Sales Development Representative (SDR)

About Tensec

Tensec is Vertical AI for cross-border trade. Trade is two flows, money and goods, and the trading companies that move them: freight forwarders, shipping lines, customs brokers, 4PLs - still run both on systems built for large corporations and a lot of manual work. Tensec is the agentic AI layer those companies use to move both flows for their importer and exporter clients: FX and payments today, quoting and booking next, trade finance to follow. Cross-border B2B is a $50 trillion market. We're building the version all global trading companies choose to use.

We started in the US, Mexico, and Brazil and are expanding globally, onboarding enterprise trading companies whose trade flows run to billions of dollars a year across every major corridor. Founded in 2023 by a team that has built and exited startups and run global teams at Meta, PayPal, Credit Karma, Goldman Sachs, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. Tensec is backed by world-class investors such as Quiet Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, Renegade Partners, Clocktower, and WillowTree.

Your mission

You will be one of our first two SDRs in Brazil. This is an outbound role: your job is to open conversations with the right companies, understand whether we can help them, and book qualified meetings for the Brazil sales team. You hand off once the prospect has shown up to a qualified first meeting; the sales team takes it from there.

You will report directly to our Global Head of GTM, who is based in Palo Alto, and work closely with the Brazil sales team in São Paulo.

Based in Sao Paulo, with 3 days per week in our office.

Outcomes - your first 12 - 18 months

You will run the human half of an AI-powered outbound engine. Our GTM engineers build agents that research accounts, build and enrich lists, monitor signals and draft first touches. You take it from there: the calls the LinkedIn conversations, the follow-ups, the judgment about who is worth a meeting and who is not. The engine gets better because of what you learn on the phone, and you will be expected to feed that back.

First. Learn the product, the pitch and the segment, start conversations in your first week, and hold your first qualified meetings before the month is out. We would rather you learn by doing, with support, than spend weeks in onboarding.

Then. Build a steady weekly rhythm of qualified meetings, sharpen your version of the pitch, and start spotting patterns in who converts and why.

Set for success. Operate at full cadence, own your segment end to end, and be the person the team asks about what the market is saying.

The primary measure is qualified meetings held with the Brazil sales team: not meetings booked, meetings that happen with the right person and meet our qualification criteria. Behind that we look at conversion through the funnel, the quality feedback from the sales team on the meetings you source, and how quickly you respond to signals the engine surfaces.

Also on your plate

• Work a defined book of target accounts in your segment, prioritised and researched by our agents, and own the outreach to them.

• Prospect by phone, LinkedIn and email, and hold real conversations rather than running scripts.

• Qualify opportunities against our criteria and book meetings that the sales team is glad to take.

• Keep the CRM accurate and current: every account, every conversation, every next step.

• Report what you hear from the market, which objections repeat, which messages land, and help improve the pitch and the engine every week.

• Run tight weekly cadences with your manager and the sales team on pipeline and conversion.

What you bring

• Two or more years as an SDR or BDR in B2B outbound, with results you can talk about.

• Experience selling into logistics or financial services, and an understanding of how importers and exporters pay and get paid across borders, and of how a freight forwarder makes money.

• Native Portuguese and working English. Our team language is English; your prospects' language is Portuguese.

• Comfortable on the phone with senior finance people, and able to hold a conversation about costs without flinching.

• Disciplined with your CRM and your calendar, and able to manage your own week with a manager in a different time zone.

• Curious about AI tools and willing to work alongside agents rather than around them.

Even if you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications, we encourage you to apply.

Nice to have

Background in freight forwarding or foreign-trade operations before moving into sales, or experience selling fintech or FX products.

Compensation & benefits

• Competitive salary

• Vale-refeição/alimentação (meal/food voucher)

• Plano de saúde (health insurance)

• Paid time off and local statutory holidays

• Learning and development budget

Equal opportunity

Tensec is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

Tensec is a diverse and inclusive company committed to growing a diverse and inclusive team. We invite people of all backgrounds and identities to apply. Additionally, we encourage everyone to share which pronouns you wish for us to use when addressing you (i.e., she/her, he/him, they/them).

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. Please let your recruiter know if you require an accommodation during the application or interview process.

Even if you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications, we encourage you to apply.