Business Development Partner

Commission Only | 15% of Collected Search Fees | Uncapped
We are looking for a business development professional who knows how to get into conversations with business owners and senior executives and turn those conversations into retained recruiting relationships.
This is not an SDR role. You will not be paid to book random meetings, blast templated emails, or hit meaningless activity quotas.
We are looking for someone who can identify the right companies, reach the right decision-makers, build trust, uncover a real hiring need, and close the engagement.
About Us
We are an executive search firm focused on the leadership team surrounding founders and CEOs of growing companies.
We recruit roles including:
Chief of Staff
COO
General Manager
VP and Director-level leadership
Executive Assistants / founder “right hands”
Other critical leadership hires around the CEO
Our clients are primarily founder-led and privately held businesses, generally in the $10M–$100M+ revenue range.
We are building a more founder-focused alternative to traditional executive search: highly responsive, deeply involved, and focused on understanding what the CEO actually needs the person to own, not simply matching résumés to job descriptions.
The Role
Create and close new client relationships.
You will own the business-development process from initial prospecting through signed engagement.
That includes:
Identifying founder-led companies that fit our ideal client profile
Researching CEOs, founders, and leadership teams before outreach
Developing thoughtful outbound strategies
Reaching prospects through LinkedIn, email, phone, referrals, and your existing network
Starting conversations around leadership gaps and upcoming hiring needs
Building relationships with founders and CEOs over time
Qualifying genuine executive-search opportunities
Running early-stage business-development conversations
Following up consistently until an opportunity converts
Working directly with the founder of Shotgun Partners on complex searches
Negotiating and closing search engagements
Maintaining your pipeline and account relationships
This is not appointment setting.
We expect you to be capable of moving a relationship from:
“I’ve never heard of you”
to:
“We need your help finding this person.”
Compensation
This position is 100% commission-based with no base salary.
You will earn:
15% of collected search fees on new clients you personally source, nurture, and close.
Commission is uncapped.
Example economics:
A search producing a $40,000 fee = $6,000 commission
A search producing a $50,000 fee = $7,500 commission
A search producing a $75,000 fee = $11,250 commission
A search producing a $100,000 fee = $15,000 commission
We are intentionally offering significant upside because we want someone who thinks like a business developer, not an employee waiting for a list of leads.
Commission is earned on collected client revenue according to the terms of the contractor agreement.
Who We’re Looking For
You may come from:
Executive search
Recruiting or staffing business development
Professional services sales
B2B consulting
M&A or business brokerage
Payroll / PEO
Insurance
Financial services
Private equity / investment ecosystem
Founder-focused SaaS
Fractional executive services
Another industry where you regularly sell to business owners and CEOs
Your exact background matters less than whether you can consistently get senior decision-makers to take your call and trust you.
You should be comfortable selling engagements worth tens of thousands of dollars.
You Will Probably Be Good At This If:
You naturally research someone before contacting them.
You can speak comfortably with a founder doing $30M in revenue without sounding scripted.
You’re curious enough to ask why a CEO thinks they need a COO instead of immediately trying to sell them one.
You understand that expensive professional services are sold through credibility and trust not pressure.
You follow up relentlessly without becoming annoying.
You know the difference between activity and revenue.
You can hear “not right now” and continue building the relationship.
You don’t need someone standing over you telling you what to do every morning.
And most importantly:
You know how to close.
This Role Is Probably NOT For You If:
You need a guaranteed salary.
You primarily rely on inbound leads.
You’re looking for a traditional SDR position.
Your sales process consists of sending 500 identical emails.
You’re uncomfortable speaking directly with owners, founders, and CEOs.
You need a heavily scripted sales process.
You’ve never sold a high-trust service.
Or you’re expecting the company to hand you warm opportunities and simply collect commission.
What Success Looks Like
We care far more about revenue than activity metrics.
We are not impressed by:
“300 calls made.”
We care about:
Qualified CEOs engaged.
Real searches uncovered.
Engagements signed.
Revenue collected.
One strong relationship can be worth more than months of meaningless prospecting.

Work arrangement
No