Technical Sales Development Representative (SDR)

Apera is an innovative, Vancouver-based company at the forefront of robotics, AI, and machine vision — recognized with the 2025 Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Leadership Award and the 2024 BC Tech "Company of the Year, Growth" award. We're on a mission to redefine AI-driven robotic vision.

Apera AI helps manufacturers make their factories more flexible and productive. Robots enhanced with Apera's software have 4D Vision — the ability to see and grasp objects with human-like capability. Challenging applications such as bin picking, sorting, packaging, and assembly are now open to fast, precise, and reliable automation. We work with the world's leading automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.

Our portfolio spans Vue (our 4D Vision software), Forge (a no-code simulation and AI training studio where customers build, validate, and de-risk robotic cells before any hardware is bought), and VuePod, our new turnkey, productized bin-picking cell.

Role Summary:

The Technical Sales Development Representative plays a critical role in identifying and qualifying new automation opportunities within manufacturing environments. This role sits at the intersection of sales development and early technical discovery, helping connect manufacturers facing operational challenges with vision-guided robotics solutions.

This role is based in Central or Eastern Europe and is specifically focused on supporting our European Union customers and Business Development Manager team. As such, fluency in German and English is required.

You will engage manufacturing leaders, operations managers, and automation engineers to understand their processes, identify automation opportunities, and determine whether those opportunities are worth deeper technical exploration with the Sales Team. Through a combination of structured outreach, discovery conversations, and early qualification, you will help generate high-quality opportunities that move into the technical sales pipeline.

What you’ll do

• Build a steady cadence of qualified discovery meetings and plant walkthroughs for the Regional Sales Manager, Business Development Managers (BDMs) and Global Account Managers (GAMs) by identifying manufacturers with meaningful automation opportunities.
• Run multi-channel outreach sequences (phone, email, LinkedIn), continuously testing messaging and targeting based on conversion data and customer feedback.
• Book and host the first customer introduction call, where you will:
• Introduce Apera and its vision-guided robotics technology
• Understand the customer’s process and operational challenges
• Ask structured discovery questions about automation needs
• Identify whether the opportunity is worth deeper technical exploration.
• Conduct early technical discovery conversations with manufacturing and operations leaders, gathering key details such as:
• Current picking or handling process
• Product variation and complexity
• Facility environment
• Existing automation
• Potential constraints
• Evaluate whether the opportunity represents a strong technical and business fit for Apera before routing it to the Sales Team.
• Prepare a clear opportunity brief for the Regional Sales Manager or BDM including:
• Customer context
• Operational challenge
• Early feasibility indicators
• Stakeholders involved
• Next steps
• Partner with the Sales Team on account-based prospecting, identifying plants, facilities, and key stakeholders within target manufacturing companies.
• Source contacts in ZoomInfo (and other systems) and maintain accurate plant, facility, and account structures in HubSpot CRM.
• Build and maintain segmented prospect lists by industry, manufacturing process, and automation use case.
• Rapidly learn industrial automation workflows, robotics applications, and machine vision use cases to build credibility with technical buyers.
• Partner with SDRs and the VP of Marketing to develop high-performing outreach sequences, including adapting messaging for German-speaking manufacturing teams.

Supporting BDMs on Active Opportunities

• Partner closely with Regional Sales Managers and BDMs on key accounts and active opportunities