Location: North America, Europe, Africa

VP, Business Development

About the company: 

The mining industry has steadily become worse at finding new ore deposits, requiring >10X more capital to make discoveries compared to 30 years ago. The easy-to-find, near-surface deposits have largely been found, and the industry has chronically under-invested in new exploration technology, relying on the manual techniques of yesteryear – even as demand accelerates for copper, lithium, and other metals to build electric vehicles, renewable energy, and data centers.

KoBold builds AI models for mineral exploration and deploys those models—alongside our novel sensors—to guide decisions on KoBold-owned-and-operated exploration programs. In the six years since founding, KoBold has become by far both the largest independent mineral exploration company and the largest exploration technology developer. Our data scientists and software engineers, who come from leading technology companies, jointly lead exploration programs with our renowned exploration geologists.

KoBold has proven its first discovery with materially less capital than the industry average and found one of the best copper deposits ever discovered: the copper is far more concentrated than the global average of copper mines, and this asset alone is expected to generate meaningful revenue for decades. KoBold has a portfolio of more than 60 other projects, each of which has the potential for another high-quality discovery.

KoBold is privately held; investors include institutional asset managers T. Rowe Price and Canada Pension Plan Investments; technology venture capitalists Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BOND Capital, Durable Capital, StepStone, and Standard Investments; and natural resources companies Equinor, BHP, and Mitsubishi.

About The Role:

In this role, you will lead KoBold’s business development efforts to secure compelling exploration rights, development stage assets, and mining assets held by other parties. You will lead a team that will execute many of the deals, you will lead many leads yourself, and for select transactions, you will support the CEO, President, Africa CEO, or COO in deal-making. This position will report to the KoBold Chief Operating Officer.

To be effective in this role, you will need to be able to:

• Represent KoBold with Counterparties: You will need to effectively and persuasively represent and promote KoBold with potential counterparties. This will include developing a deep understanding and appreciation for the principles by which KoBold operates, describing KoBold technology to suit varied audiences and circumstances, and creating relationships that positively reflect on the company.

• Coordinate and Absorb Technical Underwriting: You will coordinate technical underwriting and need to understand the technical underpinning of each opportunity, whether it is the geologic evaluation of a greenfield prospect, or the key development risks for an investment into a mine development opportunity. You will approach technical underwriting from a first principles basis (i.e., using bottoms-up valuations and not relying on heuristics or rules-of-thumb).

• Develop and Communicate Commercial Positions: You will build (or support team members in building) commercial offerings and/or negotiating positions based on the technical underwriting cases. This will include preparation of term sheets, counter-proposals, and the constructive and persuasive framing of KoBold’s commercial positions in both written and oral communications.

• Review Contracts: Working with KoBold’s legal team, you will review draft definitive agreements and manage negotiation of commercial matters required to complete transactions. In time, you will be the final reviewer of contracts from a commercial perspective.

• Conduct Due Diligence: In parallel to working through definitive documentation, you’ll manage the risk-based due diligence required to sign and close definitive agreements, including overseeing preparation of internal investment memoranda.

• Cultivate and Manage Commercial Relationships: Throughout, you’ll develop and maintain relationships with key counterparties, including through the operational phases of projects. You’ll work to identify the key motivations behind counterparties, use this understanding to structure effective deals, and anticipate issues as circumstances evolve. You’ll work with the team to oversee the Kobold relationship management database.

Qualifications and Experience:

A great VP of Business Development candidate will have:

• BA/BS in the physical sciences, engineering, mathematics, economics (BA/BS or more advanced degrees in geology, mine engineering, or related disciplines is preferred)
• 10+ years in business development experience (experience within the natural resource and/or infrastructure project development preferred)
• Experience with economic modeling
• Regardless of formal training, a strong interest in and/or strong intuition for the physical sciences, inclination to work from first principles, and desire to understand technical underpinning of commercial transactions.

KoBold Metals is an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunities for people of any race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, age, citizenship, disability, or veteran status.

This position is full-time, exempt.

The full time exempt salary for this position is: $250,000-$350,000. Meaningful equity incentives.

About the Company 

The mining industry has steadily become worse at finding new ore deposits, requiring >10X more capital to make discoveries compared to 30 years ago. The easy-to-find, near-surface deposits have largely been found, and the industry has chronically under-invested in new exploration technology, relying on the manual techniques of yesteryear – even as demand accelerates for copper, lithium, and other metals to build electric vehicles, renewable energy, and data centers.

KoBold builds AI models for mineral exploration and deploys those models—alongside our novel sensors—to guide decisions on KoBold-owned-and-operated exploration programs. In the eight years since founding, KoBold has become by far both the largest independent mineral exploration company and the largest exploration technology developer. Our data scientists and software engineers, who come from leading technology companies, jointly lead exploration programs with our renowned exploration geologists.

KoBold has proven its first discovery with materially less capital than the industry average and found one of the best copper deposits ever discovered: the copper is far more concentrated than the global average of copper mines, and this asset alone is expected to generate meaningful revenue for decades. KoBold has a portfolio of more than 60 other projects, each of which has the potential for another high-quality discovery.

KoBold is privately held; investors include institutional asset managers T. Rowe Price and Canada Pension Plan Investments; technology venture capitalists Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BOND Capital, Durable Capital, StepStone, and Standard Investments; and natural resources companies Equinor, BHP, and Mitsubishi.

About the Role

We're looking for a sharp, systems-minded Executive Assistant to support two C-suite executives at KoBold while also owning a meaningful operational responsibility: coordinating our company-wide Ethics Share program. This is not a role for someone who primarily keeps calendars tidy—it's for someone who can manage competing priorities, take initiative on complex multi-stakeholder workflows, and represent the company's values with every interaction.

You'll be embedded in a fast-moving, Slack-first culture where things change quickly and attention to detail is the difference between smooth and chaotic. You'll be trusted with sensitive information, high-visibility communications, and a recurring program that touches every employee at KoBold.

Responsibilities

Executive Support

• Own complex, frequently shifting calendars for two C-level executives
• Coordinate meetings across time zones; manage last-minute changes without losing composure
• Arrange domestic and international travel—flights, hotels, ground transport—and handle changes quickly
• Prepare agendas and briefing materials so executives walk into every meeting ready
• Take notes and track follow-ups when requested
• Handle expense reports, approvals, and administrative tasks with speed and accuracy
• Triage inbound requests and route communications through Slack and other tools

Ethics Share Coordination

• Partner with internal stakeholders to identify and develop timely Ethics Share topics aligned to KoBold's company pillars
• Manage a multi-step review and approval process involving presenters, leadership, and founders
• Coordinate scheduling, slide preparation, and content review across multiple stakeholders
• Ensure final presentations are polished, approved, and ready for company-wide all-hands delivery

Qualifications

You're the kind of person who builds the system before anyone asks you to. You read a process and immediately start thinking about how to track it, who needs a reminder, and what could go wrong at step three. You've supported executives long enough to know what they need before they ask, and you've worked in environments fast-paced enough that "figure it out" is just Tuesday.

You communicate with precision—short, clear, no fluff—because you know everyone around you is busy. You're a natural relationship-builder who earns trust quickly and protects it fiercely. You treat sensitive information like it was your own.

You bring positive energy to every collaboration and have a natural ability to motivate and enthuse the people around you, even when the work is demanding or the timeline is tight. You have a sunny disposition that's genuinely yours—you bring good energy because that's just who you are, not because everything is always perfect. You understand that you're often the messenger in the middle, and you don't take a curt Slack reply personally—you know it's not about you.

You also care about doing things the right way. The Ethics Share work isn't just a logistics task to you—it's a program that matters, and you'll bring the same care to a slide deck review that you bring to booking a last-minute international flight.

Minimum Qualifications

• Based in the Eastern Time Zone
• 7+ years supporting senior executives, ideally two or more simultaneously, in a fast-moving environment
• Exceptional organizational and project management skills—you've owned multi-step workflows with multiple stakeholders before
• Flawless attention to detail; you're the person who catches the typo in the deck title
• Comfortable in real-time communication tools (Slack preferred) and quick to learn new systems
• Already experimenting with AI, or excited to learn
• Professional, discreet, and unflappable under pressure
• Available evenings and weekends when the situation calls for it
• Team player who will pitch in beyond your immediate scope when needed

Preferred

• Experience in a high-growth startup or technology company
• Familiarity with coordinating company-wide programs or all-hands events
• Comfort working across time zones with global teams

KoBold Metals is an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunities for people of any race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, age, citizenship, disability, or veteran status.

This position is Full-Time

The US base salary range for this full-time exempt position is $120,000-$140,000, plus equity and benefits including 401k matching.

Location: Remote, but must be East Coast-based