SDR salary: what sales development postings pay, by product and city, and how the bonus is earned

A US sales development representative (SDR or BDR) job posting on this board typically pays $76,100 a year, and the middle half of postings run from $59,800 to $97,000. That is usually on-target pay: a base salary plus a bonus for the meetings or pipeline the rep books. This guide shows what moves SDR pay (the company's product, the city, the segment the rep prospects into), names the employers that post the most, and explains how the variable part is earned and why most people stay in the seat less than two years.

On 1 November 2026 this board had 1,137 open sales development roles that US candidates could take, and 773 of them (68%) stated their pay. Every figure below is the midpoint of each posting's own range on a full year's scale, and the median across the postings in each group. Right now the board's sales development roles post a median of $76.1k/yr, with a typical band of $60k/yr to $130k/yr, across 2,291 open roles in every country.

Contents

1. The short answer
2. Pay by what the company sells
3. Pay by city
4. Enterprise, remote and senior SDR seats
5. Who posts the most SDR roles with pay
6. Base, bonus and how the variable is earned
7. What comes after the SDR seat
8. How these figures were counted
9. Quick answers

1. The short answer

The industry studies put the seat in the same place. The Bridge Group's 2025 study of 351 B2B companies found a median on-target pay of $80,000 for sales development reps, split 68:32 between a $55,000 base and $25,000 of variable pay - The Bridge Group. The SDR and BDR titles pay the same on this board; the guide SDR vs BDR explains where companies split the two names.

2. Pay by what the company sells

AI, fintech, cloud and security companies pay their SDRs $10,000 to $25,000 more at the median than companies selling business or industry software, for the same reason their account executives earn more: each meeting a rep books is worth more to them. SaaS and vertical SaaS companies post the most SDR roles (about 145 each posting pay that day), so they are also where most new sellers start. The tech and software sales jobs page lists the seats at all of these companies.

3. Pay by city

Among US sales development roles posting pay, by the metro the posting names:

New York and the Bay Area pay about $25,000 more than Boston and Austin at the median, a wider gap than for most sales seats, because the SDR teams of AI and fintech companies sit in those two cities. Boston, Austin and Salt Lake City have more sales development seats for their size than anywhere else on the board (Salt Lake City has the highest share, about one seat in six), and their companies hire new sellers in larger groups at a lower starting pay. The guide Best cities for sales jobs compares the cities across every kind of seat.

4. Enterprise, remote and senior SDR seats

• Enterprise SDRs (or account development reps), who prospect into large named accounts alongside an enterprise account executive, post a median of $90,000, about $14,000 above the seat as a whole.
• Remote SDR roles pay less, not more: a median of $68,500 for the 96 remote US roles posting pay against $77,900 for office roles. Many of the companies that pay their SDRs the most keep their sales development teams in an office.
• Senior SDR titles post $79,000 at the median, and associate or trainee titles $68,100. The step up that matters is the promotion to a closing seat, not a senior SDR title.

5. Who posts the most SDR roles with pay

The employers with the most US sales development roles posting pay on 1 November 2026:

Two very different kinds of seat sit in this list. Inspire Medical Systems hires Therapy Development Representatives, each building referrals from physicians across a territory, a step into medical device sales that pays above the software median; the guide How to get into medical device sales covers that path. AlwaysHired recruits SDRs and BDRs for the startups it works with, founding SDR seats among them. Every company page lists its open sales roles with their pay.

6. Base, bonus and how the variable is earned

An SDR's variable pay is earned on what the rep creates for the account executives, not on revenue they close: meetings held, meetings that become qualified opportunities, or the pipeline value of those opportunities, usually paid monthly or quarterly. At the Bridge Group's 68:32 median, an $80,000 OTE is a $55,000 base and $25,000 of bonus at 100% of target, and the same study found 60% of reps reaching quota - The Bridge Group.

That makes the target's definition as important as its size. A target counted on meetings held protects you from no-shows you cannot control; one counted on opportunities that an account executive later accepts puts part of your pay in someone else's hands. Ask which it is, how many reps hit it last quarter, and whether the bonus pays above target. The guide What is OTE explains plan mechanics for every sales seat, and the sales salary calculator shows what an OTE pays at your attainment.

7. What comes after the SDR seat

The seat is a stepping stone. The Bridge Group's 2025 study put the average tenure in a sales development seat at 1.9 years - The Bridge Group, and the usual next step is an associate or SMB account executive seat. On this board, associate account executive roles post a median of about $73,000 and SMB account executive roles about $130,000, so the first promotion usually lifts on-target pay by tens of thousands of dollars, with more of it riding on commission. The guide Sales career path maps the whole ladder with what each step pays, and Account executive salary shows what the closing seats post.

8. How these figures were counted

• The roles: every open sales development role on this board on 1 November 2026 that a US candidate could take, read from each company's own careers system and checked every hour: 1,137 roles, 773 of them stating pay. SDR, BDR, ADR and sales development associate titles all count.
• The pay: the midpoint of each posting's own range, base or OTE as the posting states it, on a full year's scale (an hourly rate times 2,080 hours), and the median across the roles in each group. A group is shown when at least 30 roles in it post pay (enterprise, senior and remote seats at 24 or more); a company when at least ten do.
• Products come from what the employer sells, segments and levels from the title, and cities from the posted location, the same rules the board's market and city pages use.

These figures describe one day; the board's pages always show the current pay.

9. Quick answers

How much do SDRs make? On this board, US sales development postings pay a median of $76,100 a year, with the middle half between $59,800 and $97,000 (1 November 2026). The Bridge Group's 2025 study found a median on-target pay of $80,000.

What is a normal SDR base salary? About two thirds of on-target pay at the median 68:32 split: roughly $55,000 base on $80,000 OTE.

Which SDR jobs pay the most? Seats at AI companies (median $95,000), enterprise SDR seats ($90,000) and seats in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York.

Do BDRs make more than SDRs? No. On this board the two titles post the same pay, about $75,000 at the median.

Where can I see SDR roles with their pay? The sales development roles page lists every open one with the pay it posts, and the entry-level sales jobs page the seats open to people without a sales record.