Director, Business Development – Private Equity

829 Studios•Boston, MA

2d•$120,000 - $150,000•Remote

About The Position

Some of 829's best client relationships started the same way: a private equity sponsor brought us into a portfolio company, we delivered, and the story spread. We're now turning that pattern into a channel of its own — and we're looking for the person to build it. As Director of Business Development – Private Equity, you'll work directly with our CEO and founder, and alongside our capital partners at AEA, to open the PE market for 829. You'll help decide who we go after, what we offer them, and how we show up. Then you'll go do it: building relationships with sponsors, operating partners, and value-creation teams, getting introduced into their portfolios, and generating a steady monthly flow of qualified opportunities. When an opportunity is real, you'll team up with our sales leaders to carry it through to a signed program. Your scoreboard is simple: pipeline. Your job is to open doors and fill the top of the funnel with sponsor-backed companies that need what 829 does. You'll carry a monthly pipeline goal, and your commission is tied to it. Closing is something we do together — sourcing and opening is yours. If you've spent years in a quota seat inside someone else's motion and want to build one — with a founder who'll give you room, a capital partner who'll open doors with you, and a clear way to know you're winning — this is that role.

Requirements

You've built pipeline before. You've personally carried and hit a monthly or quarterly pipeline or sourcing number, and you can tell us exactly how you did it.
8+ years in business development, partnerships, or sales — ideally selling marketing or professional services through the private equity channel.
Real relationships in private equity. Operating partners, value-creation leads, portfolio-operations teams — you could sketch a target list with warm paths into each firm today.
A hunter's instinct. You're comfortable generating pipeline from scratch through cold outbound and by activating a network. Opening doors energizes you; managing inherited accounts doesn't.
A builder's mindset. You want to shape a new channel with a founder and a capital partner, not step into a finished motion. Ambiguity doesn't slow you down — you create structure rather than wait for it.
Marketing fluency. You understand the marketing industry, ideally from selling marketing services, and can hold a credible first conversation with a CMO.
Executive presence. You communicate, negotiate, and present with confidence in front of CEOs, CFOs, and operating partners, and you represent 829 the way we'd want to be represented.
A team player. You hand off cleanly, stay close to sales through the deal cycle, and remain coachable.
Proficiency with Google Workspace, HubSpot Sales Hub, ZoomInfo, and modern AI tooling

Nice To Haves

Prior experience at a PE-services or value-creation advisory firm is a plus
Boston or New York strongly preferred; remote candidates considered, but proximity to PE hubs is a real advantage

Responsibilities

Build a new channel with the CEO and AEA
Sit with our CEO and founder to shape the ideal customer profile, pricing, packaging, and program design for sponsor-backed companies — and keep sharpening them based on what you hear in market
Work hand in hand with AEA to tap their network for warm introductions, refine how we position 829 to sponsors, and make our wins visible across the PE ecosystem
Build genuine relationships with partners, operating partners, value-creation leads, and portfolio-operations teams at a focused set of target firms
Make 829 the marketing partner sponsors bring into their portfolios — part of value-creation plans, preferred-vendor lists, and portfolio reviews
Be the face of 829 at PE and industry events
Generate pipeline
Carry a monthly goal for new qualified opportunities from PE firms and their portfolio companies — and own hitting it
Open doors at scale: earn introductions to portfolio-company CEOs, CMOs, and CFOs through your sponsor relationships, and go direct through outbound (email, phone, LinkedIn, events) to the sponsors and portfolio companies we haven't reached yet
Learn what sponsors and their portfolio companies actually need — growth targets, operating pressure, exit timelines — and connect 829's offering to it
Qualify opportunities so the sales team picks up well-scoped deals, and keep a clear view of what's working by partner and by channel
Partner with sales to get deals done
Team with our sales leaders on the opportunities you source — join discovery and scoping, keep the sponsor engaged through the cycle, and help clear whatever stands between us and a signature
Bring the sponsor's context into every deal: who the operating partner is, what the value-creation plan calls for, and how our program maps to it
Work with our delivery leaders so the programs you bring in become the reference stories that earn the next portfolio company
Enable partners and write the playbook
Turn 829's existing wins with sponsor-backed companies into proof points and partner-facing materials that open doors
Teach partners what 829 does well enough that operating partners refer opportunities without you in the room
Keep a regular cadence with each partner firm, run joint pipeline reviews, and watch for new platform and add-on acquisitions to time your outreach
Document what works so the channel can scale beyond you and shape the hires that follow
Use AI as a force multiplier
Lean on modern AI tooling for portfolio research, personalized outreach, repeatable workflows, and pre-call prep — it's how one person covers a market this big