Business Development Representative

Northwind Talent Partners helps mid-market companies hire the people they can't find on their own. For fifteen years we've placed contract and permanent talent in finance, operations, and go-to-market teams across the Midwest — and we've grown almost entirely on reputation and the relationships our team builds. Our Business Development Representatives start those relationships.

This is the first seat on our revenue team and the first conversation a prospective client has with Northwind. You'll find companies that are scaling, growing, or quietly struggling to fill a critical role, reach out with something genuinely useful to say, and earn that first meeting. It's an outbound role with real ownership of a territory, real coaching, and a clear path forward — most of our recruiters and account executives started right here.

What you'll do

• Own a territory of target accounts: research who's hiring, who's growing, and where a staffing partner would actually help — and build a point of view before you ever reach out.
• Run thoughtful outbound across email, phone, and LinkedIn. We care about qualified meetings booked, not dials for their own sake — five well-researched conversations beat fifty generic ones.
• Open conversations with a relevant observation, not a pitch. Lead with what you noticed about their business.
• Qualify honestly: understand the role, the urgency, and the budget, and book the discovery call only when there's a real fit. A meeting that wastes a recruiter's time helps no one.
• Keep a clean, well-noted pipeline in our CRM (Salesforce + Outreach) so the recruiter who takes the call walks in with context.
• Partner with senior recruiters on handoffs, and bring back what you hear in-market — the objections, the timing, the patterns — so we sharpen our messaging.

What you'll bring

• A year or more in a role where you reached out to people who didn't know you yet — SDR/BDR, inside sales, recruiting, fundraising, or hospitality/retail where you owned outreach or upsell. We hire for instincts and grit over a specific résumé.
• Resilience that's actually been tested. You've had a slow stretch, treated it as information, changed something, and come back — and you can tell us how.
• Genuine curiosity about other people's businesses. You like figuring out how a company makes money and where it hurts.
• Clear, warm, concise communication, in writing and on the phone.
• Coachability: you ask for feedback, you try the thing, and you adjust week to week.
• Comfort with a CRM and the discipline to keep it honest.

Nice to have

• Experience selling a service or an intangible (where trust is the product), not just a SKU.
• Exposure to staffing, recruiting, or professional services.
• Familiarity with Outreach, Salesloft, Apollo, or LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

What we offer

• $52,000–$60,000 base, with on-target earnings of $80,000–$90,000 through uncapped commission on booked-and-held meetings and the placements they lead to.
• A structured 30/60/90 ramp with a dedicated mentor, plus weekly call coaching.
• A real promotion path: BDR → Senior BDR → Recruiter or Account Executive, with most promotions inside 18 months.
• Hybrid: three days a week in our Chicago (River North) office, two from home.
• Full medical, dental, and vision; 401(k) match; 20 days PTO plus the week between Christmas and New Year's.

The details

• Reports to the Director of Business Development; you'll join a team of six BDRs and work alongside twelve recruiters.
• Hybrid in Chicago, IL. You must be able to work in the US without sponsorship.

Northwind Talent Partners is an equal-opportunity employer. We hire on substance — what you've done and how you think — and we're committed to a fair, inclusive process for every candidate.