Europe
Sales Development Representative (SDR), Robotics & Automation
This is a role for an ambitious, entrepreneurial and fast-learning commercial operator to become Cenotian's first Sales Development Representative and build the top of the funnel for the world's leading asset-backed financing platform for robotics and industrial automation.
With strong institutional backing and a mandate to scale rapidly, we are building a world-class commercial organization. The Sales Development Representative turns a finite, well-mapped market into qualified first conversations across every Cenotian offering: financing, Technical Qualification Services (TQS), Value Engineering, Compliance and the services that follow.
Context
Robotics and industrial automation are entering an explosive adoption phase, comparable to the formative super-cycle decades of aircraft leasing, telecom tower infrastructure and hyperscale data centers. Yet a structural financing and commercialization gap constrains deployment at scale. System integrators and machine builders pay for components and people months before their customers pay, and good orders slip for lack of cash. Operators postpone investment, resist capex and stranded risk, and struggle to decide what to automate first. From January 2027, the new EU Machinery Regulation adds a compliance burden to every machine placed on the market. Cenotian works alongside integrators, machine builders, robotics companies and their end customers with a package that does not exist elsewhere: capital for projects, technical qualification, value engineering, compliance and new ways to buy. Everything we offer is our own, from capital to technical services. Our market is technical and relationship-driven. Most of the companies we call have never heard of us yet, and the first conversation decides whether there will be a second.
Position overview
The Sales Development Representative owns the first stage of Cenotian's commercial funnel: research, outreach, first conversation, qualification and handover. You carry targets for qualified meetings and accepted opportunities across all offerings, and you work every week inside a structured, fast and data-driven sales method. This is the first SDR seat at Cenotian. You will run the playbook and, with the commercial team, write the parts of it that do not exist yet. Strong performance opens a clear path to an Account Executive or Market Lead role. Languages: native Italian and fluent English; fluent German is a strong plus.
- Reports to:
- Head of Commercial / CCO
- Location:
- Europe
Key responsibilities
- 01
Pipeline across every Cenotian offering
- Every Cenotian offering is a way into an account. Your job is to open the right one for each company and create pipeline across all of them.
- Financing - for integrators and machine builders with more orders than cash, and operators who want to deploy automation without capex. The opening: capital that covers the gap from order to final payment, purchase and resale with payment in instalments, rental and other as-a-service structures. You hand over a booked call with an Account Executive, with the basic project facts already captured.
- Technical Qualification Services (TQS) - for system integrators, machine builders and emerging robotics companies. The opening: a free, independent qualification against Cenotian's standard, with a score, recommendations and benchmarking against qualified peers. You hand over a qualification booked with the TQS team.
- Value Engineering - for small, mid-sized and mid-market manufacturers planning automation. The opening: a vendor-neutral roadmap covering what to automate, the economics, the scope and the right qualified suppliers. You hand over a booked on-site meeting with the Value Engineering lead.
- Compliance - for machine builders and integrators facing the EU Machinery Regulation 2023/1230. The opening: a free guided platform that builds and maintains the technical file per machine, with expert consultation on top. You hand over a booked platform onboarding or activation.
- Further services - for partners and customers across the ecosystem. The opening: distributor and partner programmes, cybersecurity, procurement and new services as they launch. You hand over to the relevant owner, with context in the CRM.
- Treat the offerings as connected. A compliance onboarding or a free qualification today becomes next quarter's financing conversation; a value engineering roadmap becomes the order book qualified integrators want to bid on.
- Choose the opening offering for each account from evidence: what the company builds, its size and growth, its project pipeline and the signal that made it worth calling.
- Track each account's progress across offerings, so the commercial team sees where every company stands in all of them.
- 02
Research, prioritization and outreach
- Build and enrich target lists across system integrators, machine builders, automation distributors, industrial operators and venture-backed robotics companies.
- Classify every account before it is called, using public data and the signals in our CRM, and call in the right order. The market is finite, so no lead gets burned.
- Run multi-channel outreach (phone, email, LinkedIn, events) against weekly campaign targets.
- Open with the bottleneck the prospect already knows: the second job that slips for lack of cash, the investment that stalls, the regulation that weighs on everyone.
- 03
First conversation, qualification and handover
- Run first calls with owners, managing directors, sales leaders, finance managers and plant leaders, and secure the meeting with the right Cenotian expert.
- Qualify against a clear bar, disqualify weak opportunities early and protect the team from false pipeline.
- Capture the facts the expert needs so the next call starts on value: project type, order size, payment milestones, timing and decision-makers.
- Hand over with a complete record and stay on the account until the meeting has happened.
- Know where to stop. You create interest and book the decision-maker; rates, structures, pricing and eligibility are discussed only by Finance and the Account Executives.
- 04
Experiments and the sales method
- Work in weekly sprints: test a pitch, a channel or a segment, measure the result, correct and restart.
- Report every week what converted, what did not and why, with data.
- Improve scripts, sequences, objection handling and qualification questions after every campaign.
- 05
Events, channel and community
- Attend trade fairs, open days and association events, and turn contacts into meetings.
- Work leads from distributors and partner programmes with the same speed and discipline as your own.
- Help build a community of integrators, machine builders, distributors and end customers who see Cenotian as the reference point for getting projects moving.
- 06
CRM discipline
- Keep the CRM current every day: one owner per company, one funnel definition, every activity logged.
- Treat the CRM as your own tool. Without clean data, the experiments cannot be interpreted.
You'll know it's working when
Qualified meetings are booked every week across financing, TQS, Value Engineering and Compliance, and the experts accept them.
Accounts opened through one offering progress into a second, most often into financing.
Conversion by offering, segment and channel is measured and improves from sprint to sprint.
Account Executives start their calls on value because the context is already in the CRM.
The playbook is better in month six than on day one, and part of it is yours.
Candidate profile
Experience
- We are looking for evidence of exceptional commercial drive, resourcefulness and results. There is no single career path into this role, and exceptional candidates are welcome regardless of years of experience.
- You may have built pipeline in outbound sales, business development or inside sales, particularly in industrial technology, automation, equipment finance or another complex B2B market.
- You may have founded a business, built a customer base, launched a market or taken responsibility for growth where the playbook did not yet exist.
- You may come from engineering, manufacturing or another technical or operational role and have demonstrated the initiative to win customers, build partnerships or create commercial opportunities.
- You may be early in your career or a recent graduate with concrete evidence of unusual initiative and commercial achievement, through work, a venture or another undertaking.
- Whatever your background, you can show what you personally built or achieved, with specific examples and numbers where available. You are ready to spend substantial time on the phone with industrial decision-makers.
Personality
- Extremely ambitious and entrepreneurial, with the appetite to build Cenotian's first outbound motion and grow into greater commercial responsibility.
- Takes ownership of outcomes. Finds a way to reach the right person, follows through and learns when an approach fails.
- Curious about how machines are built, sold and paid for, and able to learn unfamiliar technical and financial concepts quickly.
- Combines pace and persistence with judgment: knows when to pursue an opportunity, change the approach or walk away.
- Enjoys testing ideas, measuring results and improving a method that others can use.
- Direct, resilient and comfortable with candid feedback in an intense founding environment.
Skills and competencies
- Strong written and spoken communication in Italian and English. Fluent German is a strong plus.
- Commercial judgment to research an account, identify a likely bottleneck and choose a relevant Cenotian offering for the first conversation.
- Ability to earn the attention of owners, managing directors and plant leaders, ask precise questions and qualify opportunities honestly.
- Resourcefulness with public data, AI tools and CRM signals to prioritize accounts and improve outreach.
- Discipline to track activity and conversion, run experiments and hand over opportunities with the context the next expert needs.
- Financial fluency in down payments, payment milestones and cash timing, or the ability and appetite to acquire it quickly.
Organizational context
The Sales Development Representative will work most closely with:
- Head of Commercial / CCO: manager; campaign targets, ICP and qualification bar.
- Account Executives and Market Leads: receive financing opportunities and close them.
- Technical Qualification: runs the qualifications you book.
- Value Engineering: runs discovery and roadmaps with operators.
- Compliance: platform onboarding and consultation.
- RevOps: CRM, enrichment, data quality and reporting.
- Special Missions Group: new offerings and campaigns before permanent handover.
- The SDR owns first contact and the qualified handover. Decisions on structure, pricing, eligibility and delivery remain with the relevant owners.
Apply for this role
To apply, answer in a few lines: which three companies would you call first, which Cenotian offering would you open with for each, and why? A CV is welcome, not required.