Strategic OB Sales Development Lead

Aptiv•San Diego, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Wind River is a global leader in delivering software for mission-critical intelligent systems. For more than four decades, the company has been an innovator and pioneer, powering billions of systems that require the highest levels of security, safety, and reliability. Wind River helps customers across automotive, aerospace, defense, industrial, medical, and telecommunications industries solve complex technology challenges on their journey toward the new intelligent machine economy. The company’s software powers generation after generation of the safest, most secure systems in the world. Examples include playing a key role in NASA space missions such as Artemis I, the James Webb Space Telescope, and multiple Mars rovers. We’ve achieved recent 5G milestones including the world’s first successful 5G data session with Verizon and building one of the largest Open RAN networks in the world with Vodafone. The company has received industry recognition for its technology innovation and leadership, and for its workplace culture, including global Great Place to Work certification and being named a “Top Workplace” for ten consecutive years. If you want to be part of a unique culture where the lived experience is based on our cultural attributes of growth mindset, customer-focus, and diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging, come join us and help advance the future software defined world. About the opportunity Wind River’s Corporate Sales team sells to all levels of decision makers within Wind River’s prospective customers that span the Enterprise Industrial, Auto, Aerospace, Government & Defense, and Telco industries. The Strategic Outbound Sales Development Representative (OB SDR) is an outbound lead generation position responsible for focused outbound efforts, closing prospects for discovery meetings that, in turn, lead to business opportunities while building new customer relationships. Reporting to the Director/Manager of Sales Development, the SDR is often the first contact for many Wind River prospects via outbound telemarketing calls, emails and social touches. The OB SDR qualifies prospects, uncovers business priorities and challenges, to develop quality meetings for Wind River’s account teams. At the front end of the process, the OB SDR is responsible for identifying accounts/prospects in their assigned territory then passing them to the appropriate account executive. The OB SDR role is a development position for a person aspiring for advancement in our sales organization.

Requirements

Cold calling and prospecting: Demonstrated ability to engage decision-makers through outbound calls, emails, and LinkedIn, with a track record of meeting or exceeding quotas.
Technical articulation: Ability to understand and communicate complex technical solutions, such as Wind River’s cloud-to-edge platforms, as value to technical and non-technical stakeholders (e.g., CTOs, engineers)
CRM proficiency: Experience with sales tools like Salesforce, 6sense, LinkedIn Sales Navigator and other sales engagement tools to manage pipelines and track interactions
Research and personalization: Skilled at researching accounts and prospects (e.g., telecom NEPs like Nokia or automotive OEMs like Volkswagen) to tailor outreach, addressing specific pain points like edge latency or security
Resilience and self-motivation: Comfortable handling rejection in a high-volume outbound role, maintaining a positive attitude, and driving results independently
Collaboration: Ability to work closely with account teams and marketing to execute targeted prospecting strategies, providing feedback on campaign effectiveness
Time management: Strong organizational skills to prioritize high-potential leads and manage a robust pipeline in a fast-paced environment
Customer focus: Adept at building rapport, understanding client needs and retell a customer story to build consensus about our value to the prospect (e.g., secure edge-to-cloud solutions that leverage open-source flexibility and operational efficiency to minimize cloud costs)
1-3 years of B2B sales experience: Proven success in lead generation and qualifying prospects in a professional, metrics-driven environment, ideally in the software or technology sector
Software industry exposure: Familiarity with selling SaaS, cloud-native platforms, or embedded systems solutions, particularly to enterprise clients in telecom, automotive, or aerospace
Education: Bachelor's degree in business, marketing, computer science, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.

Nice To Haves

Technical knowledge of Linux, edge computing, or IoT is a plus
Resilient and Persistent: Comfortable with rejection in high-volume cold outreach, maintaining motivation to hit/exceed quotas in long enterprise sales cycles
Curious and Quick-Learning: Eager to grasp complex solutions (e.g., ServiceNow’s AI workflows, Aptiv’s edge intelligence) and translate them into customer value for diverse industries
Collaborative: Team-oriented, willing to sync with marketing, AEs, and product teams to refine messaging and ensure smooth lead handoffs
Confident Communicator: Articulate and professional, able to engage C-suite and technical buyers with tailored, solution-focused pitches emphasizing security and efficiency
Adaptable: Flexibly tailors outreach strategies to diverse enterprise prospects (e.g., telecom CTO vs enterprise IT engineer), adjusting messaging to address unique industry needs and feedback
Data-Driven: Leverages CRM analytics and intent signals to prioritize high-intent accounts, optimizing outreach for maximum meeting quality and pipeline impact.
Empathetic Listener: Actively listens to prospects’ pain points during discovery (e.g., cloud cost overruns, edge security), building trust to qualify leads and align solutions with client goals
Organized and Disciplined: Manages high-volume outreach (e.g., 50-100 daily multi-channel touches), with strong time management, ensuring timely follow-ups and accurate CRM documentation for seamless team collaboration.
Results-Oriented: Consistently meets or exceeds KPIs (e.g., activities, discovery meetings, opportunities) by refining approaches to drive pipeline growth and revenue outcomes

Responsibilities

Identify prospect’s business priorities and challenges within new, high-intent accounts, uncovering obstacles to their goals and pinpointing relevant new business opportunities
Research key accounts and stakeholders, using sales engagement tools to deliver prompt follow-up, spark interest, and arrange deeper discovery meetings for the account executive team.
Learn and maintain in-depth knowledge of Wind River solutions, use cases, customer stories, industry trends and competition
Knowledge of or ability to learn enterprise IT cloud infrastructure, telecom (e.g., 5G, Open RAN), automotive (e.g., ADAS), or aerospace (e.g., mission-critical systems) to align Wind River solutions with industry challenges
Consistently achieve or exceed performance goals and pipeline revenue that results in closed won opportunities for the AE team.