Location: Williston, VT. In person preferred.

Travel: Regular travel to customer sites and industry events.

Salary Range: $60,000 – $90,000 per year (base salary + performance bonus/commissions)

To apply, please send your resume and cover letter to careers@rigoroustech.com as PDF documents. The candidate must be eligible to work in the United States. Rigorous (www.rigorous.co) is an equal opportunity employer. Rigorous offers a benefits package including health insurance and paid time off, as well as a collaborative work environment that fosters growth and development. If you possess the necessary skills and experience and thrive in a challenging and innovative environment, we encourage you to apply.

About Rigorous

Rigorous Technology is a fast-growing robotics company with a mission to automate non-creative tasks, helping manufacturers streamline operations and improve efficiency. We design, prototype, build, and install industrial robotic systems that support small to medium-sized manufacturers across the U.S. Our proprietary RGS software library enables advanced manipulation and control, continually pushing the boundaries of automation.

As a startup experiencing rapid growth, we have doubled revenue year over year while developing the foundation of our core products and technologies. Every new hire at Rigorous plays a critical role in shaping our future, and we are actively expanding into remote diagnostics, maintenance, and service programs to make cutting-edge robotics accessible to all manufacturers.

We are looking for driven, high-performing individuals who thrive in a fast-moving environment and are motivated by solving real problems. In this role, you will help identify our next biggest opportunities, shape our prospecting strategy, and build lasting relationships with customers. If you’re skilled in outreach, early discovery, technical sales, and ready to make an impact at a growing company, we’d love to hear from you.

Rigorous Business Development Rep
Reports to: VP of Product

Rigorous is hiring a first foundational sales hire focused on the part of the sales cycle that drives growth for our team. The role’s most important focus is consistent, high quality prospecting. We need someone who owns outbound activity, creates meaningful first contact, and identifies which companies are truly worth developing.

This is not a junior BDR role. It is for someone with real sales experience who understands how to break into complex environments, communicate with confidence, qualify opportunities, and carry those opportunities forward. You will be part of a collaborative sales process, with your ownership focused on finding the right deals to bring in for the team to rally around and close. You will be the tip of the spear and instrumental in defining how Rigorous successfully  identifies, qualifies, and builds early stage pipeline.

Quarterly objectives will be set collaboratively with the VP of Product and will guide your work as you drive meaningful progress for the business. Success in this role looks like high activity levels and creative approaches that translate into qualified opportunities, strong relationship building in the earliest stages, and a consistent ability to create the first spark in relationships that the senior team can advance.

Why Now:
This year marks an inflection point for Rigorous. We’re expanding robot deployments and launching our software platform as a standalone product. We need a driven Business Development Rep to help accelerate that growth and bring our technology to more manufacturers. This role comes with real opportunities for professional advancement as we grow for high performers. 

Responsibilities

Own Outbound Prospecting and Qualification

  • Collaborate with Sales & Marketing to build, refine, execute and own a persistent outbound strategy aimed at high fit manufacturers
  • Prospect daily, create first contact and qualify leads: outbound calls, emails, LinkedIn, networking.
  • Maintain high outreach volume with thoughtful personalization that increases connection rates
  • Qualify companies and contacts based on industry indicators, operational pain points, and fit criteria
  • Track progress on status to goal of connection with team identified Target Accounts
  • Maintain excellent CRM organization with clear documentation of outreach and qualification work
  • Consistently generate qualified early stage opportunities that move into meaningful next steps

Drive Early Discovery and Opportunity Development

  • Run discovery calls to understand customer pain points and fit.
  • Build rapport quickly and make prospects want to continue the conversation
  • Identify key opportunities and build relationships with decision-makers from the Plant Manager to the CEO, helping to get the right people involved early on
  • Support the delivery of compelling product demos for both robots and software
  • Show tenacity, resilience, and an enthusiastic mindset toward breakthrough activity
  • Define next steps internally and usher these opportunities into the collaborative sales process that is led by the VP of Product 

Collaborate Across the Organization 

  • Be an integral part of the collaborative sales process that currently involves the Rigorous leadership team. 
  • Participate in routine review and planning sessions to assess activity, learning, and pipeline progress
  • Work with the team to refine messaging, qualification criteria, and outbound tactics
  • Share insights from your experience to strengthen qualification, follow-up, and proposal structure.
  • Work with Marketing on lead quality and campaign effectiveness.
  • Share knowledge gained from the field that inform product positioning, new product development, program structure and pricing 
  • Help create a reliable foundation of new opportunities for the team to develop and close

Requirements

  • 3+ years of B2B sales or SDR experience, preferably in manufacturing or a related technical field
  • Strong prospecting skills and comfort owning the top of the funnel
  • Proven success generating new opportunities through outbound outreach
  • Self-starter who prospects relentlessly and doesn’t wait for leads to qualify
  • Strong CRM proficiency and disciplined top of funnel management
  • Ability to run early discovery and qualify complex opportunities
  • Clear, warm, adaptable communicator who builds rapport easily
  • Excellent communicator who can adjust tone and depth based on audience, think explaining technical concepts to non-technical buyers
  • Ability to connect technical solutions to real operational pain points.
  • Comfortable with basic technical concepts and eager to learn more about robotics