Web3 Business Development jobs: How much technical depth do you actually need? (Analyzing a real JD)

Shubhada Pande
Shubhada Pande
@ShubhadaJP
Published: Oct 4, 2026
Updated: Oct 13, 2026
Views: 154

I was looking at an active JD today for a Web3 Business Development Manager at a DeAI/DePIN data protocol, and it brought up a debate we see here a lot: how technical does a BD actually need to be to get deals done?

They are looking for someone to expand their ecosystem. They want 5+ years of traditional Enterprise Data/PaaS or Web3 sales experience, but they also explicitly require a "solid technical foundation" to align partnerships directly with their engineering roadmap.

It highlights the massive gap between traditional Web2 SaaS sales and Web3 partnerships manager responsibilities. It got me thinking:

  1. The Technical Reality: If you are doing BD for infrastructure or data protocols, can you actually close a partnership without being able to read architecture docs or explain consensus models to a CTO?

  2. The Hiring Reality: For the founders here—is it easier to hire a killer Web2 enterprise sales rep and teach them DePIN/DeFi, or hire a Web3 native and teach them pipeline discipline?

Curious to hear from the BDs and founders in the community. What does the day-to-day actually look like for you, and where is the line drawn on technical knowledge?

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  • Merry Thomas
    Merry Thomas Top Contributor

    @Merrythetechie • Oct 5, 2026

    Brilliant teardown. In my view, BD has a different role in technical conversations with a CTO. BD should be comfortable reading architecture docs and following the stack and data flow.

    That understanding helps them spot compatibility issues early, bring the right people into the conversation, and make discussions with engineering teams much more productive.

    For deeper discussions on consensus mechanisms and technical designs, the solutions architect and DevRel can handle them with tech team members.

    2
    Jeevesh Kuril
    Jeevesh Kuril Rising Star

    @jeeveshk • Oct 5, 2026

    100%
    its always easier to close a client when the bd can clearly visualize the partnership before the outreach itself.
    now when the objective is clear, you can pitch cleanly, discuss compatibility and alignment and come to the close them sooner

    1
    Dr. Vinod Krishna Makkimane
    Dr. Vinod Krishna Makkimane

    @cool-yogi • Oct 13, 2026

    I 100% agree. BD needs to have a basic understanding of the underlying technology and how it is going to solve the client's problem. So, he/she needs to grasp what the client is looking for and position the solution accordingly.

    2
  • Jeevesh Kuril
    Jeevesh Kuril Rising Star

    @jeeveshk • Oct 5, 2026

    i feel it really depends on the product we are talking about and the outcome expected from the bd person.
    for the given case "DeAI/DePIN data protocol", yes bds must need to have some techincal understanding of how things work, what's actually happening in the backend, can read the architecture at an overview level to atleast understand hows the flow of data/tokens/assets happen.

    the other case, when the product is like a "Campaign management/Creator platform/NFT marketplace", the bds in this case might not require too deep of a technical understanding and a small brief once when hired is almost enough for them to get started.

    i've always been a bit off at times when on a call with an early bd person and when asked simple technical questions like "and how does the funds flow or how do you take into account for a physical activity to be true [for the depin example]", they couldn't answer and then the call concludes for scheduling another call with devrel/tech lead.
    i mean its fine when we are actually talking real implementation which might require a dedicated tech guy, but when its just share of context and how we could layout the partnership, at those times its a bad signal. the bd must atleast know what we are selling, how its gonna be when integrated, how to answer a few technical question which might be obvious.

    recommendations:
    when leading the bd team and working with interns, i always used to create a "objections and overview" doc, which helped the interns/freshies to go through and answer anything themselves

    2