Director Business Development

Why UKG

At UKG, the work you do matters. The code you ship, the decisions you make, and the care you show a customer all add up to real impact. Today, tens of millions of workers start and end their days with our workforce operating platform. Helping people get paid, grow in their careers, and shape the future of their industries. That’s what we do.

We never stop learning. We never stop challenging the norm. We push for better, and we celebrate the wins along the way. Here, you’ll get flexibility that’s real, benefits you can count on, and a team that succeeds together. Because at UKG, your work matters — and so do you.

About the team

The International Business Development team supports UKG’s growth across Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions. The team partners closely with Sales, Marketing, and regional leaders to create pipeline, develop market opportunities, and build repeatable business development practices across international markets.

About the role

As Director of International BDR, you will define and execute the business development strategy across EMEA and APAC. You will align regional priorities with UKG’s global business development strategy, go-to-market objectives, pipeline goals, and market opportunities.

You will lead through three front-line managers and approximately 20 individual contributors across seven countries. You will build a scalable operating model, optimize regional investment, develop leadership capability, and influence strategy across the broader global Business Development organization.

About the team

The International Business Development team supports UKG’s growth across the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions. The team partners closely with Sales, Marketing, and regional leaders to create pipeline, develop market opportunities, and build repeatable business development practices across international markets.

About the role

As Director of International BDR, you will define and execute the business development strategy across EMEA and APAC. You will align regional priorities with UKG’s global business development strategy, go-to-market objectives, pipeline goals, and market opportunities.

You will lead through three front-line managers and approximately 20 individual contributors across seven countries. You will build a scalable operating model, optimize regional investment, develop leadership capability, and influence strategy across the broader global Business Development organization.

What you’ll do:

Strategy & Leadership
• Establish the regional operating model for business development across EMEA and APAC, including coverage strategy, market prioritization, segmentation, and resource allocation.
• Influence Global Business Development leadership strategy by identifying emerging market opportunities, risks, and organizational capabilities required to achieve growth objectives.
• Develop region-specific outreach strategies tailored to targeted segments, personas and industries.
• Align BDR efforts with sales goals, go-to-market strategies, and regional nuances.

Organizational Leadership
• Build a strong leadership bench through succession planning, coaching, and development of front-line managers.
• Lead through a team of front-line managers, ensuring leadership consistency, succession planning, organizational effectiveness, and talent development across multiple countries.
• Build, lead, and scale a high-performing BDR team across key international markets driving execution repeatability and predictability.
• Drive organizational effectiveness, employee engagement, retention, and culture across a globally distributed workforce.
• Model the UKG Leadership Framework by aligning strategy, activating ownership, and delivering measurable business outcomes

Market & Industry Focus
• Stay current on HR, Pay and Workforce Management trends, challenges, and regulatory shifts impacting leaders in EMEA and APAC
• Partner with Sales, Marketing, and regional leadership to shape messaging strategy, market penetration approaches, and executive engagement programs across international markets.

Performance & Enablement
• Define and track KPIs including pipeline contribution, conversion rates, and activity metrics.
• Influence and embrace onboarding, training, and coaching programs focused on consultative selling and industry acumen.
• Develop long-range workforce plans, organizational design recommendations, and leadership capability strategies to support business growth across international markets.
• Establish performance frameworks and operating mechanisms that improve predictability, scalability, and efficiency across the business development organization.
• Drive leadership development, succession planning, and talent review processes for the management team
• Foster a culture of curiosity, resilience, and continuous improvement.

Operational Excellence
• Partner with Marketing to optimize lead generation campaigns and content for HR personas.
• Enable a strong outbound BDR rhythm leveraging global campaigns, regional priorities and targeted account strategies.
• Leverage CRM and sales engagement platforms to drive efficiency and data-driven decision-making.
• Ensure consistent reporting and forecasting of BDR performance across regions.
• Own regional business reviews, performance forecasting, capacity planning, and executive reporting to Global Business Development leadership.
• Recommend organizational investments, process improvements, and technology enhancements that improve productivity and pipeline generation outcomes.
• Partner with BDR and GTM leadership to establish strategic performance measures and operating rhythms that support long-term business objectives.

Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Work closely with regional Sales Directors to align territory plans and account strategies.
• Share best practices with global BDR leaders and contribute to global process improvements.
• Collaborate with Legal and Compliance teams to ensure outreach adheres to regional data privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR).

About you

Basic qualifications:

• 10 or more years of progressive experience in sales, business development, sales development, or go-to-market leadership.
• Experience leading leaders and managing geographically dispersed teams across international markets.
• Demonstrated success developing business strategies and operating plans for a business development or sales development organization.
• Experience building and scaling BDR teams across multiple international markets.
• Experience leading through multiple levels of management.
• Experience with workforce planning, organizational design, and scaling complex teams.
• Proven ability to influence senior executives and lead cross-functional initiatives in a matrixed environment.
• Strong analytical, operational, communication, coaching, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience using Salesforce, Outreach, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
• Fluent English communication skills.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience developing outreach strategies for different customer personas, industries, and market segments.
• Knowledge of Human Capital Management, payroll, or workforce management markets.
• Experience working across EMEA and APAC.
• Experience with leadership development, succession planning, talent reviews, and organizational effectiveness.
• Additional European language skills.

Company Overview:

UKG is the Workforce Operating Platform that puts workforce understanding to work. With the world's largest collection of workforce insights, and people-first AI, our ability to reveal unseen ways to build trust, amplify productivity, and empower talent, is unmatched. It's this expertise that equips our customers with the intelligence to solve any challenge in any industry — because great organizations know their workforce is their competitive edge. Learn more at ukg.com. 

UKG is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace, including the recruitment process.       

Disability Accommodation in the Application and Interview Process 

For individuals with disabilities that need additional assistance at any point in the application and interview process, please email UKGCareers@ukg.com 

The pay range for this position is €85,000 to €114,700. The actual base pay offered may vary depending on skills, experience, job-related knowledge and work location. In addition to base pay, employees may be eligible to participate in a performance-based bonus plan and to receive restricted stock unit awards as part of total compensation. Learn more about UKG’s benefits and rewards at https://www.ukg.com/about-us/careers/benefits