Manager, Sales Development

Open Source has taken over the world of software development; however, the largest trade-off still persists: security. Companies spend an enormous amount of time and resources patching and fortifying open source software in order to ship with confidence & compliance. 

Founded by the industry's leading experts on open source software, security and cloud native development, Chainguard has built the largest library of open source software that is secure by default. Customers including Snowflake, Canva, and HPE rely on Chainguard to build securely with open source software across the organization.

Chainguard is the safe source for open source.

About Us

We live and breathe our company values:

We are customer obsessed - Our true advantage is the strength of our relationships with customers through collaboration, empathy, and responsiveness.  We establish trust as we educate, advocate, and listen to their needs.  Our focus is on delivering solutions to our customers that create value and make their lives better. 

We have a bias for intentional action - We’re a start-up and we need to move fast. However we need to move fast through intentional action to make sure we’re able to deliver quickly and efficiently on what is most impactful to our collective success.  We prioritize, plan, try things, and fail fast.  We think about how what we do impacts other teams and communicate our progress - owning the whole solution from start to finish. If we move fast enough, we can make two or three mistakes, learn, and correct them before competitors even make their first decision.

We don’t take ourselves too seriously (but we do serious work) - Though we are solving an important problem which takes focus and a degree of seriousness, we don’t take ourselves too seriously while we do.  We laugh, have fun, embrace uniqueness, and enjoy the journey. Together.

We trust each other and assume good intentions - We hire great team members and trust them to do their work. We’re transparent with data, news, and decisions - positive or negative - to empower team members to make well informed decisions. Showing up for each other fully means we celebrate each other’s accomplishments as well as give compassionate direct feedback when needed.  We always default to assuming good intentions.

The role, in a nutshell: 

As the Manager of Sales Development, you will lead and mentor a team of BDRs responsible for both inbound lead qualification as well as outbound opportunity generation. Your role involves hiring and onboarding new BDRs, developing and implementing strategies to optimize the BDR team's performance, setting and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), and ensuring alignment with the company’s overall sales goals. You will provide hands-on coaching and development, drive repeatable progress toward pipeline targets, and foster a collaborative environment to enhance productivity and motivation. In addition, you will work closely with the Director of Sales Development and Sales leaders to refine lead generation tactics, manage pipeline generation, and improve top of funnel conversion rates. Your leadership will be crucial in achieving pipeline targets and driving the overall success of the Sales Development function at Chainguard.

What you’ll do:

• Continue to build out our growing BDR function, working with recruiting to identify top talent to hire and onboard 
• Develop your team’s skills for outbound prospecting, qualifying, and opportunity creation
• Provide ongoing feedback and coaching in recurring weekly 1:1s to ensure BDR team members develop skills and performance over time 
• Work closely with the Demand Generation team to provide feedback on MQLs and campaigns
• Work closely with the Sales team to improve outbounding strategies and qualification processes while also tackling other areas of improvement
• Work in collaboration with Marketing/Sales/Product to develop effective messaging to outbound into target accounts and convert inbound interest into qualified pipeline
• Work closely with Sales leadership to ensure alignment on your team's strategy and execution on account coverage, target personas, opportunity quality and BDR to AE hand-off
• Accurately forecast weekly, monthly, and quarterly attainment
• Closely monitor team performance metrics and KPIs with the goal to increase BDR productivity

What we're looking for:

• 2+ years leading a team of BDRs (Cybersecurity, DevSecOps, Infrastructure, OSS strongly preferred)
• Experience with funnel management across multiple channels and focuses (inbound, outbound, upsell, new business)
• Hands on enablement experience in onboarding, ramping, and developing your team
• Experience with sales and marketing tools, including CRM platforms (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot), lead generation software, and productivity tools
• Strong analytical skills and ability to make data driven decisions 
• Proven ability to effectively recruit, hire, and train new people
• Proven ability to thrive in a fast-paced, unpredictable environment
• Aptitude for identifying challenges and developing creative solutions to enhance team efficiency and effectiveness
• Experience prospecting or selling into Enterprise accounts
• Understanding of B2B software, Open Source software, and the developer product space is preferred
• Experience growing within a small start-up is preferred

Compensation Range: $175,000-$200,000 OTE (based on experience/location)

A few of the benefits we offer (for our full time employees):

• Equity/stock options
• Unlimited PTO
• Remote work with flexible coworking and team meetup opportunities
• Home office and internet stipend
• 100% health/dental/vision insurance coverage for you and your family
• Monthly Wellness budget

If your experience is close but doesn’t fulfill all requirements, please apply. Chainguard is on a mission to build the best team. To achieve our goal, we are focused on hiring “Guardians'' with unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences.

Chainguard is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, political views or activity, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.

For US based roles - Chainguard participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with employee Form I-9 Information to confirm authorization to work in the U.S. Chainguard, Inc. only uses E-Verify once a candidate has accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9. If E-Verify cannot confirm that an employee is authorized to work, Chainguard, Inc. will give the employee written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so the employee can begin to resolve the issue before any adverse employment action is taken. For more information about your right to work, please see the Notice of Right to Work.

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