---
title: 'Business Development Manager at Contoro Inc.'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-manager-contoro-inc-buena-park-st7qdm7tjwmj'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Business Development Manager at Contoro Inc.

- **Company:** Contoro Inc.
- **Location:** Buena Park, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/contoro/5fbb4778-6b11-4bf8-82f7-650bd7edfe83

## Job description

JOIN CONTORO ROBOTICS – REVOLUTIONIZING WAREHOUSE AUTOMATION WITH CUTTING-EDGE ROBOTICS

At Contoro Robotics, we're on a mission to solve labor challenges through advanced robotic solutions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, our fast-growing startup is transforming the supply chain industry with our flagship warehouse automation technology. Our team is made up of top-tier experts in robotics, AI, and logistics, working together to push the boundaries of automation.

We’re looking for talented and ambitious individuals to join us on this journey—helping shape the future of robotics while growing alongside a world-class team. If you're passionate about innovation, problem-solving, and making a real-world impact, we want to hear from you!

## ABOUT THE ROLE

This is our first dedicated commercial hire in Southern California. You'll be based in the region — close to the Inland Empire, Perris, Torrance, and Buena Park — working directly with our Director of Business Development out of Austin.

Your job is to build the top of our funnel in the densest warehouse market in the country, with customers for the trailer unloading robot, palletizer, and AGV. You'll open and warm relationships with operators across the region, qualify them against the operational criteria that tell us whether our systems are a fit, and carry the strongest of those relationships forward yourself. You'll also run the marketing activity that supports it — the trade shows, the follow-up, the case studies that make the next conversation easier.

It's a hands-on role with an unusual amount of exposure for the candidate. You'll learn the commercial side of a robotics business directly from the people running it, and just as much from the customers themselves — on their floors, in their operations/warehouses, regularly.

## WHAT YOU'LL DO

## BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

- Build and warm relationships with warehouse and distribution operators across Southern California, drawing on the network you already have in the region.
- Qualify prospects against our operational fit criteria — trailer volume, case counts per trailer, case dimensions, drop trailer usage — so that opportunities reaching the sales conversation are already understood and vetted.
- Be in the field. Visit sites, walk docks, sit with operations teams, and bring back what you learn about how these buildings actually run, while qualifying their need to automate offloading their floor loaded trailers.

## SALES SUPPORT

- Prepare proposals, quotes, and customer-facing performance reporting that makes the case for expansion.
- Keep the CRM accurate and current. Pipeline you can't see isn't pipeline.
- Handle follow-ups and next steps so nothing goes cold between meetings.

## MARKETING

- Run trade show and industry event logistics for the region, and work the booth.
- Attend networking events in the region to cultivate leads and further nurture them.
- Support content that shortens the sales cycle: case studies, customer references, one-pagers, and social posts.
- Manage outbound campaign execution and follow-up on inbound leads.

## WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

- Based in Southern California, with a working knowledge of the region's warehouse and distribution landscape. This is not a relocation role.
- At least five years of customer-facing experience in or adjacent to the warehouse industry. The strongest backgrounds we've seen:
- Lumper or unloading services — you already know who moves what volume, and you've already been inside these buildings
- Pallet supply or pallet management
- Drayage and port-to-facility transportation
- Racking, forklift, or material handling equipment sales
- Sales or deployment roles at a system integrator or robotics company
- A sales mindset. A formal sales title is not required, but you should be someone who naturally builds relationships/rapport, asks the qualifying question, and follows up without being told to.
- Genuinely comfortable in an industrial environment — warehouse floors, cross docks, receiving docks, PPE, early shifts.
- Strong written communication. A proposal or a performance report is a piece of writing, and it either builds confidence or erodes it.
- Highly organized and self-directed. You will be working largely on your own in the region, and much of this job is remembering the thing nobody else remembered.
- Valid driver's license and willingness to drive to customer sites across the region several days a week, plus occasional travel to Austin.

## NICE TO HAVE

- An existing network among Southern California warehouse operators or 3PLs.
- Experience with CRM tools (HubSpot, Salesforce).

## PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

Able to walk and stand on a warehouse floor for extended periods and work safely around active material handling equipment in accordance with site safety requirements.

## WHY THIS JOB IS WORTH TAKING

You will be an early member of a customer-facing team at a company whose robots are already in production at name-brand logistics operations, and the first person representing Contoro on the ground in our densest customer region. You'll see the full arc of robotics industry — how a deal is won, how a system gets deployed, why it breaks, and what makes a customer expand. That is an unusually complete education, and it's not available at a larger company where each of those pieces belongs to different departments.

The person who does this job well and grows into owning larger accounts is on a short path to a senior commercial role.

## HOW TO APPLY

Send your resume and a short note to hr@contoro.com. In the note, tell us which warehouses in Southern California you already know, and how you came to know them. That's most of this job.

Contoro Robotics is an equal opportunity employer.

## About Contoro Inc.

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Contoro provides an AI-powered, human-in-the-loop robotics service to autonomously unload floor-loaded trailers and shipping containers for the logistics industry.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: Austin, Texas, United States
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: Youngmok "Mok" Yun (CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary Industry**: Robotics Engineering / Industrial Automation / Logistics
- **Target Customers**: B2B (warehouses, distribution centers, freight companies, and supply chain operators)
- **Mission**: To transform the future of work by delivering reliable, affordable, and safe robotics solutions, starting with the most physically demanding task in the supply chain – unloading non-palletized boxes from trucks and containers.

## Products & Services
- **Autonomous Container & Trailer Unloading Service**: A robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) offering where a mobile robot autonomously enters a trailer or container, uses a patented articulated gripper (DuoGrasp) and a Kuka industrial arm to unload mixed-SKU boxes (8" to 30" in dimension, up to 65 lbs), and places them onto an onboard conveyor belt. The service is charged per container unloaded, with no upfront capital expense.
- **Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) AI Platform**: A proprietary system that augments the robot's AI with remote human teleoperation for edge cases. This creates a continuous learning loop to improve AI reliability over time, targeting 99%+ success rates required for industrial use.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Total Funding**: USD 22.0 million across 4 rounds:
  - Pre-Seed (2022): USD 1.3M led by Village Global
  - Seed (June 2023): USD 7.2M led by SV Investment Corp
  - Corporate Round: Led by Coupang (amount undisclosed)
  - Series A (April 2025): USD 13.5M led by Doosan Investment
- **Key Metric**: 43 employees (as of mid-2025), with 83.3% year-over-year headcount growth
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Doosan Investment, SV Investment Corp, Coupang, Village Global
- **Growth Signals**: 83.3% YoY headcount growth; active commercial pilot program for qualified customers; presence in the US, South Korea, UAE, and India; 4 active job postings (up 300% YoY).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) Reliability**: Contoro's core moat is its ability to handle the "endless edge cases" of trailer unloading (diverse box sizes, containers, and layouts) by combining AI with remote human operators. This guarantees 99%+ reliability in real-world industrial environments, a bar that pure AI solutions struggle to meet.
- **Patented Hardware**: The "DuoGrasp" articulated gripper provides a two-sided box grasp for stability, allowing the robot to handle heavy, multi-dimensional boxes without damage.
- **No-Capex Business Model**: Charging per container unloaded (RaaS) removes the capital barrier for customers, making the service "affordable and predictable" and easy to scale up or down.
- **Rapid Deployment**: The robot's mobile base and built-in connectivity allow it to be moved from dock to dock via remote control or forklift, with "short deployment time & high reliability from day 1."

## Strategic Focus
- **Commercialization & Scaling**: The company is currently accepting qualified customers for a 12-week commercial pilot program, indicating a shift from R&D to market deployment.
- **Vertical Expansion**: While starting with trailer/container unloading, the company's platform is designed to tackle other physically demanding tasks in logistics and beyond.
- **AI Evolution**: Accelerating the AI learning loop through teleoperation data to reduce reliance on human operators over time.

## Why Work Here
- **Cutting-Edge Technology**: Work on real-world AI and robotics problems (perception, motion planning, manipulation) with industrial-grade hardware (Kuka arms).
- **High Growth Trajectory**: A Series A startup with 83% headcount growth and a clear path to commercial scale. The team is small (43 people), offering significant ownership and impact.
- **Culture & Values**: The company emphasizes **Reliability**, **Collaboration**, **Commitment**, **Independent Problem Solving**, and **Contribution**.
- **Benefits**:
  - 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance
  - 401k plan with matching
  - Flexible work hours
  - Pet-friendly office (Austin HQ)
  - Gym membership reimbursement
  - Continuous education support (book purchases, online courses, Lunch & Learns)
  - Employee recognition program with gift card rewards
  - Paid parental and marriage leave
- **Work Model**: Office-based in Austin, Texas with flexible hours. The engineering culture is hands-on, with a focus on building and deploying real hardware.
- **Global Exposure**: Offices in the US, South Korea, UAE, and India.

## Sources
1. [contoro.com](https://contoro.com/)
2. [contoro.com/about-us](https://contoro.com/about-us/)
3. [contoro.com/career](https://contoro.com/career/)
4. [linkedin.com/company/contoro-inc](https://www.linkedin.com/company/contoro-inc)
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/contoro](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/contoro)

## Other roles at Contoro Inc.

- [Robotics Software Engineer, Autonomy Integration](https://feeny.ai/job/robotics-software-engineer-autonomy-integration-contoro-inc-austin-1f0ny694pbcq) — Austin, TX
- [Office & People Operations Coordinator](https://feeny.ai/job/office-people-operations-coordinator-contoro-inc-austin-pd6k8ys93tjr) — Austin, TX
- [Robotics Test & Validation Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/robotics-test-validation-intern-contoro-inc-austin-nd5td8hgn463) — Austin, TX
- [Sr. Robotics Engineer, Perception](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-robotics-engineer-perception-contoro-inc-austin-w7btpsjbn1qa) — Austin, TX
- [Sr. Robotics Engineer, Motion Planning](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-robotics-engineer-motion-planning-contoro-inc-austin-k7sk7q61jxrg) — Austin, TX
- [Data Engineer, Cloud Platform](https://feeny.ai/job/data-engineer-cloud-platform-contoro-inc-austin-1rh10zprevbv) — Austin, TX
- [Robotics Engineer, Motion Planning](https://feeny.ai/job/robotics-engineer-motion-planning-contoro-inc-austin-g1xqjkwb34zj) — Austin, TX
- [Robotics Engineer, Autonomy](https://feeny.ai/job/robotics-engineer-autonomy-contoro-inc-austin-07tcy2s2jy6x) — Austin, TX
- [Business Development Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-manager-wayflyer-sydney-4hg03bzsh0cb) — Sydney, Australia
- [Business Development Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-manager-liberis-atlanta-georgia-united-states-of-kdtjcw8rftqv) — Atlanta Georgia United States of, United States