Business Development Manager - AI Partnerships

We're looking for a highly driven Business Development Manager to lead market development and partnership efforts around our AI product suite — including virtual try-on , API licensing , and real-time digital human / avatar technologies. This is not a traditional order-taking sales role: it's a market-building role. You will be responsible for discovering and validating brand-new use cases and verticals where our technology creates real value, then translating those opportunities into commercial partnerships from scratch.

You'll work cross-functionally with product, engineering, and leadership to turn open-ended market opportunities into concrete deal structures, and you'll be a key face of the company to external partners — including in the Chinese-speaking market.

What You'll Do

Explore and open up new market segments and use cases for our virtual try-on, API, and real-time digital human/avatar products — going beyond obvious verticals (e-commerce, fashion) to identify where else the technology can create value (e.g. livestreaming/social commerce, gaming, education, customer service, entertainment, enterprise tools)

Proactively research adjacent industries, emerging AI application trends, and unmet needs to generate a pipeline of net-new partnership hypotheses — not just respond to inbound demand

Match market needs to our actual product capabilities — work backward from what a target industry or partner actually needs, and forward from what our technology can realistically deliver today, to shape a solution that sits at the intersection of the two (rather than over-promising or forcing a generic pitch)

Design and run scrappy market tests / pilot partnerships to validate a new use case before scaling it into a repeatable sales motion

Identify, prospect, and build a pipeline of potential partners and clients once a promising vertical or scenario is identified

Drive end-to-end deal cycles for validated use cases — from outreach to negotiation to signed contract

Develop and manage API partnership deals with platforms and developers who want to integrate our technology

Build and maintain strong relationships with decision-makers (product, business development, and executive stakeholders) at partner companies

Represent the company at industry events, conferences, and partner meetings (domestic and international, including Greater China market when relevant)

Work closely with product and engineering teams to relay market/partner feedback and directly shape the product/API roadmap based on what you learn in the field

Track market trends and competitor activity in AI-generated content, virtual fitting, and digital human technology to spot the next opportunity early

Consistently hit and exceed pipeline, new-vertical, and revenue targets

Who You Are

3+ years of experience in business development, partnerships, or market development — ideally in AI, SaaS, API products, e-commerce tech, or related fields

A market builder, not just a deal closer — you're energized by ambiguity, and genuinely enjoy figuring out "who could use this and how" before a playbook exists

Extremely driven, hungry, and self-motivated — you proactively go find the opportunity rather than waiting for a defined territory or inbound leads

Strong ability to translate an emerging technology's capabilities into concrete, industry-specific use cases that a potential partner would actually pay for

Able to reason from both directions — starting from a market/industry's real pain points, and starting from what our product can technically do — and land on a solution that’s honest about current capabilities while still solving a real problem

Strong communicator with excellent negotiation and relationship-building skills

Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, ambiguous startup environment and wearing multiple hats

Genuine interest in AI, computer vision, generative media, or virtual/digital human technology

Mandarin Chinese fluency strongly preferred — this is a business-driven preference tied to communicating with partners and stakeholders in the Chinese-speaking market, not a requirement of national origin

Based in or willing to work from the San Francisco Bay Area

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience

Nice to Have

Existing network in fashion/e-commerce, retail tech, or AIGC (AI-generated content) ecosystems

Prior experience selling technical/API products to developer or enterprise audiences

Why Join Us

Ground-floor opportunity to shape go-to-market strategy for next-generation AI products

High autonomy, high ownership, direct access to leadership

Work at the intersection of AI, fashion tech, and digital human innovation

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