Business Development Associate

Socket.dev; New York (NY); On-site; USD 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401(k)

HSA / Flexible Spending

Paid holidays

Job summary

Atoms is building the machines that power the next era of progress. As a Business Development Associate on the Heroes team, you will own a market, identify operators, build relationships, run pitches, and help close deals that drive Atoms' growth in the food industry.

You will prospect, research, and strategize with cross-functional teams to turn market insights into action, hosting events and navigating a fast-paced environment where ownership matters from day one.

Qualifications

• 1-4 years in Business Development, GTM, Strategy, or related roles.
• Experience generating outbound pipelines in mid-market or SMB accounts is preferred.
• Strong research and analytical instincts with data-to-story storytelling.

Responsibilities

• Identify and engage mid-market restaurant brands (1–20 locations).
• Develop personalized outbound strategies across phone, email, LinkedIn and in-person events.
• Own pipeline end-to-end from sourcing to qualification, pitching, and closing support.
• Collaborate with Strategy & Analytics to turn data into compelling business cases.

Skills

Outbound sales

Market research

Storytelling

Tools

Salesforce

Job description

Who we are

Atoms is building the machines that power the next era of progress.

Over the last decade, software has transformed the digital world. But the physical world, where food is made, minerals are mined, goods are moved, and industries are run, remains far less intelligent, far less efficient, and far more constrained. We’re changing that.

Atoms builds Physical AI— real-world robots for the industries that move civilization forward, starting with food, mining, and transport. Our systems are designed to understand, predict, and control the real world with precision, turning complex physical operations into something more reliable, more scalable, and more productive.

This work requires more than robotics. It requires deep integration across hardware, software, AI, operations, manufacturing, and real estate. We don’t just build machines in a lab. We deploy them into real environments, operate them, learn from them, and improve them until they work at scale.

We are roboticists, engineers, operators, and builders. We believe the next great technology companies will not only transform information, but the physical systems that shape everyday life.

If you want to work on hard problems with real-world impact, join us.

About the role

This is a Business Development Associate role on the Heroes team, our group focuses on the most loved restaurant brands in the country, the ones with 1 to 20 locations, obsessive customer followings, and real expansion potential.

As a Business Development Associate, you get to own a market: finding the right operators, building the relationship, running the pitch, and helping to get the deal signed. That means real ownership and real accountability from day one. Your pipeline is your business, and what you build and close shows up directly in Atoms' growth.

What you’ll do

Prospecting & Pipeline Generation

• Research, identify, and engage the most loved restaurant brands in the country, mid-market operators with 1-20 locations who've outgrown a single kitchen but aren't enterprise scale.
• Build a personalized outbound strategy across phone, email, LinkedIn, and in person, including hosting and attending industry events, dinners, and meetups where these operators actually spend their time.
• Own your pipeline end to end. You source it, qualify it, pitch it, and support close.
• Build and maintain a healthy pipeline against clear outreach and revenue targets.

Strategic Account Research & Analysis

• Conduct in-depth research on restaurant brands: leadership, unit economics, expansion plans, and competitive position.
• Partner with our Strategy and Analytics teams to turn raw data (delivery volumes, whitespace, ROIC) into a compelling, story-driven case for why CloudKitchens, Otter, or Picnic is the right next move for an operator.
• Monitor industry and competitive trends to sharpen outbound strategy and surface new opportunities.
• Bring market insights and operator feedback back to the team to help shape BD strategy.

Sales Strategy & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Allocate budget for your respective market and own market strategy
• Support territory planning and account prioritization for your market.

Pipeline Performance & Operational Excellence

• Look for ways to make your own workflow faster and smarter, including using AI to speed up research, outreach, and reporting.
• Bring a builder's mindset: test, measure, and improve how you prospect.

Executive Communication & Relationship Building

• Build genuine relationships with restaurant founders and operators. This is a business built on trust, not just a pipeline of accounts.
• Represent Atoms, and the full CloudKitchens, Otter, and Picnic story, with professionalism and precision.
• Communicate pipeline updates, market insights, and competitive intelligence clearly to sales leadership.

What we’re looking for

• 1-4 years of experience in Business Development, Investment Banking, Go-to-Market, Consulting, Strategy, or Operations . Client-facing experience helps, but we care more about whether you're smart, analytical, charismatic, and genuinely curious about BD and the restaurant industry than about your exact title history.
• A track record of generating outbound pipelines, ideally in mid-market or small/independent-business accounts. This is a different motion than enterprise procurement cycles.
• Strong research and analytical instincts, with the ability to turn data into a story that lands with a founder or operator.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, comfortable moving between a founder's kitchen and a boardroom.
• A high sense of ownership. You want a role where the outcome is on you, not a role with a lot of guardrails.
• Comfortable in a fast-paced, high-accountability environment where priorities shift.
• Bonus: familiarity with Salesforce or similar sales tools is nice to have, not required. We'd rather hire for judgment and hustle than tool familiarity, you'll pick the tools up fast.

Preferred industries and experience

We're especially interested in people with a background in:

• Business/Corporate Development
• Entrepreneurship / Startup Founder
• Go-to-Market Strategy- Management Consulting or Business Operations/Strategy
• Restaurant, Hospitality, or Food Technology
• High-Growth Technology, SaaS, or Marketplace Businesses

Target schools

We recruit heavily from highly selective universities with rigorous business, economics, communications, engineering, or quantitative programs, including Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Penn (Wharton), Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Duke, Northwestern, University of Chicago, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Michigan, University of Virginia, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, and Georgia Tech.

Equivalent international institutions and exceptional candidates from other schools with strong professional experience are absolutely considered too. We care more about the person in front of us than the name on the diploma.

Why join us

At Atoms, you’ll work on one of the defining challenges of our time—bringing automation into the physical world to drive real, lasting impact. We exist to uncover valuable unknown truths and turn them into progress, which means constantly pushing beyond what’s known and building what doesn’t yet exist. The work is ambitious and often challenging, but it’s grounded in a shared sense of purpose and a team committed to seeing it through together. Our work only matters if it serves others, and we know that meaningful progress depends on the trust of the people we serve and the strength of our team—so we invest in both, creating an environment where you can do your best work and grow.

What else you need to know

This role is based in our New Yorkoffice. Atoms is a company driven by invention and continuous change - we are constantly reimagining our industries, building new products, and refining how we operate. We do our best work together. That’s why all of our office-based teams work onsite, five days a week.

Benefits Summary (USA Full-Time Exempt Employees)

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance (multiple plans, incl. HSA options).
• Company-paid life and disability insurance (short- and long-term).
• Voluntary insurance: accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity.
• Optional supplemental life insurance for self, spouse, and children.
• Pet insurance discount.
• 401(k).
• Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Flexible Spending Accounts (Healthcare, Dependent Care, Commuter)
• Time Off policies:
• Discretionary vacation days
• 8 paid holidays per year
• Paid sick time
• Paid Bereavement leave
• Paid Parental Leave

Benefits are subject to change at the company's discretion. Atoms accepts applications on an ongoing basis.

Ready to join us as we serve those who serve others?

#LI-Onsite

The base salary range for this role is $80,000 - $100,000 per year.

Add’l Incentive Compensation: Individuals can earn an estimated annual incentive compensation range of $30,000 - $50,000 when meeting performance expectations. Actual incentive compensation varies based on individual sales performance and targets.

Actual compensation will be determined on an individual basis and may vary depending on experience, skills, and qualifications.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package. You may also be eligible for equity awards and an annual performance-based bonus.