SDR Manager

Fireworks•New York, NY

2d•$160,000 - $200,000

About The Position

We’re hiring our first SDR Manager to help build Fireworks’ business development function from the ground up. You’ll lead, coach, and grow a team of SDRs who qualify inbound interest from developers and enterprises and prospect into high-value target accounts. Together, you’ll create the pipeline that drives our Account Executive team. This is a builder role. You’ll own the team’s performance and development while designing the playbooks, systems, and AI-powered workflows behind our top-of-funnel motion. We’re looking for a hands-on, first-line leader who gets results through great coaching. They should be fluent in AI tooling and process design, let data guide their decisions, and bring a “can do” attitude to every problem. They should be excited to define how sales development works at one of the fastest-growing companies in AI.

Requirements

2–4 years of direct, first-line management experience leading SDR/BDR teams
A proven track record of exceptional coaching and development, with reps promoted into AE or leadership roles and teams that consistently hit or exceed targets
Strong AI tooling and process skills, with hands-on experience building AI workflows that measurably improved sales productivity (e.g., Clay, AI agents, LLM-based prompts and automations)
A data-driven “can do” mindset: you dig into the numbers, spot what’s broken, and fix it yourself rather than waiting for a solution
Experience managing team performance through metrics, funnel analytics, and pipeline forecasting
Prior experience as an individual contributor in sales development or a closing role
Excellent communication and organizational skills, and comfort engaging technical buyers

Nice To Haves

Experience building a sales development function from scratch at a high-growth startup
Background in AI, developer tools, cloud infrastructure, or other technical SaaS
Experience with both high-volume inbound and targeted outbound motions
Fluency with a modern GTM stack (e.g., Salesforce, Outreach, Apollo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Gong)
Passion for developing early-career sales talent and an active interest in the AI/ML space

Responsibilities

Hire, onboard, and lead a team of SDRs, scaling the team as Fireworks grows
Coach reps through regular 1:1s, call and email reviews, and hands-on skill development, building a clear path from BDR to AE
Own team performance across activity, conversion rates, meetings booked, pipeline generated, and quota attainment
Build repeatable playbooks for inbound qualification and outbound prospecting, including ICP, personas, messaging, and AE handoff criteria
Partner with Marketing to quickly convert inbound and product-led signals (signups, usage, events) into qualified opportunities
Design and deploy AI workflows and automations for account research, prioritization, personalization, and reporting, freeing reps to focus on high-value conversations
Continuously audit and improve SDR processes, from lead routing and follow-up speed to sequencing and handoffs, so the team operates efficiently at scale
Build dashboards and reporting that give the team and leadership clear, real-time visibility into funnel health
Use data to find bottlenecks, run experiments, and turn insights into action quickly
Work with Sales leadership and RevOps to align on target accounts, territories, lead routing, and pipeline goals