Midsize Companies in San Francisco. We are scaling quickly and looking for passionate people to protect the next million families!
About the role
We are seeking a dynamic and strategic Business Development Manager to spearhead our partner acquisition and growth initiatives. You will play a key role in identifying, negotiating, and nurturing relationships with organizations that share our mission of helping people plan for the future. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in a highly collaborative, fast-paced, and mission-driven environment.
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Own the Full BD Lifecycle: Identify, qualify, pitch, and close new partnership opportunities across our key verticals:
- Financial advisors and planners
- Financial institutions (banks, credit unions)
- Charitable and nonprofit organizations
- Employer benefit platforms and HR decision-makers
- Build & Maintain a Robust Pipeline: Develop and manage a high-quality funnel of potential partners using a mix of outbound and inbound strategies
- Negotiate & Execute Agreements: Drive terms, contracts, and deal structures that balance partner value with long-term business sustainability
- Manage Partner Success: Serve as the primary relationship manager post-signature to ensure effective onboarding, engagement, and retention
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with marketing, product, and legal teams to align messaging, platform capabilities, and compliance requirements
- Market Intelligence: Track trends across financial services, nonprofit giving, and benefits landscapes to inform BD strategy and targeting
Qualifications and Skills:
- 5–10+ years of business development, partnerships, or strategic sales experience, ideally within fintech, financial services, nonprofit fundraising, or HR tech
- Proven track record of sourcing and closing strategic B2B2C partnerships, particularly in complex or regulated industries
- Excellent relationship-building skills — you know how to navigate multi-stakeholder orgs, influence at all levels, and maintain trust over time
- Strong written and verbal communication — capable of presenting value props clearly to both executive and operational audiences
- Deep curiosity and customer empathy — you understand the pain points of our partners and their end users
- Experience working in a startup or high-growth environment is a plus
- Familiarity with CRM tools (e.g., HubSpot, Salesforce) and reporting dashboards
Bonuses:
- Worked with or sold into RIAs, banks, credit unions, religious orgs, or employee benefits programs
- Exposure to estate planning, wealth management, insurance, or charitable giving tech
- Previous experience with content-based partner marketing or co-branded campaigns
#LI-AG1 #LI-Remote
The US national base salary range for this full-time position is $108,000 - $191,000. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.
Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include applicable bonus, equity, or benefits.
You can find further details of our US benefits at https://www.ethoslife.com/careers/
Don’t meet every single requirement? If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. At Ethos we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace.
We are an equal opportunity employer who values diversity and inclusion and look for applicants who understand, embrace and thrive in a multicultural world. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Pursuant to the SF Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider employment for qualified applicants with arrests and conviction records.
To learn more about what information we collect and how it may be used, please refer to our California Candidate Privacy Notice.
Ethos Life
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