Business Development Representative (BDR)

About Rivia

Rivia is a data engine for clinical trial intelligence. It provides data infrastructure and AI-driven workflows for clinical trial teams, enabling biotechs to run studies more efficiently and to demonstrate which patients derive the greatest benefit from new therapies. Biopharma companies are the source of most therapeutic innovation, yet clinical development is frequently slowed by fragmented data and outdated tooling. Rivia delivers a real-time, integrated view across clinical trial data, improving both trial execution and the evaluation of new treatments.

Our goal is for Rivia to become the new standard infrastructure for modern drug development, bringing new therapies to market more successfully at a fraction of the cost.

We seek highly driven, motivated and talented professionals to contribute to our growing startup.

About Rivia's Sales Team

Our Sales team is at the forefront of Rivia's growth, bringing innovative clinical trial technology to biotech and pharmaceutical companies across Europe and the US.

We operate in a complex, high-value B2B environment, where understanding customers, building trust, and creating meaningful relationships are essential to success.

As we scale, we're building a high-performing commercial organization that combines ambition, strategic thinking, and relentless execution.

The Role

As a Business Development Representative at Rivia, you will be a driving force behind our growth, identifying, engaging, and creating opportunities with biotech and pharmaceutical companies across Europe.

This is not a role where you'll simply follow a predefined playbook. You'll help build and continuously improve our outbound engine, experimenting with new approaches, identifying untapped opportunities, and finding creative ways to connect with the right decision-makers.

You'll own your prospecting activities from initial research and outreach through qualification and handover to our Account Executives. You'll develop a deep understanding of the clinical trials industry, our customers' challenges, and how Rivia can create meaningful value for their organizations.

We're looking for someone who is ambitious, commercially sharp, and relentless in pursuing results. Someone who moves fast, takes ownership, learns quickly, and isn't discouraged by rejection. You'll need to be comfortable navigating complex organizations, engaging senior stakeholders, and finding ways to open doors that others can't.

You'll work closely with our Account Executives and commercial leadership, contributing directly to our pipeline generation strategy and the evolution of our go-to-market approach.

If you're excited by the opportunity to build, experiment, exceed ambitious targets, and have a direct impact on the growth of a Series A startup, we'd love to meet you.

Working Model: This role is based on-site in our Zürich office.

What Excites You

• Building something from the ground up. You enjoy creating and improving outbound strategies rather than simply executing an established playbook.

• The challenge of opening doors, engaging hard-to-reach decision-makers, and turning cold prospects into meaningful business opportunities.

• Working in a fast-paced, high-performance environment where ambitious targets, ownership, and measurable results drive your success.

• Understanding complex industries, learning about customers' challenges, and connecting innovative technology to real business needs.

• Experimenting with different prospecting approaches, messaging, and channels to discover what works and continuously improve results.

• Working closely with Account Executives and commercial leadership, contributing ideas and challenging assumptions to improve our go-to-market strategy.

• Being part of an ambitious startup where your individual contributions directly influence company growth and commercial success.

• Taking ownership of your results, pushing through challenges, and continuously raising the bar for yourself and the team.

Responsibilities

Outbound Prospecting & Pipeline Generation

• Own outbound prospecting activities, identifying and engaging potential customers across biotech and pharmaceutical companies in Europe.

• Build and execute targeted, multichannel outbound campaigns through email, LinkedIn, cold calling, and other creative approaches.

• Research target accounts, map key stakeholders, and identify relevant decision-makers and influencers within complex organizations.

• Generate and qualify high-quality sales opportunities, ensuring a consistent pipeline of relevant prospects for our Account Executives.

• Develop personalized outreach strategies that connect Rivia's value proposition to prospects' business challenges and priorities.

• Take accountability for individual activity, meeting, and qualified pipeline generation targets.

Commercial Strategy & Market Intelligence

• Contribute to building, testing, and optimizing our outbound strategy, identifying new segments, opportunities, and approaches to improve pipeline generation.

• Collaborate with Account Executives to define target accounts, qualification criteria, and effective handover processes.

• Develop a strong understanding of the clinical trials landscape, including biotech business models, clinical development challenges, and industry trends.

• Gather insights from prospect conversations to identify market opportunities, refine messaging, and strengthen our commercial positioning.

• Partner with Sales, Marketing, and Product teams to improve campaigns, customer understanding, and go-to-market effectiveness.

Execution & Continuous Improvement

• Own and maintain accurate prospecting data, activities, and pipeline information in our CRM.

• Track and analyze prospecting performance, including outreach effectiveness, conversion rates, and pipeline contribution.

• Continuously experiment with new messaging, tools, and outreach strategies to improve results and increase efficiency.

• Proactively identify bottlenecks, challenge ineffective approaches, and implement improvements.

• Contribute to building a high-performance sales culture based on ownership, collaboration, continuous learning, and accountability.

What Excites Us

• At least 2 years of experience in B2B outbound sales, business development, or sales development, ideally in a SaaS or technology-driven environment.

• Proven track record of consistently achieving or exceeding prospecting, meeting generation, or qualified pipeline targets.

• Strong outbound prospecting skills, with experience using cold calling, personalized email outreach, LinkedIn, and other channels to generate opportunities.

• A relentless, results-oriented mindset, with the resilience to navigate rejection, persistence to pursue opportunities, and drive to exceed ambitious goals.

• Strong commercial judgment and curiosity, with the ability to understand business challenges and translate them into relevant sales conversations.

• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, including the confidence to engage senior stakeholders and decision-makers.

• A proactive, independent, and resourceful approach to problem-solving, with the ability to take initiative and deliver results without constant direction.

• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to manage a high volume of outreach while maintaining quality and personalization.

• A data-driven mindset, with the ability to analyze performance, identify opportunities for improvement, and adapt strategies quickly.

• Experience working with CRM systems and modern sales prospecting tools.

• A genuine interest in innovative technology, biotech, and the opportunity to make an impact on how clinical trials are conducted.

• Professional fluency in English.

Bonus Points

• Experience selling into biotech, pharmaceutical, healthcare, or life sciences organizations.

• An existing understanding of clinical trials, drug development, or the pharmaceutical industry.

• Experience prospecting into complex enterprise organizations with multiple stakeholders and long sales cycles.

• Previous experience helping build or scale outbound sales processes in an early-stage startup.

• Experience working with complex technical SaaS products.

• Familiarity with sales engagement, automation, and AI-powered prospecting tools.

Hiring Process

Our hiring process typically takes 2–4 weeks and includes four stages:

• Meet and Greet: A 30-minute conversation with our People team to get to know each other, your experience, and what motivates you.

• Sales Deep Dive: A conversation with our Sales team to explore your prospecting experience, commercial mindset, and approach to generating opportunities.

• Practical Assessment: A sales-focused exercise to understand how you research accounts, build outreach strategies, and engage potential customers.

• Meet the Team: Join us at our Zürich office to meet the team, learn more about Rivia, and explore our mutual fit.

Our Values

At Rivia, we are committed to excellence, continuous learning, and the success of both our customers and our team. If you are driven to exceed targets, eager to shape the future of clinical trials, and passionate about making a meaningful difference in the biotech industry, Rivia is the place for you.

• In it to Win it: Approach every challenge with determination, resilience, and a drive, aiming for the best outcomes and solutions.

• Embrace change: We see change as an opportunity for growth, innovation, and improvement, continuously evolving to stay one step ahead

• Why not?: Asking why not, instead of why, allows us to show our curiosity, allowing us to challenge assumptions and explore new possibilities.

• Find the gap: We are curious and we proactively approach identifying opportunities and solving problems before they arise.

• Collective accountability: We are one team, on one mission and we are committed to shared responsibilities and mutual support, enabling trust and collaboration.

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