Head of Sales Search Delivery - Global Derivatives Exchange

Mandate: Head of Sales

The individual needed to lead institutional sales for the exchange, build senior relationships across hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, market makers and liquidity providers, and convert those relationships into onboarded volume.

The role required someone with the ability to engage and win commercial commitment from firms at the centre of digital asset derivatives trading, including quant funds, systematic trading desks, OTC and prime brokerage relationships, and the market makers responsible for order book depth.

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The challenge: The talent pool was highly specific.

The exchange needed a sales leader who could do far more than manage a book of accounts. They needed someone who could:

• Speak fluently to margining, liquidation engines, order book depth and derivatives market structure
• Build trust with quant funds, prop trading desks and institutional allocators who trade on credibility, not pitch decks
• Convert relationships into onboarded volume and sustained trading activity
• Navigate a global regulatory environment spanning multiple jurisdictions
• Operate with the speed and precision institutional trading counterparties expect
• Represent the exchange in front of the firms that decide where liquidity goes

This required a rare combination of market structure fluency, institutional relationship depth and commercial execution.

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Outcome 

We successfully placed the Head of Sales, who went on to lead the exchange's institutional growth strategy.

The hire onboarded a meaningful base of new institutional accounts, including hedge funds, proprietary trading firms and market makers, and drove a material increase in institutional trading volume within the first two quarters.

The placement had a direct impact on the exchange's liquidity depth and market share, strengthening its position against competing venues for institutional order flow.

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Impact 

This was a liquidity critical leadership hire where the right person made a measurable difference.

The successful candidate was not simply a relationship manager. They understood that in derivatives, sales and market structure are the same discipline: the ability to bring in volume depends on the ability to speak credibly about risk, margining and execution.

For organisations hiring a Head of Sales, Head of Institutional Distribution or senior commercial leader in exchange or trading infrastructure, this is where the quality of the search matters.

The best institutional sales leaders in derivatives are rarely active applicants. They are already managing desk relationships, running books and building credibility elsewhere.

Our expertise is finding those people, qualifying them against real market structure knowledge, and understanding who can genuinely move volume.

A highly targeted institutional sales search delivered with speed, precision and access to talent others would struggle to reach.

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