Business Development Manager

Business Development Manager, UK

Can you build an AI-powered outbound engine so good that a new SDR could run it in their first week?

Most companies scale outbound by adding headcount and hoping. We want to do it the other way round. We're looking for one person to design, build and prove that engine for the UK legal market, and then lead the SDRs we hire to run it.

If you've already built an outbound system from nothing, and you reach for Claude, Clay or n8n before you reach for a spreadsheet, read on.

Why Actionstep, why now

Actionstep UK is innovating and growing faster than anyone else in the legal practice management software space. We've grown 10x in three years and we're targeting 10x again by 2030. Yes, we have a market-leading SaaS solution, but what sets us apart is our people: highly focused, strategic, resourceful and entrepreneurial. Our team is compact, our ambition is enormous, and the results speak for themselves.

Our leadership is all-in on AI, in the product and in how we work. Salesforce and Outreach are already in place, Claude is our everyday AI tool, and Clay is rolling out across the business. We're also building an AI playbook for how our whole sales team works, and you'll help shape it. You won't have to fight for permission to work the way you already do.

The opportunity

Our Account Executives close well. Across the UK we win roughly a third of the opportunities we work, consistently, year after year. What we don't have is a dedicated engine creating those opportunities.

There are thousands of UK law firms that could run on Actionstep, and many of them have never heard from us. Smaller firms (10 to 50 users) move quickly, often deciding within 30 to 60 days. Mid-market firms are larger, slower and worth more. Both need a better way in than a generic email sequence.

That's the job: build the system that finds the right firms, at the right moment, with the right message, and prove it works with data.

What you'll do

• Build the engine. Define the ideal customer profile, build scored and tiered target lists, and set up the research, enrichment and sequencing workflows that power everything else.

• Make AI do the heavy lifting. Use AI and automation for account research, signal tracking, personalisation and call prep, so every conversation is relevant and every hour goes further.

• Create qualified pipeline. Source around 40 qualified opportunities a year across SMB and mid-market firms, worth around £2M in pipeline, and hand them to AEs ready to close.

• Prove it with data. Own attribution in Salesforce and Outreach, track conversion at every stage, and test, measure and refine until the model is predictable.

• Partner with our AEs. Run clean handovers, learn from every win and loss, and design targeted campaigns with our mid-market and enterprise AEs for the bigger accounts in their patch.

• Write the playbook. Document the engine so someone else can run it: the targeting, the sequences, the qualification bar and the benchmarks.

• Lead the team as it grows. Once the model is proven, we'll hire SDRs to run inside your framework, and you'll onboard, coach and lead them.

What success looks like

By:

Month 1

Your tooling is connected to Salesforce and Outreach, scored and tiered target lists are live, and your first sequences are running.

Month 3

Qualified opportunities are reaching AEs every month, and attribution is clean enough to show exactly where they came from.

Month 6

You're on pace against your opportunity target, and version one of the playbook exists with real conversion benchmarks behind it.

Month 12

You're running at around 40 qualified opportunities and £800k of sourced closed-won ARR a year, and you've built the case for the first SDR hire.

The honest bit

This is a new function. There's no inherited pipeline, no playbook and no team on day one. You'll be building the plane while flying it, and the early months are about testing, learning and refining before the results compound.

We're telling you this because we think the right person will find it exciting, not because we expect it to go wrong. We already know outbound works for Actionstep: our US SDRs are beating their plans. What we're asking you to do is build the UK version, make it better, and make it repeatable.

The team comes when the model works. That's a promise we can keep, and it's the fastest route to leading a function you designed.

Requirements

About you

You're a builder. You've taken outbound from a blank page to real pipeline, and you get more satisfaction from a system that works than from a single good month. You're curious about why things work, you test fast, and you write down what you learn so others can repeat it. You earn credibility quickly with senior people, and you'd rather qualify an opportunity out than hand an AE something that won't close.

Essential

• You've built an outbound engine from scratch (ICP, target lists, sequences, qualification) and it created pipeline that closed, not just activity.

• You build with AI and automation, not just use it. Tools like Claude, ChatGPT, Clay, n8n or similar are part of how you work every day.

• You turn what works into documented, repeatable process that someone else can pick up and run.

• You're commercially sharp: you can judge quickly whether a firm is worth pursuing, and you're credible with Managing Partners, COOs and Finance Directors.

• You make decisions with data: you set up the tracking, read the numbers and change course when they tell you to.

• You've helped others succeed in your system, whether by onboarding, coaching or training colleagues.

Desirable

• Experience in legal, legal tech or professional services.

• A network in the UK legal market.

• Experience leading or coaching SDRs or BDRs.

• Experience with Salesforce and Outreach.

• Comfort representing a company at events and in person.

Benefits

What we offer

The chance to build something, not just maintain it, with a clear path to lead the team that runs it. You'll report to Ben Gittins, Sales Director, and work closely with Oliver Tromp, VP Sales EMEA.

• £70,000 to £80,000 base, £110,000 to £120,000 OTE (commission uncapped above plan)

• Flexible, remote-first working

• Optional London offices in WeWork

• Pension contributions

• Private medical insurance

• Dental insurance

• Life insurance

• Unlimited leave

Ready to build it?

Send us your CV and a few lines on an outbound system you've built: what it did, what tools you used and what it produced. We'd love to see the numbers.