BDR Manager

Sona; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 75,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Salary £75,000–£85,000 + bonus

Hybrid - 3 days in London office

Share options

35 days annual leave

Pension contributions matched to 5%

Health insurance

Parental leave & pay

Home office budget

Team retreats

Development budget

Books

Job summary

Sona is hiring a frontline Business Development Manager to lead our upmarket BDR team as we scale across Europe and North America. This hands-on player-coach role puts you in the trenches, coaching reps in real time while shaping the outbound strategy and playbook.

You’ll own the day-to-day rhythm, pipeline reviews, and AI-enabled targeting, partnering with Sales, Marketing, and Product to drive growth. Hybrid across London-based offices as needed.

Qualifications

• Coaches BDRs day to day and promotes reps.
• Leads BDRs prospecting into upmarket accounts.
• Credible on the phone and in the data.
• Built BDR team playbooks from the ground up.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and develop a team of BDRs prospecting upmarket.
• Lead from the front and model the call quality and messaging.
• Build and run the team's operating rhythm: targets, KPIs, dashboards, cadences and reporting.
• Own and evolve the BDR playbook and upmarket outbound motions.
• Hire, onboard and ramp new BDRs and manage performance.
• Create progression pathways for BDRs into their next roles.
• Embed AI into the BDR workflow to sharpen targeting and outreach.
• Partner with AE, Marketing and Product to align pipeline generation with priorities.

Skills

Team leadership

BDR coaching

Data-driven

Outbound sales

AI in sales

Tools

Lemlist

Clay

Job description

About the Role

We're hiring a frontline Business Development Manager to lead our upmarket BDR team as Sona scales across Europe and North America. This is a hands-on player-coach role: you'll be in the call blocks, in the data, and in the room coaching reps in real time, setting the standard for what great outbound looks like.

You'll own the day-to-day running of the team: the operating rhythm, the coaching, the pipeline reviews, and the playbook that turns a promising function into a genuine growth engine. You'll work closely with Sales, Marketing and Product to point pipeline generation at the right opportunities, and embed AI into how BDRs work.

This isn't a role for someone who needs an established machine to step into. You'll be building and shaping as you go, and creating the pathways that help BDRs grow into their next roles.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and develop a team of BDRs prospecting upmarket, through regular 1:1s, live call coaching, pipeline reviews and development plans

• Lead from the front: prospect alongside the team and model the call quality, messaging and standard you expect

• Build and run the team's operating rhythm: targets, KPIs, dashboards, cadences and reporting

• Own and evolve the BDR playbook, including upmarket outbound motions, multi-threading and account-based prospecting

• Hire, onboard and ramp new BDRs, and manage performance

• Build clear progression pathways for BDRs into their next roles

• Embed AI into the BDR workflow to sharpen targeting, outreach and team productivity

• Partner with Account Executives, Marketing and Product to align pipeline generation with business priorities

Requirements

• You've coached BDRs day to day, and can point to reps you've developed and promoted

• You've managed BDRs prospecting into upmarket accounts

• You lead from the front: you're credible on the phone and in the data

• You've built a BDR team playbooks from the ground up, designing and implementing a operating model, and you can show it with specific examples

• You bring a B2B SaaS or high-growth scale up background, and you're comfortable with the pace, ambiguity and ownership that comes with it

• You're numbers-driven and run your team on data and metrics, not instinct

• You can foster an in office culture

• Bonus: experience in or selling into Hospitality, Care or Retail; hands-on experience using AI in an outbound workflow; familiarity with Lemlist, Clay or similar tools; or having built a BDR-to-AE progression pathway

Benefits

• Salary: £75,000 - £85,000 + bonus (depending on experience) - to be confirmed

• Hybrid - minimum 3 days per week in the London office

• Share options

• 35 days annual leave (25 days standard plus 10 flexible public holiday days)

• Extra day of leave for every year of service

• Pension contributions matched up to 5%

• Comprehensive health insurance

• Enhanced parental leave & pay

• Co-working space stipend for those based outside London

• Bi-annual all expenses paid team retreats

• The latest Macbook and equipment budget for your home office

• Professional development budget

• Unlimited free books

Note: this represents a typical benefits package for a UK-based, full-time employee. Exact details may vary based on location and employment type but we try to be as fair as possible to all of our team members. Please ask your contact in the Talent team to clarify the available benefits for you.