Business Developer (Potential Cofounder)
Contract type : Fixed-term contract
Level of qualifications required : Graduate degree or equivalent
Fonction : Support functions
Level of experience : From 3 to 5 years
About the research centre or Inria department
The Inria University of Lille centre, created in 2008, employs 360 people including 305 scientists in 15 research teams. Recognised for its strong involvement in the socio-economic development of the Hauts-De-France region, the Inria University of Lille centre pursues a close relationship with large companies and SMEs. By promoting synergies between researchers and industrialists, Inria participates in the transfer of skills and expertise in digital technologies and provides access to the best European and international research for the benefit of innovation and companies, particularly in the region.For more than 10 years, the Inria University of Lille centre has been located at the heart of Lille's university and scientific ecosystem, as well as at the heart of Frenchtech, with a technology showroom based on Avenue de Bretagne in Lille, on the EuraTechnologies site of economic excellence dedicated to information and communication technologies (ICT)
Context
SHORA is a startup project supported by Inria Startup Studio that addresses the biggest pain in e-commerce: turning visitors into buyers. Today, fewer than 3% of shoppers complete a purchase and most of the remaining 97% drop off because of UI friction. SHORA predicts how a website’s interface influences conversion and recommends concrete improvements. We train our ML models on visual and structural elements from millions of websites, and they learn UI patterns that drive sales based on HCI principles. The project is entering a validation phase to deploy with early clients. Our goal is to move from prediction to proof by tracking real conversions. This will make us the first platform that bridges UI theory with proven conversion outcomes. We seek a business developer who can understand our product, build relationships with early clients, drive, retain, and grow sales during this validation phase.
Assignment
You will contribute to our go-to-market strategy and build a revenue engine.
You will work closely with our technical team to shape the product direction through client feedback.
Main activities
- Contribution to go-to-market (GTM): segment, position, and price the initial clients.
- Sales execution: land first 5–10 pilot customers, then scale to 100+ paying accounts.
- Partnerships: recruit & enable CRO / UX agencies as channel partners.
- Revenue stack : set up CRM, dashboards, and forecasting process.
- Fundraising support : co-lead Seed round with the CEO.
- Team building : hire & coach the first AEs/CSMs; codify the sales playbook.
Skills
Appreciated skills: CRO expertise, startup experience, fundraising
Your CRO contacts pick up on the first ring and introduce you to two more.
- Network among Shopify / Presta / Woo / Adobe merchants and CRO agencies.
- Familiarity with A/B testing, GA4/Matomo, and growth frameworks.
- Comfort articulating UI / UX principles and web-performance metrics to clients.
- Prior co-founder, first-sales-hire, or early-stage GTM leadership role.
- Exposure to Seed/Series A fundraising and investor due diligence.
- Ability to thrive amid resource constraints and rapid product iterations.
Benefits package
- Subsidized meals
- Partial reimbursement of public transport costs
- Leave: 7 weeks of annual leave + 10 extra days off due to RTT (statutory reduction in working hours) + possibility of exceptional leave (sick children, moving home, etc.)
- Possibility of teleworking and flexible organization of working hours
- Professional equipment available (videoconferencing, loan of computer equipment, etc.)
- Social, cultural and sports events and activities
- Access to vocational training
- Social security coverage
Remuneration
According to the profile
General Information
- Town/city : Lille
- Inria Center : Centre Inria de l'Université de Lille
- Starting date : 2025-10-01
- Duration of contract : 12 months
- Deadline to apply : 2025-07-31
Warning : you must enter your e-mail address in order to save your application to Inria. Applications must be submitted online on the Inria website. Processing of applications sent from other channels is not guaranteed.
Instruction to apply
Defence Security :
This position is likely to be situated in a restricted area (ZRR), as defined in Decree No. 2011-1425 relating to the protection of national scientific and technical potential (PPST).Authorisation to enter an area is granted by the director of the unit, following a favourable Ministerial decision, as defined in the decree of 3 July 2012 relating to the PPST. An unfavourable Ministerial decision in respect of a position situated in a ZRR would result in the cancellation of the appointment.
Recruitment Policy :
As part of its diversity policy, all Inria positions are accessible to people with disabilities.
Contacts
- Inria Team : STIP-LNE
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Recruiter :
Maurice Gregoire / gregoire.maurice@inria.fr
The keys to success
- Consistently beat quota in B2B SaaS (ACV > €50 k).
- Own complex cycles end-to-end: prospect → POC → signature → ARR → upsell.
- Skilled in outbound, consultative discovery, and value-based negotiation.
- Hands-on mastery of CRM hygiene, pipeline analytics, and forecasting accuracy.
- Fluent French & English; data-literate with dashboards and basic SQL.
About Inria
Inria is the French national research institute dedicated to digital science and technology. It employs 2,600 people. Its 200 agile project teams, generally run jointly with academic partners, include more than 3,500 scientists and engineers working to meet the challenges of digital technology, often at the interface with other disciplines. The Institute also employs numerous talents in over forty different professions. 900 research support staff contribute to the preparation and development of scientific and entrepreneurial projects that have a worldwide impact.