BDR Manager in London

About Kernel

Kernel provides enterprise RevOps teams with agent-first company data for enterprise operations. We’ve raised a $14M Series A from top VCs and operators at Plaid, OpenAI, Slack and others to build the AI-native alternative to Dun & Bradstreet’s entity and hierarchy data. RevOps teams at companies like Navan, Gong, Mistral, and AlphaSense use Kernel to build and maintain confidence in their CRM company data, eliminating duplicates and broken hierarchies without inhumane levels of manual review. The result is territories that can be defended, credibility with sales and leadership, and AI initiatives that actually work because the underlying company data is trustworthy. Our data management platform combines entity-level intelligence with mass-action tooling to give RevOps teams the data quality and control needed to plan confidently and deploy AI successfully.

The Role

We have strong product market fit. In 2025 we grew ~5x with world class net dollar retention, mostly from founder-led sales, and now have AEs hitting quota with an emerging playbook. We’re looking for a BDR Manager to build and scale our outbound engine as we accelerate in 2026. You’ll own a team of ~12 BDRs and be responsible for the pipeline that fuels our growth. You will report to Dave Bentham (Head of Sales) and work closely with our AEs, marketing, and leadership team to make sure the top of funnel is consistently feeding high-quality pipeline.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Work with Dave and the rest of leadership to define ICP, targeting, and outbound messaging.
• Translate company targets into clear, measurable BDR goals and ensure pipeline expectations are distributed strategically across the team.
• Continuously iterate on outbound plays, channels, and sequences to improve conversion at every stage.
• Develop the BDR team to be a talent pool for the rest of the organisation through a culture of constant learning.

Set the team

• Manage and develop a team of ~12 BDRs across inbound and outbound.
• Work alongside our recruiters to grow the team as we scale.
• Be accountable for team performance. Coach underperformers, promote top performers, and set a high bar across the board.
• Nurturing the best people and helping them be ready for the next role is crucial.

Set the operating cadence

• Define qualification criteria and handoff processes that set AEs up to close.
• Build repeatable outbound plays that convert, and partner with marketing where needed.
• Establish pipeline generation rigor: activity metrics, and predictable output.
• Run weekly team reviews, call coaching sessions, and continuous improvement loops.

You should have

• 4+ years in business development and/or outbound sales, with at least some time managing a BDR or SDR team.
• Experience scaling a BDR team (e.g. growing from a handful of reps to 10+) or managing a team of that size.
• Experience building or scaling a BDR function, not just inheriting one.
• Strong instincts for messaging, targeting, and what makes outbound actually work.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity: you can build process, playbooks, and territory strategy without heavy existing structure.
• Bonus: the deeper your knowledge of RevOps, data, and GTM tools the better.

This role may not be for you if you:

• Need lots of structure or polished specs.
• Like spending weeks agonising over a single initiative, or don’t want to rapidly iterate and run experiments.
• Require detailed instructions.

This role is definitely not for you if you:

• Prefer remote or hybrid work (requires 4+ days in London office) and/or can’t travel to clients (US+Europe).
• Don’t enjoy the pace of an early-stage startup.
• Want to carry your own deals instead of building and coaching a team.

What We Offer

We will do our best to offer you the ride of a lifetime. It will not be easy, but it will be thrilling.

• Salary: £80-120k OTE + equity
• 24 days holiday per year + bank holidays
• 2 weeks work-from-anywhere
• Pension plan
• Top-spec equipment and central London office
• Free dinner at the office
• Team events and dinners
• Work directly with our sales leadership to build the outbound engine behind enterprise AI

Visas & Relocation

We can sponsor visas or offer relocation for exceptional candidates.

Interview Process

• Stage 1 – 30-minute intro call with Charlie.
• Stage 2 – 30-minute Hiring Manager screen with Zak. You’ll discuss your sales experience and motivations.
• Stage 3 – Case study and time on site - Short outbound role play and mock prospecting task (≤ 2 hours prep).
• Final Stage – Founders interview with Anders (CEO) and Marcus for culture and values alignment. If there is mutual fit, we move to references and offer.