Strategic OB Sales Development Lead

ABOUT WIND RIVER

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.

Responsibilities & Accountabilities

• 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.

Qualifications

• 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)

Desired Skills & Experience

• 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. Technical knowledge of Linux, edge computing, or IoT is a plus

ABOUT YOU

Core Competencies, Demonstrated Success & Qualifications

• 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

Preference will be given to those candidates with the above noted requirements and familiarity with platform software and the Open Source Community

BENEFITS

• Hybrid work model for workplace flexibility
• Comprehensive health, dental, and life insurance
• Short and long-term disability coverage
• RRSP matching for financial security
• Flexible time-off policies for work-life balance
• Employee assistance program for mental well-being
• Learning benefits, including a LinkedIn Learning subscription and seminars

Join us at Wind River, where we're not just shaping technology; we're shaping the future of a safer, more connected world. Your journey to make a meaningful impact begins here.

APPLICANT PRIVACY NOTICE:

Your privacy is of the utmost importance to us. At Wind River, we strictly adhere to all applicable data privacy laws. Please review Wind River's Applicant Privacy Notice, which can be found here.

Wind River is an Equal Opportunity Employer with a commitment to diversity. We prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation or any other legally protected status.

Compensation
The salary range for this role’s listed grade level is based on On-Target-Earnings (OTE), 70% base+30% commission at currently $100k. Salary ranges are determined through interviews and a review of the education, experience, knowledge, skills, location, and abilities of the applicant, and equity with other team members. Employees in this role are also eligible for the following benefits in accordance with the terms of the Company's plans: health, dental, vision insurance, life insurance, flex time off, eligibility to enroll in 401k, and 12 paid holidays.

Privacy Notice - Active Candidates: https://www.aptiv.com/privacy-notice-active-candidates

Aptiv is an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.