Job Description

Business Development Representative (German-speaking)

📍 Hybrid working available
🗣️ German & English required
📈 Structured progression to Account Executive
🎓 Open to graduates, young professionals, and career changers

This isn't a standard BDR job. It's the start of a sales career.

Most BDR roles give you a script and a target. This one gives you a roadmap.

Ultimo (an IFS company) is a B2B SaaS platform helping asset-intensive organisations manufacturing, utilities, infrastructure, healthcare run safer, more efficient operations. We're building our next generation of sales talent through the Ultimo Sales Academy: a structured 18–24 month programme that develops high-potential people into confident Account Executives.

We're hiring a German-speaking BDR to cover our DACH territory, based alongside our team at IFS HQ in Staines. If you're serious about building a tech sales career and you want to be genuinely developed, not just managed read on.

The Ultimo Sales Academy

The Academy is what makes this role different. It's a deliberate, phased development programme not a job title with a vague promise of progression bolted on.

In your first six months, you'll build the core skills of enterprise SaaS sales: researching target companies, opening meaningful conversations with senior decision-makers, qualifying real opportunities, and mastering the tools that underpin professional outbound sales. You'll work towards an initial KPI target with a structured check-in at three months and a formal review at six.

From months six to twelve, the focus shifts to consistent delivery. You'll take on a full BDR quota, own your pipeline, and collaborate closely with Account Executives and Marketing gaining direct exposure to how enterprise deals develop from first meeting to close.

From month twelve, you begin transitioning into closing. You'll shadow senior AEs, own a mini-territory, build business cases, and start managing opportunities through the pipeline. Strong performers are promoted to Junior AE at the eighteen-month review; others continue developing to twenty-four months.

At every stage, your salary progresses with you. You'll have a dedicated buddy, regular coaching, and milestone reviews that are genuinely developmental not tick-box assessments.

What you'll be doing

As the German-speaking BDR for the DACH Region, you'll be the first commercial touchpoint for future Ultimo customers senior decision-makers in manufacturing, logistics, utilities, and infrastructure businesses across the DACH Region.

Research target accounts and develop a clear understanding of how they operate and what challenges they face
Conduct personalised outreach via phone, email, and LinkedIn in German and English
Qualify prospects, identify genuine business problems, and build early-stage relationships
Book high-quality meetings and hand off well-qualified opportunities to Account Executives
Maintain accurate CRM records and contribute to pipeline reporting
Work closely with Sales, Marketing, and Pre-Sales to understand the full enterprise deal cycle

Who this role is for

We hire for mindset, learning agility, and commercial drive not just for what's on your CV. This role is genuinely open to people at different stages of their career, and the Academy is designed to support all of them.

Recent graduates or final-year students

You have an analytical mind, strong communication skills, and a genuine curiosity about how businesses work. You want a role that offers real structure and coaching not just an entry-level job with an optimistic job title. Any degree background is welcome; an interest in technology or business is a plus. You can also start part-time or alongside your studies if your timeline requires flexibility.

Professionals with 2–4 years of commercial experience

You've worked in sales, customer support, retail, or a client-facing role and you're ready for something more strategic. You're pragmatic and self-driven, you build relationships naturally, and you want to develop genuine consultative B2B skills working with real decision-makers on real operational problems, not just hitting call volumes.

Career changers or returners

You have meaningful professional experience perhaps in operations, logistics, or another sector entirely and you're ready to redirect it into a sales career. You bring maturity, structure, and real-world business understanding. We provide the modern sales methodology, a structured onboarding designed to get you up to speed with confidence, and a clear progression path.

Whichever describes you, you'll need:

German as a native or near-native language, and strong English communication skills
Genuine curiosity about technology and what it solves for real businesses
Confidence picking up the phone and opening a conversation with a senior professional
Coachability and genuine drive to develop — you want to be challenged, not just comfortable

What you'll gain

A permanent role in a growing international SaaS company from day one
The full Ultimo Sales Academy programme phased development, milestone reviews, and salary progression at every stage
Competitive base salary plus an OTE incentive plan
Dedicated buddy, regular coaching, and developmental milestone reviews throughout
On-site perks: free breakfast, lunch, snacks, and gym access
A genuine promotion path consistent performers move to Junior AE at the eighteen-month review

Why Ultimo

Ultimo is a proven SaaS product with real customers and real impact, backed by the scale of IFS one of the world's leading enterprise software companies. We're growing internationally, and we're serious about developing the people who will lead that growth.

Our sales culture values quality over volume, depth over short-termism, and genuine development over empty promises. If you want a company that will invest in you as much as you invest in it this is the right place to start.

Ready to build something real? Apply now and let's talk.

Qualifications

Additional Information

Eligibility: You must be currently based in the UK with full right to work. We are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.

About the company

IFS provides cloud-based enterprise software for large organizations, covering ERP, Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), Field Service Management (FSM), and Enterprise Service Management (ESM). It helps industries like aerospace and defense, energy utilities, construction and engineering, manufacturing, and telecommunications run operations more efficiently. The software is licensed and accessed via the cloud, with implementation services, support, and consultancy to tailor the system and ensure successful adoption. IFS aims to help organizations optimize operations, improve productivity, and support sustainability with an integrated, scalable platform.

Company Size

5,001-10,000

Company Stage

Growth Equity (Non-Venture Capital)

Total Funding

$3.3B

Headquarters

Linköpings kommun, Sweden

Founded

1983

Get referred to IFS

See people who can refer or advise you

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

H1 2026 ARR grew 25%, with cloud revenue up 24% and 84% recurring.
Saudi Arabia partnerships with Echelon and Microsoft open Vision 2030 industrial spending.
IFS.ai, Loops, and Nexus Black drive automation demand across maintenance, procurement, and service.

What critics are saying

EQT said in 2026 IFS plans about 20% workforce reduction through AI efficiencies.
Private-equity control keeps exit pressure high, forcing growth and margin execution simultaneously.
SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft ecosystems attack IFS's industrial software accounts with broader platforms.

What makes IFS unique

IFS owns industrial AI for asset-heavy industries, not horizontal ERP vendors.
Microsoft partnership deepens Azure distribution, security, and Marketplace reach across 2026.
Softeon acquisition adds warehouse execution, joining ERP, EAM, FSM, and supply-chain control.

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Benefits

Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
401(k) Retirement Plan
FSA
Life Insurance
Disability Insurance
Paid Vacation
Paid Holidays
Remote Work Options
Hybrid Work Options
Flexible Paid Time Off

Company News

Regional Gateway

Oct 14th, 2026

IFS Unleashed: There's a divide between Industrial AI frontline execution and C-suite strategy.

IFS Unleashed: There's a divide between Industrial AI frontline execution and C-suite strategy. Regional Gateway, Inflight and LARA Group Editor Satu Dahl is attending IFS Unleashed in Orlando, Florida, this week to report on the latest developments for industrial AI technologies. Industrial AI software company IFS, which delivers a purpose-built Industrial AI platform for airports that is designed specifically for complex transportation environments, has shared new research at the company's IFS Unleashed event in Orlando taking place this week. The research reveals a significant divide between frontline execution and C-suite strategy in Industrial AI usage. The IFS Industrial Index 2026 surveyed over 2,200 senior decision makers from across 14 countries. The IFS enterprise platform unifies asset lifecycle management, capital investment planning, maintenance and service management, real-time operational intelligence and asset-centric ERP on a single, composable system tailored to airport operations. When it comes to airports, IFS offers solutions that can effectively manage long-lived, mission-critical assets, optimise preventive and corrective maintenance, and maintain continuous regulatory compliance. Transparent, data-driven decision models help operators prioritise capital projects and allocate resources where they deliver the greatest operational and passenger impact. IFS says its IFS.ai provides real-time operational intelligence that enables airport operators to predict asset failures, anticipate disruptions, and respond faster to incidents. This, in turn, minimises downtime, improves resilience and reduces passenger disruption. Delivering tangible value. According to the research revealed at IFS Unleashed, operational workers are driving real-world AI implementation and delivering tangible, commercial value but formal AI governance frameworks and data access structures are not keeping pace. Frontline teams such as service leads and logistics managers connecting their domain expertise and operational data with Industrial AI results in an immediate business impact, IFS says. Rapid adoption on the floor is delivering direct commercial returns in savings across key operational areas, despite solutions not currently being used to the fullest. According to the company, over 90% of global organisations report significant gains in reliability and performance such as 93% improvement in first-time-right performance, 90% increase in asset availability and 88% improvement in on-time delivery schedule adherence. Removing operational friction also frees employee capacity, saving over 50% of employee time across key workflow areas. "Industrial operations are defined by speed and consequences," Cathie Hall, Chief Product & Customer Officer at IFS, commented. "Every decision, every asset, every second compound. To compete, leadership must match the frontline's pace. That means having Industrial AI at the heart of operations to support rapidly scaling agentic AI, enabling the safety, governance, and data controls that make rapid decision-making trustworthy and operationally sound. Companies that move now will compress decision cycles and extend competitive advantages. Leadership cannot afford to lag."

LeMagIT

Oct 14th, 2026

IFS launches its harness for its AI agents in industrial settings.

IFS launches its harness for its AI agents in industrial settings. The ERP, EAM and FSM specialist, a competitor of SAP, is releasing a suite of tools to better control the access and behavior of the different AIs in its solutions. In doing so, it is following a major market trend. Published on: Oct 14, 2026 AI in industrial settings cannot afford to derail. To ensure this, ERP, EAM and FSM publisher IFS has announced a "harness" - Industrial AI Harness - to govern its AIs embedded in its products, particularly its agents. An agnostic harness. Through this "harness", the AI agent inherits very specific access rights and is controlled in a clearly defined manner. It can neither consult information nor perform actions that it is not authorized to do. The Industrial AI Harness tool covers the six classic areas of harnesses: planning and orchestration, skills and connectors, memory and context, guardrails and permissions, verification and feedback, and finally observability and auditability. The harness is "agnostic" in the sense that it works with different AI models, without dependence on a single vendor. It also takes into account data processing localization requirements, IFS assures. Systems with 70,000 APIs. For the vendor, this type of tool is essential insofar as industrial systems, which are particularly complex, can expose up to 70,000 APIs. That means just as many risks of data leaks or of generating uncontrolled behaviors. Indeed, according to an in-house study, 43% of operational teams reportedly integrated autonomous agents into their activities over the past twelve months, but only 11% reportedly implemented procedures for validating AI results for processes related to safety, quality or critical activities. Likewise, only 11% have implemented controls governing AIs that use sensitive data or are subject to export restrictions. IFS does not specify either the general availability date or the pricing of its harness. The vendor is nevertheless joining the trend of better "surrounding" AI agents. In early September, Boomi presented its Agent Control Plane, precisely to govern agents. At the end of September, SAP announced the integration of NVIDIA OpenShell into its Business AI Platform, which limits agent access. NVIDIA launched an Open Agent Safety Platform the same day. As for ServiceNow and Salesforce, they too have been offering agent supervision tools since 2025.

PR Newswire

Oct 13th, 2026

IFS launches Industrial AI Harness to make AI trusted in critical industries

IFS, a provider of industrial AI software, has launched the Industrial AI Harness, the operational foundation of its IFS Intelligence platform. The company announced it on October 13, 2026, at its IFS Unleashed event in Orlando, Florida. The harness lets AI "digital workers" act within a customer's existing permissions, business rules, approvals, and audit controls. It sends no raw data to external AI providers, and users can only access information and actions they are authorised to use. IFS research found 43% of frontline teams have introduced agentic digital workers in the past 12 months, but only 11% have validated AI outputs for safety, quality, or mission-critical processes. The harness has six components, including guardrails, verification, and auditability. It works across AI models, so customers are not tied to a single provider.

HMG Aerospace

Oct 13th, 2026

IFS launches Industrial AI Harness at IFS Unleashed.

IFS launches Industrial AI Harness at IFS Unleashed. Inflight, Regional Gateway and LARA Group Editor Satu Dahl is attending IFS Unleashed in Orlando, Florida, this week to report on the latest developments for industrial AI technologies. Global industrial AI software company IFS, which offers several solutions for airlines and aviation companies that tackle the unique challenges such as maintaining aircraft availability, ensuring safety and compliance and reducing maintenance costs, unveiled its Industrial AI Harness solution at the company's IFS Unleashed event in Orlando this week. Industrial AI Harness is designed to help enterprises put AI to work within the permissions, policies and operational realities that govern their business and builds on and extends the existing security, safety, governance and trust controls already embedded across IFS. IFS says that its solution addresses the challenge that AI can generate intelligence but may not be trusted to operate inside real-world processes. Industrial AI Harness provides the context, permissions, governance and operational controls that allow Digital Workers to execute work within established business rules and operational boundaries. "From auditable processes and transparent governance to the ethical use of AI, IFS treats trust as a fundamental requirement, not an ambition," Toby Rees, Global Head of AI Trust, IFS, said. "As organisations scale AI across critical assets, supply chains, service operations and enterprise workflows, success will depend on the ability to combine intelligence with context, control, accountability and operational discipline. The Industrial AI Harness provides that foundation for IFS Intelligence, helping customers turn AI potential into measurable industrial outcomes." New research conducted by the company found that 43% of frontline teams have trained and introduced agentic digital workers into their day-to-day operations over the past 12 months but only 11% have validated AI outputs for safety, quality, or mission-critical processes, and 11% have established control mechanisms for AI use with sensitive or export-controlled data. Also, research by Futurum found that while 66% of enterprises plan to invest in digital workers within the next 12 months, just 5.7% trust AI to act fully autonomously. Control gaps are unacceptable in mission critical environments where failure is not an option. The IFS Industrial AI Harness is designed so AI operates through the customer's existing identity, permissions, business rules, approvals, and audit controls. It inherits permissions and access controls from connected systems, using IFS Cloud as the foundation source - no raw data is sent to external AI providers. IFS Intelligence users can only access information and execute actions they are authorised to access. The AI cannot and will not be able to see or do something the signed-in user is not authorised to see or do. IFS states its Industrial AI Harness brings together six components, each built to prevent a specific failure: * Planning and orchestration break goals into steps and coordinate agents and tools. * Skills and connectors define and validate the systems agents can use. * Memory and context carry progress forward and assemble only the information relevant to each task. * Guardrails and permissions enforce identity, approvals, and limits on risky actions. * Verification and escalation check work for correctness and policy compliance, escalating when needed. * Observability and auditability logs every decision and action for review, so nothing happens that cannot be traced back after the fact. In addition, the Industrial AI Harness is designed to work across AI models and services, giving IFS the flexibility to use the right technology for the task rather than locking customers into a single provider.

Constellation Research

Oct 13th, 2026

IFS launches IFS Intelligence, Industrial AI Harness, eyes industrial productivity.

IFS launches IFS Intelligence, Industrial AI Harness, eyes industrial productivity. Published October 13, 2026 IFS, an industrial AI software company, launched IFS Intelligence, which brings context about assets, work orders, schedules, processes and history to the manufacturing and physical operations systems. The company, which made the announcement at its Unleashed 2026 conference in Orlando, said IFS Intelligence can work from live data across its IFS and third-party systems. IFS Intelligence will collate data across operations and act with governance and business rules set by the enterprise. IFS is looking to bring context across multiple disparate systems in industrial settings whether it be people in the field, plant floor, rig, manufacturing center or office and provide insights in one conversational interface. Mark Moffat, CEO of IFS, said: "We often see industrial organizations operating at around 60% of their potential. The missing 40% is already inside the business. It sits in the expertise of the control room, the knowledge of the night shift, and the data spread across every system." "Anyone can generate ChatGPT type answers. The really hard part is putting that into the hands of the people doing the work and acting on it safely inside a live operation," said Moffat, speaking during his keynote. IFS Intelligence aims to close that performance gap, said Moffett. IFS Intelligence is available on all supported versions of IFS Cloud. It is offered as a universal enterprise-wide license. To complement IFS Intelligence, the company also outlined its Industrial AI Harness that is designed to pull together context about inventory, production capacity, supply chain commitments, logistics and financial impacts and automatically surface risks. IFS Intelligence is powered by the Industrial AI Harness. Components in IFS' Industrial AI Harness include: * Planning and orchestration to coordinate agents and tools. * Skills and connectors to define and validate the systems agents can use. * Memory and context on information relevant to tasks. * Guardrails and permissions. * Verification and escalation to check work for compliance and correctness. * Observability and auditability logs. Here's how it all fits together. The Industrial AI Harness works across all AI models and services and keeps data within the system of record and works up to autonomy with governance at each step. Separately, IFS's Softeon unit launched Fulfillment Flow, which embeds intelligence throughout warehouse operations. Fulfillment Flow is a set of digital workers and AI agents designed for wave management, labor, automation and inventory and replenishment with humans in the loop. More industrial AI: Industrial AI: Big opportunity, volatility. Speaking at Unleashed 2026, Moffat said IFS Intelligence is a release that reflect "what we were doing with you over the past 12 months." He added that physical industries represent a big opportunity for AI. "You represent the industries that are both benefiting from and fueling an economic explosion. This is a generational opportunity to be part of the next industrial revolution, the biggest that they'll ever have been, all powered by technology and new intelligence," said Moffat. "They're talking about tech and Silicon Valley and everything that goes with it. But the vast majority of the beneficiaries of that economic explosion are the people in this room, the producing industries." That said, Moffat noted the environment is volatile. "There's a jeopardy to this as much as there's a massive opportunity. Everything has changed," he added. Industrial companies are facing high commodity costs, a brain drain of technicians and knowledge and energy constraints. Industrial AI will have to close some of those gaps. "The shortages are real. Industrial AI has to be about getting some of that potential, getting your technicians to be more productive, getting some of those aircraft back up in the air, giving your people in the front line superpowers, getting more out of them, giving them an enriched job experience," said Moffat. "The 500 largest companies in the world estimate $1.4 trillion of unplanned downtime. So everywhere you look, there's just opportunity. The average worker, based on the work that we've done, spends about a third of their time with an actual tool in their hand. The rest is spent waiting, searching, or filling in forms." Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights Constellation Research Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of Constellation Insights at Constellation Research, where he leads editorial coverage focused on enterprise technology, digital transformation, and emerging trends shaping the future of business. He oversees research-driven news, analysis, interviews, and event coverage designed to help technology buyers and vendors navigate complex markets with clarity and context... Insights News October 13, 2026 Data to Decisions Chamath Palihapitiya, CEO of Social Captial | 8090, said AI valuations are unsustainable, enterprises need to start talking to their auditors pronto about AI agents and every compa... Larry Dignan Insights News October 13, 2026 Data to Decisions IFS customers are looking to AI use cases that solve practical issues to save money, put intelligence in the hands of front-line workers and analyze maintenance issues in the field... Larry Dignan Insights News October 13, 2026 Future of Work Workday made Sana the front door for its platform, launched Agent Harness, which enables enterprises to build AI agents that can run in isolated environments for finance and human... 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Larry Dignan Insights News October 13, 2026 Data to Decisions IFS customers are looking to AI use cases that solve practical issues to save money, put intelligence in the hands of front-line workers and analyze maintenance issues in the field... Larry Dignan Insights News October 13, 2026 Future of Work Workday made Sana the front door for its platform, launched Agent Harness, which enables enterprises to build AI agents that can run in isolated environments for finance and human... Larry Dignan

IFS

Business Development Representative - German-speaking

About the job

Job Description

Qualifications

Additional Information

About the company

Get referred to IFS

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

What critics are saying

What makes IFS unique

Benefits

Company News