Business Development Representative (BDR) Manager

About this role

<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>About the Role</strong></span></p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>What You'll Do</strong></span></p> <p><strong>Team Leadership & Coaching</strong></p> <p>* Manage, coach, and develop a team of outbound BDRs across North America and EMEA time zones.<br>* Run regular 1:1s, call reviews, and pipeline coaching to improve conversion at each funnel stage.<br>* Coach reps on executive-level communication, discovery, account research, and strategic prospecting for enterprise and mid-market conversations.<br>* Own hiring, onboarding, and ramp planning for the outbound team.<br>* Set and manage quotas, and hold reps accountable to activity and outcome metrics.<br>* Drive improvements to messaging, sequencing, and personalization.<br>* Build a high-performance, low-ego team culture rooted in continuous improvement and candid feedback.</p> <p><strong>Pipeline & SQO Generation</strong></p> <p>* Partner with Growth Marketing and Sales leadership to translate campaign and ABM priorities into outbound execution.<br>* Own the outbound contribution to SQO targets; report on pipeline health, conversion, and forecast accuracy.<br>* Establish operational rigor around activity metrics, conversion rates, and pipeline quality, ensuring consistent execution across the team.<br>* Diagnose and fix bottlenecks in the outbound funnel (deliverability, response rates, meeting-to-SQO conversion).<br>* Bring front-line market and prospect feedback back to Growth Marketing and Sales leadership to sharpen targeting and messaging.</p> <p><strong>AI SDR Optimization</strong></p> <p>* Partner cross-functionally with Growth Marketing and RevOps to co-own and maximize the performance of our inbound AI SDR engine.<br>* Monitor response quality, conversion, and escalation accuracy; drive iterative improvements to prompts, routing logic, and qualification criteria.<br>* Recommend and implement process changes to improve human/AI handoff on inbound leads.</p> <p> </p> <hr> <p><strong>What We're Looking For</strong></p> <p>* 5+ years managing an outbound BDR/SDR team in cybersecurity.<br>* 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.<br>* Proven track record hitting SQO/pipeline targets through a managed outbound team.<br>* Experience managing distributed teams across multiple time zones.<br>* 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).<br>* Comfort working with or overseeing AI-assisted sales tooling: you don't need to build it, but you need to evaluate and improve it.<br>* Strong analytical skills; you can read a funnel report and immediately spot where the leak is.<br>* Direct communication style; comfortable giving and receiving candid feedback.<br>* High tolerance for ambiguity and fast iteration; you're energized by "figure it out" environments, not looking for a fully built machine.</p> <p><strong>Must Have</strong></p> <p>* Experience in cybersecurity, PTaaS, or a related technical B2B category.<br>* Prior exposure to AI SDR or conversational AI tooling in a GTM context.<br>* Direct experience building a BDR playbook from a blank page.</p> <p><strong>Success Metrics (First 6 Months)</strong></p> <p>* Team ramped and hitting activity/outcome quotas within 90 days.<br>* Measurable improvement in outbound-sourced SQO conversion rate.<br>* Clear ownership and at least one measurable optimization delivered on the AI SDR engine.</p> <p> </p> <hr> <p><strong>Why You Should Join Us</strong></p> <p>* Grow in a passionate, rapidly expanding industry operating at the forefront of the Pentesting industry.<br>* Work directly with experienced senior leaders with ongoing mentorship opportunities.<br>* Earn competitive compensation and an attractive equity plan.<br>* Save for the future with a 401(k) program (US) or pension (EU).<br>* Benefit from medical, dental, vision and life insurance (US) or statutory healthcare (EU).<br>* Leverage stipends for wellness, work-from-home equipment & wifi, and learning & development.<br>* Make the most of our flexible, generous paid time off and paid parental leave.</p> <p><strong>Pay Range Disclosure (For US openings only)</strong></p> <p>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…