Director of Business Development

Roboticsconnected

Greater London

On-site

GBP 90,000 - 150,000

Full time

14 days+

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Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary + equity

4 days/week in-person culture

Annual learning & development budget

Health, dental, and vision coverage

Frequent travel across US, London & EU

Bi-annual offsites & monthly socials

Job summary

Encord is seeking a Commercial Associate growth leader to own how we generate pipeline and to build a scalable CA program that powers our growth engine. You’ll own the outbound motion, design hiring and onboarding, and mentor managers who coach CAs and future commercial leaders.

You’ll help ensure AI teams—from growth-stage startups to Fortune 500s—understand how Encord can help bring their AI applications to market, while maintaining autonomy to expand the sales engine across markets and

Qualifications

5+ years in B2B SaaS or technology sales, incl. 2+ years leading sales or BD teams
Proven track record building or scaling SDR/BDR functions with measurable pipeline impact
Experience hiring, developing and promoting early-career talent into AE or other roles
Experience prospecting technical buyers (engineers, ML practititioners, data scientists)
Fluency with outbound tooling and AI-enabled prospecting workflows; familiarity with CRM tools and structured qualification
Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience

Responsibilities

Own and scale pipeline generation end-to-end with Sales, Marketing and CS leadership
Build the CA program: hiring framework, onboarding, training and growth paths
Hire, develop and lead managers who coach CAs
Set operating system: ICP, qualification standards, territory design, tooling, metrics and forecasting
Strengthen CA and AE collaboration for live deals and smooth handoffs
Balance scaling with exploring new campaigns, messaging and channels
Create CA to AE path and broader commercial leadership development
Stay close to the market; join calls, run campaigns and coach in practice
Report on funnel health and develop plans to close gaps to leadership

Skills

B2B SaaS sales

Leadership of sales teams

SDR/BDR scaling

Outbound prospecting

CRM familiarity (Salesforce, HubSpot)

Qualification methodologies

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Salesforce

HubSpot

Job description

ABOUT US

We're solving AI's hardest problem: alignment.

Encord is the data layer for Physical AI and enterprise, serving as core infrastructure for 300+ of the world's leading AI teams, including Woven by Toyota, Hitachi, Skydio, AbbVie and Dyna, Walden and Agility Robotics. From autonomous vehicles and robotics to sports and healthcare, we're solving AI's hardest problem: turning complex, real-world data into production-ready intelligent systems.

We're a team of founders, scientists, quants, researchers, and former Olympians, who've helped build some of the most successful companies in Silicon Valley, and alumni of MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial. We've raised $110M from legendary technology investors, early backers of companies like Databricks, ElevenLabs and Vercel, and we're growing at an extraordinary pace.

We're looking for exceptional people who want to help build a category-defining company, operating with high urgency and taking real ownership to help shape the future of AI.

The role

You'll be the driving force behind Encord's growth engine, owning how we generate pipeline and building the Commercial Associate (CA) program that powers it. Our CAs aren't traditional SDRs. They own their territory, build their own playbook, and learn by sitting on live deals alongside our senior sellers. As Director, you'll make that model scalable as Encord grows, across teams, markets and managers.

You'll be obsessively focused on making sure the leading AI teams, from exciting growth-stage startups to F500 organizations, know how Encord can help them bring their AI applications to market, and why they should choose to work with us. You'll have the autonomy to build the engine and the leaders to keep achieving our targets.

What you'll do

Own and scale our pipeline generation machine end to end, working closely with Sales, Marketing and Customer Success leadership and Encord's co-founders to take our outbound motion to the next level
Build the CA program to scale: the hiring framework, onboarding, training, and growth paths that keep it working as the team grows
Hire, develop and lead managers who coach CAs day to day, and develop the next generation of Encord's commercial leaders
Set the operating system for the team: ICP, qualification standards, territory design, tooling (including AI-enabled prospecting), metrics and forecasting
Strengthen the partnership between CAs and Account Executives, so associates learn from live deals and hand off cleanly
Balance scaling what's working with finding new growth curves: new campaigns, messaging, channels and growth hacks to test
Create the path from CA to AE and wider commercial leadership, and keep retaining, developing and promoting top talent
Stay close to the market, hands-on where it helps: joining calls, running campaigns and coaching
Report on funnel health and the plan to close gaps to the leadership team

Who we're looking for

You're ambitious, driven, and make up for any gaps in experience with intelligence, grit, and a growth mindset. You're a builder who gets energy from scaling what you've built, and you take real pride in developing people. You have natural hustle, build relationships easily, and thrive on lofty goals.

You're data-driven and curious about how AI can change the way teams prospect, coach and run. You earn credibility quickly with senior sellers and founders. You want high impact and fast pace.

Experience requirements

5+ years in B2B SaaS or technology sales, including 2+ years leading sales or business development teams, with experience managing managers
Track record of building or scaling an SDR/BDR function from the ground up, with measurable pipeline impact
Experience hiring, developing and promoting early-career talent into AE and other commercial roles
Experience prospecting into technical buyers, including engineers, ML practitioners, data scientists or platform teams
Fluency with outbound tooling and AI-enabled prospecting workflows, and familiarity with CRM tools (e.g. Salesforce, HubSpot) and structured qualification methodologies
Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience
Bonus: experience selling developer tools, infrastructure or technical platforms. Experience in a high-growth startup. Curiosity about AI, robotics, or the future of Physical AI.

Why Encord