For a while, I played an evil hobgoblin paladin in a Westmarches campaign based around an adventurer’s guild. He took on all the most dangerous missions, built up a reputation for protecting his allies, and even did administrative work for the guild (meaning I read all the debriefs and organized them into new missions on a trello board.) The long con here was to become a leader in the adventurer’s league, get the ability to send other adventurers on missions, then create a mission to destroy a dangerous cult. The cult was actually just a settlement of humans who had settled in a castle keep that his tribe had previously invaded and taken over.

The evil portion of the character didn’t preclude him from doing good things, rather, a long standing reputation of trustworthiness was key to his success.