At Persona, we’re building the first universal and comprehensive identity infrastructure to help businesses of all sizes better serve and protect their end users’ identities. Our identity platform enables businesses to collect and manage their end users’ personal information securely, verify that their end users are who they say they are, analyze and detect fraud and abuse, and pull sensitive reports about their end users in a privacy-centric way. In a world where consumer behaviors are changing and privacy and identity are taking on a new meaning, we want to help businesses find their superpowers and do it while putting their end users, the people, first.

About the role

As a Business Development Manager, you will be integral to scaling up Persona’s presence with local governments and institutions of higher learning. From the get-go, you will evaluate new opportunities, source new prospects, and grow existing relationships across this segment.

This role requires a deep understanding of our industry, our product, and different types of sales and business development motions. This is an ideal role for someone with experience working with local governments and higher education institutions, experience with business development or sales, and a desire to scale up a new segment. This role can be based in San Francisco, CA, or New York, NY offices.

What you’ll achieve

Drive the growth of Persona’s new verticals, with a focus on higher education and local government, as you land marquee accounts and develop your segments from 0-1
Write the go-to-market playbook for your verticals, iterating with every deal that you close and customer that you work with
Own the end-to-end business development motion, from discovery and qualification to contracting and close of new customer prospects
Lead the strategic thinking behind our sales & expansion roadmap for your segments, as a combination of salesperson, product manager and marketer
Work closely with Sales, Product and Marketing — leading engagements with customers & prospects, enabling a product feedback loop, and helping deploy new product messaging to the market
Connect deeply into your segments’ ecosystems in order to better inform our roadmap, and keep the broader team up-to-date on market dynamics, industry players, and product feedback
Establish thought leadership within our industry, and have the opportunity to represent Persona at industry-leading events
Build relationships with our customers and prospects both virtually and in-person (~25% of this role will include travel for customer visits, conferences, and industry events)

What you’ll bring to Persona

You have 3-5 years of experience in business development and/or strategic sales (experience in education, edtech, and state or local governments a plus)
You are willing to roll up your sleeves and take on tasks both big and small; you’ll have a collaborative approach with low ego in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment
You have a strong desire to build, and to do so in a scrappy manner that inspires and motivates your teammates and others around you
You have experience working at an early or mid-stage startup
You have the ability and desire to deeply understand our market, industry, and core use cases of fraud, compliance and trust & safety
You have the strategic sense and skills to see the big picture, but are also tactical enough to execute, own and operationalize deals on a day-to-day basis
You are fluent in the lifecycle of a customer, from discovery and evaluation, through commercialization and post-launch account management; and know how to communicate and negotiate with external parties
You have strong communication and interpersonal skills, executive presence, and attention to detail
You have a growth mindset, ability to receive and act on feedback, and a sense of humor

Compensation & Equity

For this role, the estimated base salary range is between $80,000 - $140,000. Base salaries are just one component of the total compensation package and are determined by a number of factors such as years of experience, expertise, qualifications and more. In addition to base salary, we offer competitive equity packages that play a big part in recognizing you for the huge impact you will have on helping us achieve our mission. Please note, the salary range is a guideline that is subject to change without notice.

Benefits and Perks

Persona offers a wide-range of thoughtful and inclusive benefits for this role, including medical, dental, and vision, 3% 401(k) contribution, unlimited PTO, quarterly mental health days, family planning benefits, professional development stipends, wellness benefits, among others.

While we believe competitive compensation and benefits are a critical aspect of you deciding to join us, we do hope you consider why our core values and culture are right for you. If you’d like to better understand what it’s like working at Persona, feel free to check out our reviews on Glassdoor.

Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging

At Persona, we strive to put diversity and inclusion at the forefront of everything we do, reflecting our core values. Our DEIB Employee Resource Group seeks to build a diverse and inclusive team that fosters an environment where each Personerd feels empowered to bring their unique differences to work and achieve their full innovative potential. Our hope is that by fostering such an environment, we strengthen our business and relationships by putting people first.

We strive to promote a culture that celebrates diversity and inclusiveness regardless of, but not limited to, race, gender, sexual orientation, family status, religion, ethnicity, national origin, physical disability, veteran status, or age.

Business Development Manager

Persona

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