Sales Development Representative

Watchful; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental and vision

Employee Share Options Pool

20 days PTO

Job summary

Watchful, a fast-growing startup in Austin, seeks a founding SDR to help scale our sales team through outbound prospecting and close collaboration with the Founder and Director of Market Development.

Role is 100% outbound in a defined vertical; you’ll source accounts, book qualified meetings, and move toward an Account Executive role in 6–12 months.

Qualifications

• Excellent written and spoken English required.
• Minimum 3 years in a professional office environment.
• High agency and coachability; natural leadership.
• On-site in Austin, five days a week.
• Approximately 40+ hours per week; no remote work.
• Background check required.

Responsibilities

• Own outbound prospecting for a defined vertical; no inbound queue.
• Cold call hundreds of decision-makers with the Founder and Director of Market Development.
• Book qualified meetings that feed into pipeline and contribute to rapid growth.
• Aim for advancement to Account Executive within 6–12 months.

Skills

Excellent English

Office experience

Leadership

Coachability

On-site in Austin

Job description

This is a founding role on our SDR team. If you are looking for a unique challenge in a place to grow personally, while growing the team and company along the way, then this posting is for you.

This is a place where when you say "I'm ready for my next career move to take the next step up", we say "Awesome, what do you need from us?"

The reality is we're looking for people who will OUTGROW US before we OUTGROW YOU! We're

uncompromising on our hunt for the hungriest, most dedicated, and amazing talent out there. However, we're looking for people who can thrive in a fast-paced, sometimes chaotic environment that can create their own structure when there may not be one already in place. If wearing multiple hats, small team culture, and an ever-changing and fast-growing workload puts you off, then this role may not be for you.

About us

We're a fast-growing start-up founded by New Zealander - and second time-founder - Joshua Parsons, who now lives in Austin, Texas. Backed by some of Australasia's largest venture capital firms, and with multiple millions of dollars of pipeline converting, we're investing in growing our Sales Development team on-site in Austin.

We've built agentic artificial intelligence tools that help stop crime. We're making a real impact, processing over 32 million signals every week (with 1m new signals added every week), scouring what feels like endless data for crime, and making sure the Police and Law Enforcement are equipped with all the information to respond to a crime.

In short: we stop bad guys (and gals) from hurting good people.

Our values aren't just a poster on the wall - they're living in our culture.

• Extreme honesty: We live by extreme honesty where everyone can speak their mind, be themselves and be challenged. We operate with no surprises.
• Insane tenacity: We never give up and we never tire. We overcome every roadblock that gets in our way.
• Creative brains: We have the most thoughtful and creative brains that forge new ideas. We are innately creative.
• Highest standards: We operate with the world's highest standards in everything we do.

The role

You’ll join a sales team of five, with our Founder closely involved in sales day-to-day. The people closing the deals sit next to you.

This is 100% outbound into a single, clearly defined vertical where we already have customers and revenue growing fast. We know the pain points, the buying personas and the sales cycle. We source the accounts, companies and contacts for you.

Contract sizes are large, so every meeting you book carries real weight.

You will be aggressively growing our sales pipeline - cold calling, hustling alongside our Founder and Director of Market Development, to generate leads and interest and pass them up the line in our sales team. There is no inbound queue and no warm pipeline waiting for you. You will be cold calling hundreds of decision-makers, so if you’re uncomfortable with rejection, consider this before applying.

It’s repetitive at the start, and that’s the apprenticeship. For reps who perform, the path to Account Executive is real and typically runs six to twelve months.

What good looks like

• Qualified meetings booked: the number that matters most. Real meetings, with the right people, that turn into pipeline our AEs want.
• Cold calls made: 80+ high-quality outbound calls per day. We hand you the list, so your time goes into calling, not prospecting.
• Show‑up rate: 75%+ of your booked demos attending.
• Pipeline value generated: tracked monthly, based on the potential value of the opportunities you create.
• Speed to lead: intent signals land with you as they fire. On the phone within five minutes. Urgency wins deals.
• CRM accuracy: clean data, clear notes, every touchpoint logged. Sloppy data kills pipeline.

What we pay

• Base salary: $70,000–$90,000, depending on experience
• On-target earnings: $200,000, with commission uncapped beyond that. You’re paid on the qualified meetings you book through cold calling and other outbound channels, and on what those meetings turn into
• Employee Share Options Pool
• Health, dental and vision
• 20 days PTO, available after 6 months of continuous employment
• Work alongside a bunch of Kiwis and Americans, and experience a different type of culture, right here in Austin
• Founding team member

What we need from you

• Excellent written and spoken English. Non‑negotiable: you’ll be on the phone with senior decision‑makers all day.
• Minimum 3 years in a professional office environment. Preferred.
• High agency, and coachable. You solve problems without waiting for a process to exist, then come back and take feedback on how you did it. We need both.
• A natural leader. The absence of leadership experience is not of concern to us, but your natural ability to lead will be closely analyzed.
• On site in Austin, five days a week.
• ~40+ hours, Monday to Friday. We have a strict no‑WFH policy: we’re building a company and a culture, and the culture we want cannot be built from home.
• Given the nature of our customers, employment is conditional on passing a background check.

How we hire

We can’t teach attitude or cultural fit, so your initial interview will be to ensure you have a great attitude and you’ll fit within our culture. Bring drive, ambition, new ideas and a hunger to our team, and you’ll be well on your way to delivering on our values.

Our Brand Promise

Finally, our team is successful because we’re addicted to creating a safer world, faster. As part of our interview process, you’ll tell us what you think this means for you in this role.

Equal opportunities. All candidates who apply for this role will receive the same recruitment process & treatment during the recruitment process. We do not discriminate in our recruitment process.