BDR jobs · Business development representative jobs · BDR vs SDR
BDR jobs · business development representative jobs, and how to hire one
BDR jobs are entry-level, usually full-time sales roles. A business development representative finds companies that could buy, contacts the right people by phone, email and LinkedIn, and books first meetings for an account executive. Pay is usually a base salary plus commission. To hire a business development representative, decide first who will take the meetings.
We place BDRs permanent, part-time and fractional, and the sales leaders above them. On every brief we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting. Looking for a BDR job? Live SDR and BDR roles are on the board below.
How a brief runswhat we undertake
- 01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
- 02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
- 03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
- 04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
- 05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief
Shortlist3–5
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a business development representative
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with BDR candidates, their day rates and availability.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02We scope the role and the days a week
- 03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
- 04Fractional, interim and permanent briefs
Pick a day that suits · live availability
Live roles · last 3 months
Live Sales development roles jobs
No live Sales development roles roles right now.
We only show real, verified vacancies from the last three months — we never pad the board with fabricated listings. New Sales development roles roles appear here as our pipeline finds them.
Live SDR and BDR roles
Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency: send a BDR brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the role
What is a BDR? the business development representative, in one line
A BDR, or business development representative, is an entry-level salesperson who finds new prospective customers, starts the first conversation with them and books a meeting for a colleague who will sell. BDR stands for business development representative. The job ends where the sales conversation proper begins: the account executive (AE) runs the discovery, the demo and the negotiation.
A working week is research and outreach. Pick accounts that fit the ideal customer profile, find the buyers inside them, write and call, follow up, and log everything in the CRM. The measures are meetings booked, meetings held and the pipeline those meetings become. Many BDRs are in their first or second sales job; the seat is where a lot of sales careers start.
Government sources file the work under broader titles. The Sales Executive apprenticeship standard on Skills England names business development executive among its typical job titles and includes generating new business by contacting prospective customers and qualifying opportunities. The National Careers Service profile of a business development manager describes the more senior version of the same work.
Where the BDR sits on the go-to-market ladder
The BDR is the first rung. Above sit the GTM specialist and GTM manager, then a GTM lead or founding GTM lead, a head of GTM, a GTM director and, at scale, a CRO. Beside the BDR sit a GTM engineer, who builds the data and automation outbound runs on, and sales enablement, who trains and equips the reps. The full map is on the GTM jobs hub.
02/ scope
How to hire a business development representative
1. Decide who takes the meetings
A BDR books meetings for someone. Name that person (an AE, a founder or a sales leader) and agree what counts as a qualified meeting before you advertise. If nobody owns the sales process yet, the first hire is a leader, not a BDR: see fractional head of sales.
2. Write the job and the pay plan
Set out the segment, the channels, the targets and who the BDR reports to. Acas has job description templates and a recruitment checklist. Then write the pay plan: base, commission, what triggers it and when it is paid. Pay and how often it is paid belong in the written statement of employment particulars, which an employer must give an employee on the first day.
3. Test for the work
Experience matters less than behaviour at this level. Ask for account research on two of your targets, an opening email to a named buyer and a short mock call, and watch how the candidate takes feedback between attempts. At this level, coachability tells you more than a polished CV.
4. Plan the first quarter
The Bridge Group’s 2025 survey, mostly of North American B2B companies, puts average SDR ramp at 3.0 months. Plan for it: product training, call shadowing, a target that rises month by month, and a named manager who listens to calls. A BDR left alone with a list in week one rarely stays.
What we do on a BDR brief
We send a shortlist of 3–5 candidates, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after our five-stage vetting. We recruit permanent, fractional, interim, part-time and temporary people, from BDRs to non-executive directors. If the outbound is narrow or early and does not fill a week, see fractional BDR jobs instead.
03/ comparison
BDR vs SDR vs account executive: three seats in one sales team
Where a company splits the titles, this is the usual division of work. Many use BDR and SDR for one job; read the job description.
04/ vetting
How we vet business development representatives
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify BDR tenure, sector context and stage fit.
SOURCING - 02
Mandate fit
Match to your situation — stage, board dynamics, timing.
MATCHING - 03
Reference deep-dive
We take references ourselves, from recent past clients — real outcomes, not titles.
VERIFY - 04
Shortlist
Three to five candidates with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5
05/ bdr jobs
BDR jobs: business development representative jobs, pay and who hires
BDR jobs are mostly full-time and permanent, office-based or hybrid, and sit in the sales team under a BDR manager or a head of sales. Business development representative jobs exist wherever a business sells to other businesses and needs a steady flow of new accounts; the Sales Executive standard names technology, media, pharmaceutical, recruitment, utilities and automotive among the sectors that employ sales executives.
Pay is a base salary plus commission, quoted together as on-target earnings (OTE). BeBee UK listings put full-time SDR salary/OTE at £26,000–£55,000, from about £26,000–£28,000 at entry level to £40,000–£55,000 and above OTE for experienced reps; the listings use the SDR title, which many employers give the same seat. The National Careers Service makes the point every candidate should hear: check how much of an advertised figure is OTE, because that part depends on hitting targets.
The National Careers Service lists no formal entry requirements for business development roles. Routes in include applying directly, a graduate scheme or an apprenticeship: the Sales Executive apprenticeship is one employers use for new-business roles, and completing it meets the eligibility requirements for sales certification with the Institute of Sales Professionals. Live BDR jobs, fractional and full time, are on the board on this page.
06/ bdr vs sdr
BDR vs SDR: outbound versus inbound, when the titles differ
In BDR vs SDR, the letters matter less than the job description. Many companies use the two titles for one role. Where they split them, the split is by source: the SDR works inbound interest (demo requests, trial sign-ups, content downloads, event leads) and qualifies it fast; the BDR works outbound, choosing accounts and starting cold. Some companies put BDRs on larger target accounts and SDRs on volume.
The skills overlap but lean differently. An SDR needs speed and good judgement on fit, because the lead is warm and cools quickly. A BDR needs research, persistence and writing that earns a reply from someone who did not ask to hear from you, and has to follow the rules on cold email and calls that our fractional SDR page sets out. For SDR hiring and SDR outsourcing, see fractional SDR jobs.
The BDR career path: to AE, then head of sales
The usual next step is account executive, taking the meetings the BDR used to book and closing them. Others become a BDR team lead, or move sideways into sales enablement, RevOps or a GTM specialist role. The Bridge Group’s 2025 survey, mostly of North American B2B companies, puts average SDR tenure at 1.9 years, so plan the promotion path before you hire, not after the best rep has an offer elsewhere.
From AE the path runs to senior AE, sales manager and then sales leadership. A head of sales builds and runs the team; for comparison, IT Jobs Watch puts the median advertised salary for a head of sales at £75,000, from IT-sector permanent job ads. BDRs who prefer partnerships and larger deals to team management often head for business development leadership instead: see fractional business development director roles. For the go-to-market thinking that sits over all of it, our sister site gtm.quest covers strategy in depth.
07/ questions
BDR jobs FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a business development representative.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
Bring the brief. We architect the team.
A shortlist of 3–5 with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting.
