Senior Business Development Manager - robotics startup
What you need
- 2+ yrs selling at an early-stage startup under 50 people
- Business development experience opening doors and building relationships
- Technical inclination to understand how systems work
- Demonstrated ownership of a deal, partnership, or territory
- Commitment to climate tech or sustainability with specific evidence
What you'll do
- Own accounts end-to-end from first conversation through signed contract
- Run technical discovery with plant operators and engineers
- Build business cases with customers including trade-offs
- Develop proposals, presentations, and demos addressing real objections
- Bring customer reality back into engineering roadmap as core input
We're currently focused on candidates based in the Midwest, Central, and Southwest regions of the US.
Hey, we're Glacier! Series A startup based in San Francisco tackling one of the world's most pressing problems: trash. Did you know that in the US, we send over half of our recyclables to the landfill? We're working to fix that. In doing so, we'll also be reducing carbon emissions, energy consumption, and depletion of natural resources.
Glacier builds custom sorting robots designed to sort apart recyclables as well as AI-powered business analytics that enable recyclers to superpower their plants and improve our society's circularity. From major CPG companies like Colgate and Amazon to municipal recycling facilities, our clients trust us to turn recycling data into actionable insights. Our technology has been recognized as one of TIME's Best Inventions and featured in a TIME documentary, TechCrunch, Fortune, and CBS.
We're looking for a relationship-driven, business-minded operator to join our sales team as a Senior Business Development Manager.
The role
We sell consultatively, not transactionally. Our customers run recycling facilities with real operational constraints, and buying a robot is a technical decision as much as a commercial one. The work is understanding how a plant actually runs, scoping what Glacier can do inside it, and building the case with the people who have to live with the result.
We're looking for someone who has sold that way at a startup, who asks better questions than most, and who moves fast. You'd join two other sellers on a team that's still writing its playbook, reporting to our VP of Sales.
Up to 50% travel, currently domestic.
What you'll do
Own accounts end-to-end, from first conversation through signed contract
Run technical discovery with plant operators and engineers, and scope what a deployment actually looks like at their facility
Build the business case with the customer rather than pitching at them, including the trade-offs
Develop proposals, presentations, and demos that address real objections, not generic ones
Bring customer reality back into our engineering roadmap as a core input
Work with our VP of Sales to shape how we go to market, and leave the process better than you found it
Find your own way in: grants, conferences, industry news, whoever will take the meeting
What you bring
2+ years selling at an early-stage startup (under 50 people). This is the requirement we’re least flexible on, because the pace and the ambiguity are the job
A business development orientation. You’ve built relationships and opened doors, not just worked inbound
Technical inclination. You can hold your own on how a system works, and you’re the kind of person who asks how something is built before you try to sell it
Demonstrated ownership of an outcome. A deal, a partnership, a territory. Something that was yours to win or lose
Genuine, demonstrated commitment to climate tech or sustainability, evidenced by specific past projects, volunteer work, prior roles, or a clear personal thesis on the space, not general interest
Comfort with budgeting, cost estimating, legal review, and contracting
Willingness to travel up to 50%
What traits will make you successful in this role:
You consult rather than sell. You uncover what someone actually needs and tell them the truth about trade-offs
You have real urgency. Deals move because you moved them, not because the customer got around to it
You get curious about the machine. Our product is a robot in a loud, dirty building, and the people who do well here want to understand it
You’re comfortable with no playbook and build one as you go
You own the outcome, not the activity
Bonus points:
Experience selling solutions in any of the following areas: Industrial automation/robotics, manufacturing, recycling/waste
Technical understanding of robotics, manufacturing, and/or automation solutions
The OTE cash compensation range for this role is $200,000-$300,000 (40% base - 60% commission). In addition to cash compensation, Glacier also offers competitive equity compensation and benefits. The final compensation for this role will depend on many individualized factors, including job-related skills and knowledge, experience level, interview performance, and other factors.
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About Glacier
Glacier's mission is to end waste. Sound ambitious? We agree. But the UN estimates that we only have until 2030 to change our consumption patterns before we do irreversible damage to the environment, so we’re of the opinion that now is the time for big bets. We’re starting in the world of recycling, which has a huge opportunity for impact. Americans send 1.4 million tons of waste to recycling facilities every week (that’s about 4 Empire State Buildings, or 1.5 Golden Gate Bridges). We’re also really bad at it: 25% of what we put in our recycling bins isn’t even recyclable. These recycling facilities make a living by sorting our jumbled-up waste and they need to do it cheaply and accurately. Otherwise they go out of business and our recycling goes straight to the landfill. Even so, recycling facilities today use processes that are highly manual, expensive, and error prone. We plan to revolutionize the way these facilities use technology, to make them more streamlined, accurate, and profitable - which means more recyclables avoid the landfill, and more of our natural resources are protected. Our growing team draws from the brightest and most passionate professionals across robotics, manufacturing, software, AI, and market strategy. We’re united by our deep-rooted passion to make a big environmental impact, and we’re looking for other mission-driven, creative thinkers to help us right the ship on this truly global issue.
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