The posting
Fully remote, Toronto area preferred · Full-time
About Katana
Katana is a remote-first, AI-first SaaS company that builds powerful inventory and manufacturing software for 1,500+ businesses that make and sell physical products around the world.
We've just stepped into an exciting new phase of expansion: moving beyond small merchants into a larger market of modern, multi-channel, multi-location businesses. With that growth come bigger opportunities, more complex problems, and the chance to shape how we scale. Our 100+ person team across 10+ countries is building what's next, together.
And that's where you come in.
If you're good at business development, you've probably been handed a sequence, a dial target and a list someone else built. Success is measured in meetings booked, whether or not they ever turn into anything, and the pipeline you create disappears into someone else's number.
This role is the opposite of that.
Real ownership. You won't be running a pre-written cadence. You'll build our win-back, no-show recovery and nurture motions while they're still taking shape, and your name is on the pipeline they create.
Speed. Test an angle Monday, see it in pipeline by Friday. Every experiment has a clear hypothesis, a success bar and a kill date, so you learn fast and nothing drags on.
Visibility. You'll have a direct line to Commercial Leadership. You're measured on qualified opportunities, not activity, so your impact is seen and attributed.
A credential that travels. "I built the pipeline engine behind Katana's Advantage motion" is a better story than being BDR #30 working a volume dialler, and that first-mover story counts for even more this early in the AI era.
This isn't a role for someone who wants to hit send on 200 emails a day. It's for someone who'd rather have 20 sharp conversations that turn into real deals, at a company moving fast enough that your work shows up in the results within weeks, not quarters.
About the role
This is a new role, and a foundational one.
You'll be the first BDR dedicated to Advantage, our key go-to-market motion. Advantage is our high-touch motion for growing brands, typically $10–100M in revenue, whose operations have outgrown an off-the-shelf setup. They run multiple integrations, EDI, custom workflows and connected systems, and they need Katana to adapt to how they work. They're buying a solution, not just a subscription.
You'll report to our VP of Revenue and create qualified opportunities for our Account Executives.
To be clear about scope: this isn't a volume outbound seat. Most of your work is with people who already know Katana: inbound leads, prospects who booked a demo and didn't show, deals we lost, and past contacts who are back in market. Where you do run outbound, it's narrow, ICP-only and experiment-driven. You're measured on Closed Won business and qualified Advantage opportunities created, not on meetings booked.
You won't start from a blank list. There's a pool of lost deals, missed demos and past contacts ready to work from your first week, so you'll be producing results in days, not months.
The motion is already live, and still taking shape. You'll sharpen it, scale it, and make it yours.
What you'll do
Convert inbound into qualified pipeline
- Work alongside our Sales team with fast follow-up and tight qualification, so more leads become qualified Advantage opportunities.
- Qualify against a clear standard: a real business problem the prospect can put numbers on, and needs that go beyond what an off-the-shelf setup can handle.
Recover demo no-shows
- Follow up the same day on every booked demo that doesn't happen, and rebook it within 48 hours.
- Own this as a standing workstream, with a clear backlog and baseline you set up with RevOps.
Win back lost deals
- Run structured win-back campaigns on closed-lost opportunities, starting with recent lost Advantage pursuits and expanding into the wider lost pool.
- Work out why a deal was lost, and whether what's changed since gives it a reason to restart.
Turn nurture into conversations
- Move in-market leads and past contacts from passive nurture into real conversations with Sales.
Run selective outbound experiments
- Design and run narrow, ICP-only outbound experiments, no more than two at a time.
- Write the hypothesis, success bar and kill date before launch, and stop anything that misses its bar.
What success looks like
- First 30 days: You're not warming up on the sidelines. From week one you're recovering demo no-shows, following up the same day and rebooking within 48 hours. You've agreed with RevOps what "qualified" means, built your no-show backlog, and launched your first win-back campaign on recent lost Advantage deals. By the end of the month, you've helped set the baseline your targets are built on, and your first outbound experiment is live, with its hypothesis, success bar and kill date written down.
- By 60 days: You've read the results of your first campaign and made a call: double down or kill it. Nurture conversions are live, win-backs are reaching into the wider lost pool, and you're creating qualified Advantage opportunities against a target set from your own baseline. You can explain which sources and angles convert, and which ones don't.
- By 90 days: No-show recovery, win-backs, nurture and outbound experiments are running as repeatable motions, not one-off campaigns. You're consistently hitting your qualified-opportunity target, and your pipeline is a visible part of what our Account Executives are closing in Q1. You've written down what works, so the playbook you built is the one every future BDR inherits.
What we're looking for
What you can do
- You've worked as a BDR or SDR in B2B SaaS for a few years, consistently hitting or exceeding quota, and you can point to pipeline, and Closed Won business, that started with you, not just meetings you booked.
- You come from inventory, supply chain, manufacturing, ERP or operations software, or you've worked in the kinds of businesses our customers run. You can talk stock, production and fulfilment from the first call.
- You can spot complexity on a first call. You quickly tell the difference between a business that needs one simple integration and one whose systems landscape needs real solution design.
- You can hold a credible first conversation with an Operations Manager, a Finance lead and a founder, and you can tell what each of them actually cares about.
- You qualify hard. You'd rather pass on a meeting than hand an Account Executive a bad one.
- You write messages that get replies, including from people who've said no once or gone quiet.
- You run outbound as an experiment: you form a hypothesis, set a bar, read the results honestly and kill what isn't working.
- You keep your CRM clean because you know attribution depends on it. HubSpot experience is a plus.
Nice to have
- You've sold into growing SMBs that need something more tailored than an off-the-shelf plan.
- You use AI tools to research accounts, personalise outreach and move faster.
- You've worked somewhere the motion was still taking shape, so ambiguity reads as opportunity rather than risk.
Mindset & Ways of Working
- Self-directed. Nobody hands you a daily task list. You see what needs doing and do it.
- Hungry. You want your number to be visible, and you want it to be big.
- Fast learner. You ramp on a product in weeks, not quarters, and you ask sharp questions while you do it.
- Curious about the product. You want to understand how a customer actually runs, because that's where your best conversations come from.
- Built for pace. If you need long planning cycles, layers of approval and a fully built playbook before you start, this isn't the role for you. Here, results show up within weeks.
- Adaptable. We change often and fast, and this should energise you, not scare you.
Compensation
- Base salary: $60,000 - $75,000 CAD annual, depending on demonstrated skill and seniority
- OTE: $85,000 - $100,000 CAD annual
What we offer
- A competitive, market-aligned OTE
- Employee Stock Option Program: you share in what you build
- Time off that's genuinely encouraged: statutory annual leave aligned with local requirements, with a global minimum of 4 weeks, 3 paid health days annually, and your birthday off, because it should actually feel like a day off
- Fully paid 1-month sabbatical + 1,000 EUR travel budget after every four years at Katana: time to reset, explore, or focus on personal growth
- Home office stipend to help you create a setup that works for you
- Health & wellness package through Sun Life
- Modern tools and tech, including AI-enabled tools that help you work smarter and stay focused on high-impact work
Automated Screening & AI Disclosure: We use automated tools including AI to help review applications and filter candidates. Final decisions are always made by people. If you're in a place that requires it, we'll ask your consent. Ask us anytime about what this means.
