About Athlete to Athlete
Athlete to Athlete pairs youth athletes with current Division 1 college athletes who play their sport and have already walked the road they're on. Our mentors don't just run drills — they help young athletes build confidence, find their path, and take real ownership of their game.
Our mission is to unlock every athlete's potential by connecting them with those who've lived it. Our vision is a world where every athlete rises and lifts the next.
We're a venture-backed, fast-growing sports technology company based in Santa Monica, and we run the way we coach: human-first, tech-forward, and built on the same values we ask of our athletes — Meaningful Connections, Coachable, Pathfinders, Teamwork, and Resilience.
About the Role
The Sales Development Manager leads the team that opens every door for us. You'll hire, coach, and run our Sales Development Representatives — known to families as Program Advisors — whose job is to reach inbound leads fast, qualify them in one conversation, and book Program Planning Calls onto our Account Executives' calendars.
We're scaling this team quickly, and you'll be building it: the playbook, the cadences, the daily rhythm, and the culture. You'll spend most of your day on the floor — listening to calls, running huddles, coaching reps in the moment — and you'll own the number of qualified meetings the team delivers every week.
You report to the Head of Sales and partner closely with the Account Executive Manager to keep the handoff between the two teams clean and the feedback loop honest.
This is an on-site position based in Santa Monica, CA.
Key Responsibilities
Own the team's weekly and monthly qualified-meeting targets, show rates, and meeting-to-close contribution.
Recruit, interview, hire, and ramp SDRs on an aggressive growth plan. Build the onboarding that gets a new rep productive in weeks, not months.
Coach daily. Live call listening, recorded call reviews, role plays, and one-on-ones with clear development plans for every rep.
Build and iterate the SDR playbook: talk tracks, qualification framework, objection handling, texting and email sequences, and disposition standards.
Run the daily operating cadence — morning huddles, activity tracking, end-of-day reviews — and hold the team to high standards on volume, speed-to-lead, and CRM hygiene.
Partner with the AE Manager on lead routing, meeting quality, and no-show reduction. Make sure every booked call arrives with complete notes.
Work with Marketing and Sales Ops on lead scoring, sequences, and tooling so reps spend their time talking to families, not fighting systems.
Report clearly to the Head of Sales on pipeline created, team performance, and what's working or not.
Identify and develop your next Team Lead and future Account Executives from within the team.
Qualifications
We care about how you lead as much as what you've done. The ideal candidate has carried a phone quota, then built and coached a team that beat one.
Required
5+ years in sales, including at least 1 year managing or leading SDRs, BDRs, or an inside sales team.
A track record of hitting team targets through coaching and process.
Experience hiring, onboarding, and ramping early-career salespeople at pace.
Strong command of outbound and inbound prospecting mechanics: cadences, speed-to-lead, qualification, disposition discipline.
Fluent with CRM systems, dialers, and sales engagement tools; comfortable building reports and reading a dashboard.
Excellent written and verbal communication.
What Will Make You Successful
You coach, you don't just manage. Your reps get measurably better every month, and they can tell you exactly what you're working on with them.
You build. You'd rather create the playbook than inherit one, and you're comfortable when the process doesn't exist yet.
You're on the floor. You lead from the middle of the room, not from a conference call.
You're competitive. You keep score for the team and you take a miss personally.
You're resilient. Early-career reps struggle, quit, and surprise you. You reset and keep the standard high.
You're a teammate. You want the AEs to win as much as your own team, and you build that into how SDRs work.
You take ownership. The team's number is your number.
Nice to Have
Competitive athletic background, you've been coached hard and you know how to coach.
Experience in high-velocity consumer sales (education, youth programs, fitness, coaching, insurance, or similar).
Experience standing up an SDR team from a small group to a large one.
Passion for youth and college sports.
$100,000 base salary plus variable compensation tied to team performance.
Target OTE: $120,000 in Year 1.
Equity grant.
Clear promotion path to Senior Manager, with a director track for leaders who scale with the team.
Why Join Athlete to Athlete
Build a sales development team from the ground up at one of the fastest-growing sports technology companies in the country.
Lead a product you'll believe in: every meeting your team books puts a young athlete one step closer to a mentor who's lived their path.
Work directly with the Head of Sales and the CEO on how the go-to-market engine gets built.
Develop the next generation of sellers, many of your SDRs will become the company's AEs and leaders.
Earn meaningful equity alongside a high-growth startup.