Business Development Representative (BDR) Manager

About this role

About the Role

Cobalt is hiring a BDR Manager to lead a team of BDRs spanning North America and EMEA. This role owns outbound execution and coaching, partners closely with Marketing and Sales on SQO generation, and plays a hands-on role in optimizing our AI SDR engine for inbound.

This is a player-coach role built for someone who's confident operating a maturing playbook. You'll spend most of your time coaching and developing reps, and a meaningful chunk of your time building and improving the systems around them—tooling, process, and messaging.

What You'll Do

Team Leadership & Coaching

* Manage, coach, and develop a team of outbound BDRs across North America and EMEA time zones. * Run regular 1:1s, call reviews, and pipeline coaching to improve conversion at each funnel stage. * Coach reps on executive-level communication, discovery, account research, and strategic prospecting for enterprise and mid-market conversations. * Own hiring, onboarding, and ramp planning for the outbound team. * Set and manage quotas, and hold reps accountable to activity and outcome metrics. * Drive improvements to messaging, sequencing, and personalization. * Build a high-performance, low-ego team culture rooted in continuous improvement and candid feedback.

Pipeline & SQO Generation

* Partner with Growth Marketing and Sales leadership to translate campaign and ABM priorities into outbound execution. * Own the outbound contribution to SQO targets; report on pipeline health, conversion, and forecast accuracy. * Establish operational rigor around activity metrics, conversion rates, and pipeline quality, ensuring consistent execution across the team. * Diagnose and fix bottlenecks in the outbound funnel (deliverability, response rates, meeting-to-SQO conversion). * Bring front-line market and prospect feedback back to Growth Marketing and Sales leadership to sharpen targeting and messaging.

AI SDR Optimization

* Partner cross-functionally with Growth Marketing and RevOps to co-own and maximize the performance of our inbound AI SDR engine. * Monitor response quality, conversion, and escalation accuracy; drive iterative improvements to prompts, routing logic, and qualification criteria. * Recommend and implement process changes to improve human/AI handoff on inbound leads.

What We're Looking For

* 5+ years managing an outbound BDR/SDR team in cybersecurity. * Demonstrated ability to build process, not just execute an existing one: you've written a playbook, fixed a broken funnel, or stood up a program with limited resources. * Proven track record hitting SQO/pipeline targets through a managed outbound team. * Experience managing distributed teams across multiple time zones. * Hands-on fluency with sales engagement tooling (Salesloft or Outreach), sales intelligence tools (Apollo, ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator), AI SDR tools (Qualified), and dialers (Orum, Nooks). * Comfort working with or overseeing AI-assisted sales tooling: you don't need to build it, but you need to evaluate and improve it. * Strong analytical skills; you can read a funnel report and immediately spot where the leak is. * Direct communication style; comfortable giving and receiving candid feedback. * High tolerance for ambiguity and fast iteration; you're energized by "figure it out" environments, not looking for a fully built machine.

Must Have

* Experience in cybersecurity, PTaaS, or a related technical B2B category. * Prior exposure to AI SDR or conversational AI tooling in a GTM context. * Direct experience building a BDR playbook from a blank page.

Success Metrics (First 6 Months)

* Team ramped and hitting activity/outcome quotas within 90 days. * Measurable improvement in outbound-sourced SQO conversion rate. * Clear ownership and at least one measurable optimization delivered on the AI SDR engine.

Why You Should Join Us

* Grow in a passionate, rapidly expanding industry operating at the forefront of the Pentesting industry. * Work directly with experienced senior leaders with ongoing mentorship opportunities. * Earn competitive compensation and an attractive equity plan. * Save for the future with a 401(k) program (US) or pension (EU). * Benefit from medical, dental, vision and life insurance (US) or statutory healthcare (EU). * Leverage stipends for wellness, work-from-home equipment & wifi, and learning & development. * Make the most of our flexible, generous paid time off and paid parental leave.

Pay Range Disclosure (For US openings only)

Cobalt is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The salary range for this role is ($124,800 - $156,000 OTE) + equity + benefits. A candidate’s salary is determined by various factors including, but not limited to, relevant work experience, skills, and certifications. The salary range may differ in other states and may be impacted by proximity to major metropolitan cities.

Cobalt (the "Company") is an equal opportunity employer, and we want the best available persons for every job. The Company makes employment decisions only based on merit. It is the Company's policy to prohibit discrimination in any employment opportunity (including but not limited to recruitment, employment, promotion, salary increases, benefits, termination and all other terms and conditions of employment) based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, pregnancy, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, physical/mental disability, medical condition, marital/domestic partner status, military and veteran status, height, weight or any other such characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. The Company is committed to complying with all applicable laws and providing equal employment opportunities. This commitment applies to all persons involved in the operations of the Company regardless of where the employee is located and prohibits unlawful discrimination by any employee of the Company.

Cobalt is an E-Veri

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