Business Development Lead
$160k - $220k USD
BD Lead @Kombo
📍 NYC (On-site)
📍 $160,000-$220,000 + equity
⏰ Full-time
📌 Reports to: Head of Growth
TL;DR
Kombo (YC S22) builds the infrastructure layer for hire-to-retire employee data. We power recruitment platforms, benefits providers, and spend management tools by giving them reliable access to candidate and employee data across any HRIS, LMS, ATS, or payroll system their customers use.
We are looking for a Business Development Lead to build and lead a best-in-class outbound organization and make pipeline generation predictable, scalable, and high quality. This is a critical leadership role with direct ownership of one of our top-priority metrics as a business, and people management responsibility for a growing BDR team.
This role comes at a pivotal moment: outbound is already our primary growth engine, and we are now entering the next chapter – scaling it from strong early traction into a world-class, multi-region operation.
About Kombo
Kombo is building the unified API for HR, payroll, LMS, and recruiting systems. Instead of integrating separately with dozens of platforms, companies integrate once with Kombo to access data from over 100 systems. We abstract away differences in data models, authentication, and API behavior.
Since going through Y Combinator in 2022, we:
Raised $25M+ of funding from Y Combinator, Acadian Ventures, 486 and other investors
Grew from 0→ $10M+ ARR and hundreds of customers (growth-wise among the ~top-5% of VC-backed startups)
Scaled to process data for the equivalent of 10% of Germany's workforce
Grew to a team of 50+ team members (pictures!) in 2x offices
Kombo is an international company by default. We operate across two main hubs (NYC 🇺🇸 and Berlin 🇩🇪) and work with a globally distributed team representing 20+ nationalities.
The Role
As the company’s first Business Development Lead, you will define how GTM outbound works at Kombo for the next several years. You will own the performance, structure, and evolution of Kombo’s BDR team. You will lead a team of 5 BDRs today and scale it to 15+ over the next year, while ensuring outbound pipeline quality and consistency. This is a first of its kind role at Kombo that opened up as the company experiences high growth, and is critical for the company’s continued success over the next years.
What You'll Be Responsible For
This role is for someone who wants a steep career progression, and full ownership of the GTM team. You will work directly with the founders, first employees, and own mission-critical business outcomes, shape strategy, and build the systems and team that turn outbound into a predictable growth engine at scale.
Outbound Pipeline Ownership
Own the global outbound pipeline generated by the Business Development team (all GEOs (U.S., Europe, etc.) and segments (SME to ENT)
Translate revenue and pipeline targets into:
Per-rep goals
Meeting and conversion benchmarks
Capacity planning
Ensure pipeline quality and downstream conversion
Align team incentives with pipeline outcomes
Team Design & Scaling
Own BDR hiring end-to-end
Scale the team from 5 high-performing BDRs to 15+
Design and continuously improve onboarding and ramp plans
Decide when to hire additional headcount vs improving efficiency through coaching, process, or tooling
Define clear expectations and progression paths for BDRs
People Management & Coaching
Lead onboarding and ramp for new hires
Run ongoing performance management with clear expectations and direct feedback
Coach BDRs on:
Outbound messaging and positioning
Account prioritization
Meeting quality and qualification
Build a strong performance culture focused on accountability, learning, and improvement
Strategy & Systems
Educate senior leadership on market trends and developments
Translate strategic company-wide direction into excellence in the GTM team and pods
Build and maintain outbound playbooks and messaging frameworks
Design repeatable, scalable outbound systems that reduce dependency on individual performance
How Success Is Measured
Team outbound pipeline attainment
Percentage of BDRs consistently hitting target
Pipeline per BDR over time
Pipeline quality and conversion rates
Time-to-ramp for new hires
Quality and retention of hires
Who We're Looking For
Relevant US experience leading and scaling outbound or BDR teams in B2B SaaS, coaching and developing high performers
Experience doing the job of the BDR. We believe the best leaders sat in the seat themselves, and credibility with the team comes from having done the work.
Strong systems thinker who can reverse-engineer pipeline targets into execution plans
Talent Magnet – attract top-performers, and build a Tier 1 GTM team by maintaining a high bar for quality in hiring and execution
Clear, direct communicator who aligns teams and leadership
Comfortable owning outcomes in an environment with high expectations and autonomy
Why Join Kombo
An international, ambitious, and kind team
Kombo brings together people from many different countries and backgrounds, with shared values around radical ownership, curiosity, and high standards. We work hard, celebrate often, and care deeply about the people we build with – whether that’s weekly team moments, off-sites across Europe, or showing up for each other day to day.
A career-defining leadership opportunity at the scaling stage
As the company grows, this role has a clear path to broader GTM leadership scope.You’ll join Kombo early enough to shape how things work, yet late enough to scale with confidence. Within a year, you’ll build and lead a 15+ person outbound team across regions, with direct ownership of most of the company’s pipeline. You’ll join around employee 50, help scale to 100+ by year-end, and continue building as the company doubles again the following year.
A culture of continuous personal growth and learning
You’ll work closely with the Head of Growth and GTM leadership, with real influence over strategy and execution. We actively learn from experienced operators and advisors from high-performing scale-ups (leaders at companies like Lattice, Taktile, Swan, etc.), and we invest in becoming a top 5% GTM team globally by learning fast and improving continuously.
An environment designed for great work
We believe great results come from sustainable working environments. Our offices are built to support focus and energy – with healthy food and drinks available throughout the day, dinner when you’re staying late, fitness membership, and a setup that makes it easy to do your best work.
Talk To Us
If being Kombo’s 1st BD lead — building and scaling a top-performing team – excites you (last quarter’s average attainment was 114%), plus you’re looking for high ownership & growth, please reach out to Madalina even if you don't check every box. We’d love to meet you. 😊