Senior Sales Development Representative

Ascend is transforming the $10T insurance industry by replacing PDFs, email threads, and manual reconciliation with the first complete financial operations platform purpose-built for insurance. Combining AI-powered accounting automation, payments, and premium financing, Ascend serves over 4,000 businesses—including more than half of the 50 largest brokers in the U.S.—to bring clarity to complex accounting operations from collection to close.

About the role

As a Senior Sales Development Representative, you'll drive Ascend's growth and shape our go-to-market strategy as we expand into new products and customer segments. This in-person role, based in our San Francisco office, is ideal for someone with a proven track record in cold calling, a drive for continuous improvement, and a creative approach to outreach. As an early member of the SDR team, you'll help define best practices and scale the function as we grow.

Responsibilities

In your first 30 days, you will:

• Develop a deep understanding of Ascend’s value proposition and how to communicate it to prospective customers
• Learn our SDR processes, GTM function, and broader business operations
• Begin prospecting, cold calling, cold emailing, and booking demos with guidance from the team

In your first 60 days, you will:

• Own and implement a strategic initiative (e.g., defining enterprise-specific outreach strategies or building Salesforce dashboards)
• Establish repeatable processes to meet weekly, monthly, and quarterly goals
• Experiment with outreach strategies, messaging, cadences, and channels
• Attend industry events to identify new opportunities

In your first 90 days, you will:

• Engage in in-depth conversations with prospective customers and perform alongside the SDR team
• Collaborate with marketing and GTM teams to identify and pursue new opportunities
• Use data and reporting to optimize individual and team performance
• Provide and receive feedback to foster team growth and mentor new SDRs

Requirements

• 9+ months of SDR experience in SaaS (preferred, but open to ambitious candidates eager to grow in sales)
• Strong communication skills: comfortable speaking on the phone, clear in writing, and adaptable in messaging
• A learner’s mindset: self-motivated, resourceful, and excited to learn new strategies and tools
• A creative thinker: eager to experiment with outreach ideas and improve efficiency
• Flexible and agile: thrives in a startup environment and adapts quickly to shifting priorities
• A team player: energized by collaboration and team wins

Nice to Haves

• Experience with Salesforce, Outreach, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Apollo, or Clay
• Exposure to startup environments and comfort with ambiguity
• Ping pong skills (yes, really—ask us about it!)

Benefits

• Meaningful equity
• 100% health premiums covered for you and your dependents
• 401k with employer matching options
• Unlimited PTO
• Company-paid commuter benefits
• Parental and family leave
• Lunch provided daily
• Dog-friendly office
• Fast-growing team with a strong emphasis on internal promotions (80% of hires in the last 12 months have been promoted)

This role is 5 days a week onsite at our SoMa office in San Francisco.