Business Development Manager

SmartDev is looking for a Business Development Manager - an individual contributor with excellent solution selling skills who can create solid and AI competence sales funnels and drive sustainable, predictable growth in the APAC region.
We need a BDM as a hybrid player who can translate complex AI capabilities into tangible business outcomes. You will identify, prospect, and close enterprise deals for custom AI solutions. Unlike a standard SaaS BDM, you must be comfortable discussing data pipelines, model accuracy, and ethical AI with CTOs while building a value-based ROI case for CMOs and CDOs.
1. Strategic Business Development (70%)
- Identify and target high-potential enterprise accounts across Media, Fintech, and Logistics.
- Build a 12-month pipeline in AI solution opportunities.
- Lead consultative discovery: Map client pain points (e.g., manual data entry, churn prediction, document processing) to AI solution blueprints.
- Structure and negotiate complex contracts (POCs, pilot-to-production, managed services).
- Develop strategic partnerships with SI partners, cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP), and tech vendors.
2. Solution & Technical Acumen (20%)
- Collaborate with Solution Architects to scope technical feasibility and effort estimates.
- Translate technical differentiators (e.g., fine-tuned vs. RAG-based LLM) into competitive business advantages.
- Educate prospects on AI risks (hallucinations, data privacy, bias) and our mitigation strategies.
3. Internal Collaboration (10%)
- Act as the voice of the customer to influence product roadmaps.
- Work with Marketing to create AI-specific sales collateral (case studies, ROI calculators).
- Provide feedback on pricing models (consumption-based, outcome-based, subscription).
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Pipeline generation; Won deals; Pilot-to-production conversion rate; Average deal cycle.