Principal Business Development Manager

As a Principal Business Development Manager at Crunchbase, you will serve as a high-level individual contributor responsible for identifying, pursuing, and closing complex, high-value strategic deals. You are a dealmaker and growth catalyst, proactively identifying new business opportunities with strategic accounts and architecting deals that significantly impact company revenue. You thrive on building from scratch, navigating ambiguity, and driving results in competitive markets. Your success will be measured by your ability to create and close new revenue opportunities, expand our customer base, and establish Crunchbase as a must-have solution in the B2B data.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities:

• Strategic Prospecting & Pipeline Generation: Proactively identify and target net-new strategic business opportunities through research, outbound outreach, and relationship building. Develop and manage a robust pipeline of potential deals with top-tier prospects.
• Deal Ownership & Execution: Lead the full partnership cycle for high-impact opportunities, including stakeholder alignment, solution design, commercial negotiation, and deal closure.
• Contracting & Commercial Structuring: Negotiate complex agreements, leveraging creativity and sound commercial judgment to deliver favorable outcomes.
• Strategic Partner Reviews: Independently conduct quarterly (or more frequently, as determined by your manager) business reviews with partners and offer a strategic and analytical perspective of the partnership, identifying areas for improvement and growth.
• Performance Transparency: Maintain accurate reporting on pipeline, forecasts, and deal progress. Share learnings and blockers with leadership regularly.
• Continuous Optimization: Test and iterate go-to-market strategies and messaging to improve deal velocity, close rates, and average deal size.
• Industry Research and Analysis: Conduct market research to stay informed about industry trends, competitor activities, and potential opportunities for growth.
• Collaboration: Coordinate with cross-functional teams to align efforts with the overall company objectives; including mentoring and coaching developing team members for professional growth and continuous learning. This includes maintaining open lines of communication and ensuring your initiatives are in sync with the company's broader goals.
• Experimentation and Continuous Improvement: Embrace a culture of experimentation, testing innovative ways to enhance current partnerships and programs. Be willing to iterate on strategies based on results and feedback, aiming for continuous improvement in all partnerships.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• None

Required Skills/Abilities:

• Proven success in independently initiating and closing high-impact deals with new enterprise and strategic accounts.
• Track record of exceeding six-figure quotas with strategic/enterprise accounts.
• Exceptional ability to identify whitespace opportunities and navigate complex buying groups.
• Highly self-directed and comfortable working autonomously in a fast-paced environment.
• Expert negotiator with fluency in deal structuring and legal/commercial frameworks.
• Skilled communicator able to influence and inspire both internal stakeholders and external executives.
• Proven sales and organizational abilities.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Effective time management and attention to detail.
• Comfortable working cross-functionally and adapting to shifting priorities.
• Proficient in interpreting legal documents and collaborating with attorneys.
• Proficient with Google Suite or related software.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, or a related field preferred or equivalent experience
• 10+ years of business development experience in B2B technology.
• Experience in SaaS, startup environments, and API/Developer Platforms.

Physical Requirements:

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.