Who we are
AwardSpring is an established, growing SaaS company that partners with hundreds of colleges, universities, and foundations across the US and Canada to award scholarships and manage their donors. We complete the virtuous cycle of giving, getting, and giving again, on a mature, multi-tenant platform, with a small, focused team.
Our vision: to empower every institution to change students' lives. Our mission: we turn donor generosity into student opportunity. That is not wall art. It is the reason this job exists and it is what you will be selling.
About this role
You build the top of our funnel. You pick the institutions, find the reason to call, and book first meetings that turn into real opportunities. Your meetings round-robin across our whole AE bench, so you are not carrying one rep's calendar, you are carrying the number.
This is a phone-first job at a company that has removed almost everything that usually keeps a rep off the phone. No hand-built lists, no sequences written from scratch, no call notes typed by hand. What is left is the part that actually matters: knowing who to call, why now, and what to say when they pick up.
There is a clear path forward. SDRs here move to AE or CSM in 9 to 15 months, and it is decided on the numbers rather than on a vibe.
How we work here
We are an AI-native company and that includes sales. You will not hand-build a list, write a sequence from scratch, or type a call note. Our research engine tells you which institutions have a reason to talk right now and why, enrolls them into sequences, and puts a one-page brief in front of you before every call. AwardSpringOS is your command center for account prioritization, institution research, and coaching. Nooks runs the dialing. Gong records and analyzes your calls. HubSpot is the system of record and it is current the same day, every day.
You will not be left to work this out alone. You get a weekly 1:1, a weekly call review with your manager, team training every two weeks, and a written ramp plan with your numbers on it from day one.
What that buys you is time on the phone and a real reason to be calling. What we expect in return is that you use it. If you have been quietly building your own prospecting workflow with AI on the side, because your last shop made you log into six tools and rebuild every sequence by hand, here that is the actual job.
What you'll do
- Own outbound into your accounts across phone, email, and LinkedIn.
- Use our research signal to decide who to call and why now, then let the sequence engine handle enrollment.
- Answer inbound the same day. The people who find us convert better than the people we find.
- Run short discovery and hand qualified opportunities to an AE.
- Keep HubSpot current the same day, every day.
- Review your own Gong calls and come to coaching with what you already noticed.
Who you are
- 0–2 years in outbound sales or a comparable high-activity role. SaaS helps, it is not required.
- Comfortable on the phone and unbothered by a no. You open cold, handle an objection, and get to a real question fast.
- You write a four-sentence email that gets a reply.
- Curious about how a financial aid office spends its day, not just about our product.
- Data-driven about your own performance. You know your connect rate without being asked.
- AI-fluent in your own workflow, or ready to be inside a month. You read the brief before the call and you do not retype what a model can draft.
- Coachable, organized, and competitive without being a lone wolf. The meetings you book get worked by someone else.
How we'll measure you
Sixty calls buys about one booked meeting, so staying on top of your daily activity will keep you on pace for your weekly discovery meeting targets. You get there on a three-month ramp we will show you in week one: a third of the number in your first full month, two thirds in the second, full rate in the third. We will not move the goalposts mid-quarter.
- 60 calls a day.
- 4 discovery meetings held a week.
- Pipeline created each month.
On the AI part of this job
We will teach you our stack in your first month and check in on it at day 30. By the time your ramp is complete, working this way is the expectation rather than a bonus. We expect you to learn on the job, not come knowing how to work AI native from day 1.
What we give you
Top-tier AI tooling with unlimited token budgets, and day-one access to the latest models as they ship. Uncapped commission with accelerators for top performers. Health, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) match, unlimited PTO, and paid parental leave.
Our values
- Lead with humanity.
- Genuine empathy for our team, our customers, and the students and donors they serve. That includes candor, saying the hard thing because you respect the person enough to say it.
- Take smart risks.
- Urgency. Bold, informed bets before the picture is fully clear. Run the experiment instead of winning the debate.
- Take pride in the process.
- Fast is the standard and thoughtfulness is non-negotiable. Eyes on the work you control, not the scoreboard.
- Own the results.
- We measure everything. Accountability runs on data, not vibes, and we can tell the difference between an honest miss and a broken process.
Work location
Chicago, West Loop / Fulton Market office, hybrid three days a week.
AI in hiring
We use AI tools to assist in screening applications and assessing fit. Final hiring decisions are made by humans. Prefer a review without AI assistance? Email our hiring team at careers@awardspring.com to request it. It will not disadvantage you.
Equal opportunity
AwardSpring is an equal opportunity employer and hires without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, or disability status. We're committed to an inclusive, harassment-free workplace.