Senior Business Development Manager

(aka the one who turns interest into revenue)

Full-time, on-site – London with UK and international travel

£60,000–£80,000 base + uncapped commission; OTE ~£130,000

Watergate helps buildings detect leaks, cut water waste, and reduce the carbon footprint of every litre, proving the impact with data.

We’re building the missing circuit breaker for water. Every building has fire protection. Every building has security. Almost none have proper water protection, despite leaks causing huge financial and operational damage. We’re here to fix that.

The market is wide open. Asset managers, developers, M&E specifiers, contractors, FM providers, distributors, resellers and insurers – across the UK and increasingly internationally – all have a real reason to care about what we do. We need someone to turn that demand into deals.

Now we need a Senior Business Development Manager.

This is the person who owns the sales process end to end: picking up qualified inbound, running discovery, building relationships with specifiers and asset managers, navigating large-account sales cycles, and closing.

You’ll work directly with the founder and our Commercial Director on GTM strategy, and you’ll be the one carrying the number.

We’re deliberately lean. That’s not code for chaotic. It means small team, high trust, high ownership and high output.

We use AI tools heavily across the business, including how we generate and qualify pipeline. You’ll be expected to benefit from that and help shape it: telling us what’s working, what isn’t, and where to push next. Day to day, you’ll use AI to research accounts, draft proposals, prep for meetings, summarise calls, refine outreach, and remove the admin friction that slows most sales teams down. If you’re not already using tools like Claude or ChatGPT regularly to do better work, faster, this probably isn’t the right fit.

This is a place for people who work hard, think clearly and use tools intelligently. Two out of three won’t cut it.

If you’re the kind of seller who builds real pipeline and closes complex deals, keep reading.

End-to-end sales – Qualification, discovery, demos, commercial negotiation, contracting and close. You own the number and the process.

Specifier and asset manager relationships – Building real, durable relationships with the people who decide what goes into buildings: asset managers, M&E consultants, contractors and developers. You’ll work directly with the Commercial Director on mapping and executing our specifier-led GTM strategy.

Large-account sales – Multi-stakeholder deals, long cycles, real procurement, real contracts. You know how to navigate them and bring them home.

Inbound conversion – Taking calls and enquiries from prospects, distributors, resellers and insurers, in the UK and internationally, and turning interest into qualified pipeline.

The CRM and sales stack – HubSpot, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Clay and whatever else helps you sell. You’re disciplined with your data because you understand that a clean pipeline is a closing pipeline. If a deal isn’t in the CRM, it doesn’t exist.

AI-enabled selling – Using AI to research accounts, prep for meetings, draft outreach, summarise calls, and shape proposals. Helping us improve the AI-driven inbound engine by feeding back what’s working and what isn’t.

Marketing and content as commercial tools – You’ll have full access to marketing, design, video, PR, white papers and content. You’ll be expected to direct that support clearly and use it well.

New verticals – We’re focused on PBSA and BTR right now, but the opportunity is much bigger: new build, commercial, FM, hospitality, healthcare, education, data centres, public and more. You’ll help us prioritise and crack the next vertical.

International deals – Working with us on cross-border opportunities as they come in, including in the Middle East where we already have live demand.

• 5+ years in B2B sales or business development, with a track record of closing large, complex accounts
• Real experience selling into asset managers and/or M&E specifiers and contractors – this is core to the role
• Strong understanding of how buildings get specified, procured and built
• Familiar with, but also know how to shorten long sales cycles, multi-stakeholder deals and real procurement
• Disciplined CRM operator – ideally HubSpot, with proper hygiene around pipeline, forecasting and notes
• Fluent with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Clay and other modern sales tools
• Genuinely AI-native – already using Claude, ChatGPT or similar tools regularly to do better work, faster
• Excellent written and verbal communicator with strong commercial instincts
• Self-reliant and self-directed. You can tell us what you need, then use it well
• Bonus if you’ve sold smart building, water, energy or sustainability tech
• Bonus if you’ve sold into PBSA or BTR
• Bonus if you’ve sold internationally, especially in the Middle East
• Hands-on, with no ego about the work
• Based in or able to work full-time from our London office
  

• Treat your pipeline like a portfolio, not a to-do list
• See a list of 200 target accounts and feel excitement, not dread
• Can map a buying committee in your sleep
• Build relationships that survive the deal that didn’t happen
• Know that the best salespeople use the best tools
• Want to play a meaningful role in building a company, not just hitting someone else’s quota
  

• £60,000–£80,000 base salary, depending on experience
• Uncapped commission, with OTE around £130,000 and real upside above that for top performers
• Life and health insurance
• Whatever tools you need to sell properly – CRM, Sales Navigator, Clay, AI tools and the rest
• Full marketing, design, video, content and PR support
• Professional development budget
• Direct access to the founder and Commercial Director
• Real ownership of how Watergate goes to market
• Genuine room to grow as we scale, including internationally
• A smart, ambitious team building something that matters
  

Full-time and based in our London office. We’re currently in NW2 and moving to Waterloo in summer 2026.

Expect regular travel to client meetings and sites across the UK, plus international travel as we expand, including to the Middle East, where we already have live demand.

We move fast and we don’t waste your time.

1. Apply with your CV and a short cover note – tell us why this role, not just why you’re looking
2. Initial screening call – fit, motivation and practicalities
3. Take-home task – a realistic commercial scenario you’d actually face here. We respect your time and won’t ask for more than a few hours
4. Problem-solving interview – we’ll walk through your task and a live business scenario. We’re looking for structured thinking and clear judgement, not memorised frameworks
5. Informal final stage with the founder and a senior team member – relaxed setting, outside the office. The work questions are mostly answered by this point. This one is about whether we’d actually want to spend our days working together.
6. References and offer
   

If you’re the kind of seller who loves the long game of large-account sales, and wants to do it on a product that actually matters, we’d like to hear from you. Send your CV to careers@watergate.ai and tell us why this role fits you, and why you fit it.