Manager, Sales Development - Startups/Commercial
Anthropic
About Anthropic
Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems.
Role Overview:
As a Sales Development Manager for Startups and Commercial at Anthropic, you will lead a high-velocity BDR team focused on driving pipeline generation for our fastest-moving market segments. You will build and manage a team of 8-12 BDRs who specialize in rapid lead qualification and high-volume outbound prospecting in startup and commercial accounts. This role requires a leader who thrives in fast-paced environments and can build repeatable, scalable processes for velocity-driven pipeline development.
Key Responsibilities:
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Build, lead, and scale a team of 8-12 BDRs focused on Startup and Commercial segments
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Drive high-velocity pipeline generation through optimized inbound lead management and targeted outbound campaigns
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Establish and track KPIs focused on speed-to-lead, conversion rates, and volume metrics
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Partner with Startup and Commercial AEs to ensure tight alignment on ICP, qualification criteria, and handoff processes
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Create streamlined training programs focused on rapid qualification and high-volume prospecting techniques
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Implement and optimize sales technology stack to maximize team efficiency and throughput
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Own Pipeline Reviews with sales leadership covering top-of-funnel health, conversion velocity, and campaign effectiveness
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Build a culture of urgency, experimentation, and continuous improvement
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Coach and develop BDRs on velocity prospecting, quick qualification, and career progression
Qualifications:
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2-4 years of experience managing BDR/SDR teams, preferably in high-growth SaaS or technology companies
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Proven track record of building and scaling velocity-focused sales development teams
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Experience managing teams prospecting into Startup or Commercial/SMB market segments
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Strong analytical skills with experience using data to optimize team performance and conversion rates
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Experience with Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach/Salesloft, and sales analytics tools
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Demonstrated ability to build efficient, repeatable processes that scale with volume
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Excellent communication and leadership skills with ability to motivate and develop talent
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Experience in API-first, consumption-based, or usage-based business models preferred
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Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience
Preferred Experience:
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Experience at companies with PLG (product-led growth) or developer-focused go-to-market motions
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Experience selling an API product
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Background managing teams that handle high amount of leads per day per rep
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Track record of BDRs successfully transitioning to AE roles under your leadership
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Experience building BDR functions in early-stage or Series B-D companies
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Familiarity with AI/ML industry and technical product positioning
The annual compensation range for this role is listed below.
For sales roles, the range provided is the role’s On Target Earnings ("OTE") range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonuses target and annual base salary for the role.
Logistics
Education requirements: We require at least a Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent experience.
Location-based hybrid policy: Currently, we expect all staff to be in one of our offices at least 25% of the time. However, some roles may require more time in our offices.
Visa sponsorship: We do sponsor visas! However, we aren't able to successfully sponsor visas for every role and every candidate. But if we make you an offer, we will make every reasonable effort to get you a visa, and we retain an immigration lawyer to help with this.
We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every single qualification. Not all strong candidates will meet every single qualification as listed. Research shows that people who identify as being from underrepresented groups are more prone to experiencing imposter syndrome and doubting the strength of their candidacy, so we urge you not to exclude yourself prematurely and to submit an application if you're interested in this work. We think AI systems like the ones we're building have enormous social and ethical implications. We think this makes representation even more important, and we strive to include a range of diverse perspectives on our team.
Your safety matters to us. To protect yourself from potential scams, remember that Anthropic recruiters only contact you from @anthropic.com email addresses. In some cases, we may partner with vetted recruiting agencies who will identify themselves as working on behalf of Anthropic. Be cautious of emails from other domains. Legitimate Anthropic recruiters will never ask for money, fees, or banking information before your first day. If you're ever unsure about a communication, don't click any links—visit anthropic.com/careers directly for confirmed position openings.
How we're different
We believe that the highest-impact AI research will be big science. At Anthropic we work as a single cohesive team on just a few large-scale research efforts. And we value impact — advancing our long-term goals of steerable, trustworthy AI — rather than work on smaller and more specific puzzles. We view AI research as an empirical science, which has as much in common with physics and biology as with traditional efforts in computer science. We're an extremely collaborative group, and we host frequent research discussions to ensure that we are pursuing the highest-impact work at any given time. As such, we greatly value communication skills.
The easiest way to understand our research directions is to read our recent research. This research continues many of the directions our team worked on prior to Anthropic, including: GPT-3, Circuit-Based Interpretability, Multimodal Neurons, Scaling Laws, AI & Compute, Concrete Problems in AI Safety, and Learning from Human Preferences.
Come work with us!
Anthropic is a public benefit corporation headquartered in San Francisco. We offer competitive compensation and benefits, optional equity donation matching, generous vacation and parental leave, flexible working hours, and a lovely office space in which to collaborate with colleagues. Guidance on Candidates' AI Usage: Learn about our policy for using AI in our application process