Cssmerge Business Development Associate at Atoms focusing on the Heroes team, targeting restaurant brands with 1 to 20 locations. Own the market by prospecting, building relationships, running pitches, and closing deals to drive company growth.
Responsibilities
This is a BD Associate role on the Heroes team, our group focuses on the most loved restaurant brands in the country, the ones with 1 to 20 locations, obsessive customer followings, and real expansion potential.
As a BD Associate, you get to own a market: finding the right operators, building the relationship, running the pitch, and helping to get the deal signed. That means real ownership and real accountability from day one. Your pipeline is your business, and what you build and close shows up directly in Atoms' growth.
Prospecting & Pipeline Generation
Research, identify, and engage the most loved restaurant brands in the country, mid-market operators with 1-20 locations who've outgrown a single kitchen but aren't enterprise scale.
Build a personalized outbound strategy across phone, email, LinkedIn, and in person, including hosting and attending industry events, dinners, and meetups where these operators actually spend their time.
Own your pipeline end to end. You source it, qualify it, pitch it, and support close.
Build and maintain a healthy pipeline against clear outreach and revenue targets.
Strategic Account Research & Analysis
Conduct in-depth research on restaurant brands: leadership, unit economics, expansion plans, and competitive position.
Partner with our Strategy and Analytics teams to turn raw data (delivery volumes, whitespace, ROIC) into a compelling, story-driven case for why CloudKitchens, Otter, or Picnic is the right next move for an operator.
Monitor industry and competitive trends to sharpen outbound strategy and surface new opportunities.
Bring market insights and operator feedback back to the team to help shape BD strategy.
Qualification
A high sense of ownershipComfortable in a fast-pacedBonus
Required
1-4 years of experience in Business Development, Investment Banking, Go-to-Market, Consulting, Strategy, or Operations . Client-facing experience helps, but we care more about whether you're smart, analytical, charismatic, and genuinely curious about BD and the restaurant industry than about your exact title history.
A track record of generating outbound pipelines, ideally in mid-market or small/independent-business accounts. This is a different motion than enterprise procurement cycles.
Strong research and analytical instincts, with the ability to turn data into a story that lands with a founder or operator.
Excellent written and verbal communication, comfortable moving between a founder's kitchen and a boardroom.
A high sense of ownership. You want a role where the outcome is on you, not a role with a lot of guardrails.
Comfortable in a fast-paced, high-accountability environment where priorities shift.
Bonus: familiarity with Salesforce or similar sales tools is nice to have, not required. We'd rather hire for judgment and hustle than tool familiarity, you'll pick the tools up fast.
