Business Development Lead

Gradial; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 140,000 - 155,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401K retirement plan

Paid time off

Paid sick leave

Job summary

Gradial is transforming how enterprise marketing teams create, manage, and scale content with AI. As our Business Development Lead, you’ll build strategic pipeline, form relationships with enterprise buyers, and shape the outbound playbook fueling our growth.

This player-coach role owns complex outbound initiatives, experiments with AI-powered workflows, refines messaging, and collaborates with Sales and Marketing to improve demand generation. You can mentor future team members as Gradial scales.

Qualifications

• Proven success building outbound programs and generating enterprise pipeline.
• Experience engaging marketing, operations, and executives in enterprise SaaS.
• Familiarity with AI tools for prospecting and research.

Responsibilities

• Build and execute outbound strategies creating qualified enterprise pipeline.
• Own account planning identifying buying committees and initiatives.
• Lead AI-powered prospecting to improve research and personalization.
• Refine messaging, frameworks, and best practices for pipeline growth.
• Represent Gradial at conferences and industry events to build opportunities.
• Collaborate with Marketing to align outbound campaigns and capture opportunities.
• Partner with Account Executives on strategy and multi-threaded engagement.
• Analyze outbound performance and suggest improvements to GTM execution.
• Mentor future BDRs and foster a high-performing outbound culture.

Skills

Outbound prospecting

Strategic account planning

AI-powered prospecting

Executive relationships

Tools

HubSpot

Outreach

LinkedIn Navigator

Sales engagement tools

Job description

Gradial is the marketing operations system of work that helps marketers and creatives move from idea to execution faster. Our platform orchestrates across martech stacks, workflows, and people to automate marketing execution, cutting execution time, so marketers focus on the work only humans can do: shaping brands, understanding customers, and creating the work that moves people.

Backed by leading investors, we’re building software that adapts to the user, not the other way around. We move with urgency, operate with ownership, and solve hard problems from first principles. If you want to do ambitious work, take real responsibility, and help define the future of AI-native content operations, you’ll do your best work here.

The Role

Gradial is transforming how enterprise marketing teams create, manage, and scale content with AI. As our Business Development Lead, you’ll play a pivotal role in shaping how we introduce that vision to the market. You’ll build strategic pipeline, create meaningful relationships with enterprise buyers, and help define the outbound playbook that fuels our next stage of growth.

This is a player-coach role for someone who loves building as much as selling. You’ll own complex outbound initiatives while experimenting with new AI-powered workflows, refining messaging, and partnering across Sales and Marketing to improve how we generate demand. As the business grows, you’ll be well positioned to mentor future team members and expand your impact across the revenue organization.

What You’ll Own

• Build and execute outbound strategies that create qualified pipeline across enterprise marketing organizations through highly personalized, multi-channel engagement.
• Own strategic account planning by identifying buying committees, uncovering business initiatives, and developing account-specific prospecting strategies that drive engagement.
• Lead the adoption of AI-powered prospecting by leveraging tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Clay, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Outreach, and HubSpot to improve research, personalization, and productivity.
• Develop and continuously refine messaging, outreach frameworks, and prospecting best practices that increase pipeline generation across the team.
• Represent Gradial at conferences, executive events, and industry networking opportunities while building relationships that create long-term business opportunities.
• Partner closely with Marketing to align outbound campaigns, provide market feedback, and identify emerging opportunities within target industries.
• Collaborate with Account Executives on account strategy, opportunity development, and multi-threaded engagement across key enterprise accounts.
• Analyze outbound performance, identify trends, and recommend improvements that strengthen conversion rates and overall go-to-market execution.
• Mentor and support future Business Development Representatives by sharing best practices, coaching prospecting techniques, and helping establish a high-performing outbound culture as the team grows.

What We Need

• 4+ years of experience in business development, sales development, or enterprise SaaS sales with a consistent record of generating qualified pipeline through outbound prospecting.
• Demonstrated success building strategic outbound programs rather than simply executing established sequences.
• Experience prospecting into enterprise organizations with the ability to engage marketing, operations, and executive stakeholders through personalized outreach.
• Expertise using HubSpot, Outreach, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and modern sales engagement platforms.
• Hands-on experience incorporating AI tools including ChatGPT, Claude, Clay, and other LLMs into prospecting workflows and sales research.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to identify buying signals, navigate complex organizations and build multi-threaded relationships.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to simplify complex ideas and create messaging that resonates with executive audiences.
• A builder’s mindset with the curiosity to experiment, challenge conventional approaches, and continuously improve outbound performance.
• Willingness to travel to conferences and industry events to build relationships and represent Gradial.

Nice to Have

• Experience selling AI, enterprise SaaS, or marketing technology solutions.
• Experience mentoring SDRs or BDRs, leading outbound initiatives, or helping scale an early-stage sales organization.
• Familiarity with account-based sales strategies and enterprise go-to-market planning.

Compensation

The base salary range for this position is$140,000 - $155,000.Final compensation will be determined based on factors such as experience, skills, and qualifications.

In addition to base salary, this role will be eligible for performance-based bonuses and equity awards.Gradial offers a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental & vision insurance, 401K retirement plan, paid time off, paid sick leave.

• medical
• dental & vision insurance
• 401K retirement plan
• paid time off
• paid sick leave

What we offer

• Competitive salary and meaningful equity
• Comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage
• Fast-paced environment with flexibility and ownership
• Real impact, zero bureaucracy
• A front-row seat to building category-defining AI infrastructure

You’ll thrive here if you...

• Learn quickly, actively seek out new challenges, and regularly reconsider how it’s always been done.
• Have an innate drive for being 1% better than the day before, building towards greatness.
• Embrace AI as a core tool for problem-solving, innovation, and scale.
• Show customer-obsession (internal or external), high ownership/accountability, and bias for action.
• Communicate clearly, directly, with curiosity, and assuming good intentions.
• Thrive in fast-paced, hyper-growth environments where building better > maintaining status quo.

AI Literacy & Interviewing Tools

As an AI-first company, we prioritize AI literacy as a core competency in our hiring decisions. We’re excited by candidates who thoughtfully apply AI tools in their work, but during interviews we’re focused onyou. This is your opportunity to show how you think, communicate, and solve problems. Over-reliance on AI-generated responses during the interview process (especially when it obscures your own voice) will result in disqualification. We want to understand your unique perspective and how you approach challenges, both with and without AI.

Gradial is dedicated to creating an environment where diverse perspectives are valued and all team members can grow. We offer competitive compensation, equity, flexible work hours, comprehensive benefits, and a collaborative culture focused on learning and impact.