Senior Sales Operations Manager (BDR)

Apollo.io is the leading go-to-market solution for revenue teams, trusted by over 500,000 companies and millions of users globally, from rapidly growing startups to some of the world's largest enterprises. Founded in 2015, the company is one of the fastest growing companies in SaaS, raising approximately $250 million to date and valued at $1.6 billion. Apollo.io provides sales and marketing teams with easy access to verified contact data for over 210 million B2B contacts and 35 million companies worldwide, along with tools to engage and convert these contacts in one unified platform. By helping revenue professionals find the most accurate contact information and automating the outreach process, Apollo.io turns prospects into customers. Apollo raised a series D in 2023 and is backed by top-tier investors, including Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, and more, and counts the former President and COO of Hubspot, JD Sherman, among its board members. About the Role Apollo is seeking a Senior Sales Operations Manager to lead the strategy, execution, and scaling of our Business Development Representative (BDR) program. This role is critical to Apollo’s growth engine and will partner closely with Sales, Marketing, RevOps, Enablement, and Product to ensure our outbound motion is efficient, scalable, and predictable. You will own the end-to-end operational health of the team’s outbound funnel, from target account strategy and lead flows to productivity, conversion optimization, and pipeline forecasting. This is a highly cross-functional role that requires exceptional judgment, strong analytical rigor, and the ability to translate complexity into clear, actionable guidance for a fast-growing BDR organization. This role is designed for a senior operator who thrives in ambiguity, sets long-term strategy, and delivers high-impact programs that materially improve revenue outcomes—while also serving as a role model and culture leader within Apollo. What You’ll Do Key Outcomes: Success in this role will be measured by your ability to: • Scale Apollo’s BDR program by 3x: Design and execute the operating model, capacity planning, tooling, and process changes required to sustainably triple BDR output while maintaining or improving quality and efficiency. • Forecast BDR-sourced pipeline within ±5% accuracy: Build a trusted, data-driven forecasting framework that enables leadership to accurately predict BDR-sourced pipeline and revenue contribution across quarters. • Meaningfully improve outbound funnel conversion rates: Identify bottlenecks across the outbound motion (targeting, sequencing, messaging, activity mix, handoffs) and lead cross-functional initiatives that drive step-function improvements in conversion and productivity. • Deliver a tightly integrated sales & marketing motion: Operationalize Account-Based Marketing (ABM), Demand Generation, and MQL/PQL processes so BDRs are focused on the highest-intent opportunities and can act quickly on marketing signals. • Enable faster ramp and sustained productivity for BDRs: Distill complex data, processes, and insights into simple, actionable frameworks that empower junior reps to ramp faster, self-diagnose issues, and consistently hit performance benchmarks. Qualifications and Experience • 7-10 years working in a Sales Operations or related-Revenue Operations role • BDR & Sales Development Expertise: Deep experience partnering with Sales Development or Business Development teams in high-growth B2B environments. Strong understanding of outbound motions, capacity planning, territory design, quota setting, and performance management for BDR teams. • Integrated Sales & Marketing Operations: Proven experience designing and operating integrated sales and marketing motions, including ABM, Demand Generation, and MQL/PQL frameworks. Ability to align stakeholders across Marketing, Sales, and RevOps around shared goals, definitions, and success metrics. • Sales Technology & Apollo Expertise: Hands-on experience with Apollo.io or similar AI-enabled sales engagement platforms (e.g., Outreach, Salesloft). Ability to leverage automation, data enrichment, scoring, and AI-driven insights to drive productivity and smarter prioritization. • Analytical Rigor & Funnel Optimization: Exceptional ability to uncover root causes of productivity and performance issues using data. Experience launching and leading large, cross-functional projects that improve outbound funnel efficiency and conversion rates. • Enablement Through Simplicity: Strong communicator who can distill complex insights into clear narratives, dashboards, and playbooks. Demonstrated ability to quickly enable and empower junior sales representatives through practical, easy-to-adopt frameworks. • Senior-Level Leadership & Influence: Exercises strong ownership and judgment when navigating ambiguous, open-ended problems. Influences roadmaps and priorities across multiple teams to drive group-wide impact. Acts as a role model