Manager, Business Development (BDR)

Fireworks AI

$220K — $240K *
Business Services
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5+ years in GTM roles with at least 2 years managing SDR/BDR teams
  • Proven ability to hire, coach, and ramp sales reps effectively
  • Demonstrated track record of generating and scaling sales pipeline
  • Experience building a function, playbook, or team from the ground up
  • Deep curiosity about AI/ML technologies, with a desire to become an expert in the field
  • Hands-on experience with AI tools for personal productivity and team building
  • Exceptional verbal and written communication abilities

Responsibilities

  • Build the BDR function from scratch, including team, playbook, and systems
  • Define hiring profiles and develop the interview process
  • Recruit, ramp, and develop BDRs while the sales motion evolves
  • Create an AI-native prospecting process for both inbound and outbound leads
  • Establish a seamless collaboration between Marketing and Sales to convert developer-led demand into enterprise pipeline
  • Iterate on the sales motions using feedback and performance data
  • Focus on rapid development to match the fast-paced AI infrastructure market

Benefits

  • Meaningful equity participation in a fast-growing startup
  • Comprehensive benefits package
Full Job Description


About the Role

We're hiring a leader to build out our BDR function from (almost) zero. It's a hands-on role that demands a driven builder who is comfortable in real ambiguity: you'll ship a v1 of the qualification model, outbound motion, and AE handoff, then rewrite it as signal comes in. You're a magnet for talent who loves building and developing a team: recruiting exceptional BDRs, ramping them fast, and making them better every week.

The teams adopting AI are choosing their infrastructure right now, and the motion you create determines how far and how fast Fireworks scales.

Our GTM culture is FIRE:
  • Face in the place (we sell to developers and ML engineers, and you and your team have to earn the room on inference, latency, and cost);
  • Industrialize (build the Revenue Factory that powers our Token Factory - instrument everything, treat the pipeline engine as a product);
  • Rapid (AI infra deals move fast; the motion you build has to be faster);
  • Engineering Excellence (our buyers are developers, and we match that bar).

You'll report into our VP of Revenue Marketing and partner closely with Sales, Marketing, and Product.

What You'll Build
  • The BDR function from a blank page: the team, the playbook, and the systems behind it
  • The team itself, from day one. Define the profile, build the interview loop, hire, and ramp while the motion is still forming
  • An AI-native, instrumented prospecting motion across inbound and outbound, built and iterated like a product
  • The connective tissue with Marketing and Sales Strategy to convert developer-led demand into enterprise pipeline

Minimum Qualifications
  • People management experience: you've hired, ramped, and coached reps directly
  • 5+ years in GTM roles with 2+ years managing SDR/BDR teams
  • A track record of generating and scaling pipeline
  • Has built a function, playbook, or team from scratch
  • Deep curiosity about AI/ML, you want to be an expert in inference and infrastructure, not just sell it
  • Hands-on with AI yourself: you actively use tools like Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor to scale your own work, and you'll build a team that does the same
  • Outstanding verbal and written communication skills

Preferred Qualifications
  • Experience at an AI/ML, infrastructure, developer-tools, or API-first company, ideally through hypergrowth
  • Has scaled a BDR team through a Series B-to-C-and-beyond inflection
  • Hands-on fluency with CRM and sales engagement tooling (Salesforce, Outreach, Apollo) and AI-native prospecting tools


Total compensation for this role also includes meaningful equity in a fast-growing startup, along with a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package. Base salary is determined by a range of factors including individual qualifications, experience, skills, interview performance, market data, and work location. The listed salary range is intended as a guideline and may be adjusted.

On Target Earnings (Plus Equity)

$220,000-$240,000 USD

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