How to Hire a Remote SDR in Europe

To hire a remote SDR in Europe, decide three things before you write the post: the market the SDR will call (which decides the language and the country), the number they own (meetings booked, not activity), and the contract (contractor or employer of record, which decides whether the on-target earnings are a salary or an invoice). Then run a short process built around one live call: a 20-minute screen, a scored interview, a paid 2-hour outbound task, and an offer with the OTE split written down. From brief to offer, four to five weeks when you do it yourself.

This guide gives the process in order, the SDR pay benchmarks for four countries with sources, a scorecard to copy, and the paid trial brief. It is written for a US or UK company making its first European sales hire.

Key takeaways

• Median SDR base pay runs from about €34,000 in Spain to £39,000 in the UK and €44,000 in Germany, with OTE 45 to 55% above base. The US median is $60,000 base and $85,000 OTE.
• On the Euro Remote Talent board, 148 SDR and BDR roles open to Europe were posted in the 60 days to 14 October; only 3 disclosed pay. The UK, Spain and Germany were the countries named most.
• Pick the country by the market the SDR calls, not by cost. A German-speaking SDR for DACH lives in Germany or Austria; an English-language SDR for US accounts can be anywhere with US overlap.
• Score every candidate on the same five criteria, and let a paid 2-hour outbound task settle the shortlist. The task predicts the job; the interview does not.
• Write the OTE split, the quota, the ramp and the contract type into the offer. Those four lines are where European SDR hires go wrong.

What does a remote SDR cost in Europe?

The benchmarks below are RepVue's published medians, built from sales professionals' own submissions, so they skew to software companies and are not a census. The US row is RepVue's overall figure. The last column is the share of SDRs who hit quota in the previous 12 months, which is a useful check on how a company sets targets.

What the board shows is thinner but current. Of the 148 SDR and BDR roles open to candidates in Europe posted on the Euro Remote Talent sales and business development board between 15 August and 14 October 2026, 145 were full time, the UK was named in 33, Spain in 15, Germany in 6, and 17 said "anywhere" or "Europe, multiple countries". Three listings disclosed pay: €44,000 to €55,000 for a German-speaking BDR based in Ireland, €23,000 to €30,000 for a BDR in Spain, and €15 an hour for a French-speaking SDR in France. One outsourced SDR provider accounted for 26 of the 148 posts, which tells you where a lot of the "remote SDR" supply comes from.

Add the employer side: if you employ rather than contract, the cost guide for a marketing manager has the employer contribution rates for five countries and the employer of record fees, and they apply to an SDR unchanged. The salary calculator puts a US employee next to a European contractor on one screen.

Which country should the SDR be in?

The market decides. For DACH prospects you need native-level German, which in practice means Germany, Austria or Switzerland. For the UK and Ireland, the UK and Ireland, where pay is highest. For southern Europe, Spain or Portugal. For US accounts called from Europe, the constraint is overlap, not language: an SDR in Lisbon or Dublin working 13:00 to 21:00 local covers 8:00 to 16:00 Eastern; one in Warsaw doing the same covers 7:00 to 15:00. The seven mistakes US founders make on a first European hire covers the time zone and contract traps in more detail.

Cost is the second filter, not the first. The Spain-to-Germany gap in the table is about €10,000 of base, which is real, but an SDR who cannot hold a conversation in the prospect's language costs you the pipeline.

How do you write the job post?

Four lines do the work: the market and language ("outbound to DACH mid-market, German native level"), the number ("12 qualified meetings a month after a 2-month ramp"), the pay as a split ("€42,000 base, €60,000 OTE, uncapped, paid monthly") and the location line with countries, hours and contract type. The location line guide has the sentence to copy, and the job post guide has the full template. In the EU, several countries now require the pay range in the post; the quickest way to comply is to put it there.

If you would rather run the search yourself, post the role for $299 on Euro Remote Talent and it is live for 60 days, reaching candidates already based in Europe. If you want the shortlist done for you, Hiring Done For You delivers three vetted candidates in 21 days for a flat $6,500, with a 12-month replacement guarantee; book a call to scope the role.

How do you screen and interview?

Step 1: the 20-minute screen

Ask for three things: the number they owned in their last role and how it was measured, how they built a list (tools, sources, how they qualified), and a live 60-second pitch of your product from the job post alone. The pitch is the screen. An SDR who cannot form two sentences about your product from the post will not form them on a call.

Step 2: the scored interview

Forty-five minutes with the hiring manager, scored 1 to 4 on the five criteria in the scorecard below. Score during the call, not after, and have the second interviewer score separately before you compare.

Step 3: the paid trial task (2 hours, paid)

Brief: "Here are 20 target accounts and our ideal customer profile. In 2 hours: (1) rank the 20 and drop any that do not fit, with one line each; (2) write a first email, under 80 words, to the top 3; (3) record a 90-second voice note as the opening of a cold call to the top account. We pay [€100 or local equivalent] for the 2 hours whatever the outcome, and we do not use your work with those accounts." Score the same five criteria. The ranking shows judgment, the emails show writing, the voice note shows the language and the phone.

Pay for the task. Unpaid "assignments" are the fastest way to lose the best candidate in the shortlist, who has two other processes running.

Step 4: references and the offer

One reference from a sales manager who saw the numbers. Then the offer, with four lines that cannot be vague: base and OTE as numbers, the quota and what counts as a qualified meeting, the ramp (months at reduced quota with full OTE or a guaranteed commission), and the contract type. A contractor in Spain and an employee in Spain on the same OTE are different costs and different legal relationships; the contractor or employer of record guide walks through the choice, and a local lawyer or accountant should confirm it before the contract goes out.

How long does it take to hire a remote SDR in Europe, and what does it cost in your time?

Done yourself: a week to write the post and let applications come in, a week of screens, a week of interviews and the trial task, a few days for references and the offer. Four to five weeks, about 20 hours of the hiring manager's time, plus the trial payments. Done through a flat-fee search: a shortlist in 21 days, and your time goes into the interviews and the offer. Either route ends with the same four lines in the offer letter.

FAQ

Should an SDR in Europe be a contractor or an employee?

If they work your hours, use your tools and take direction daily, most European countries treat that as employment whatever the contract says, and an audit can reclassify it. A short pilot as a contractor is common; a permanent role usually means an employer of record or your own entity. Confirm with a local lawyer.

What quota should a remote SDR have?

Set it from your own data: meetings needed per closed deal, divided into the pipeline target. If you have no data, start with a ramp of two to three months at a reduced number and raise it with evidence. The RepVue figures above show that between a third and a half of SDRs miss quota, which usually says more about the quota than the SDR.

Can one SDR cover all of Europe?

In English-first markets (the UK, Ireland, the Nordics, the Netherlands) yes. DACH, France, Spain and Italy expect their own language on a cold call. Hire for one market first, prove the motion, then add a language.

How much should the paid trial task pay?

Enough that the candidate takes it seriously and feels respected: roughly two hours at the hourly rate the OTE implies, so around €50 to €100 in most of Europe. State the amount in the brief and pay it on delivery, whatever the outcome.

Should you hire an SDR in Eastern Europe?

Let the market they will call decide, not the region. For US accounts the constraint is overlap: an SDR in Warsaw working 13:00 to 21:00 local covers 7:00 to 15:00 Eastern. For DACH or UK prospects, native-level language matters more than where the cost is lowest.

Do you need an SDR recruitment agency in Europe?

No. The process above takes four to five weeks when you run it yourself. If you would rather hand off the search, Hiring Done For You delivers three vetted candidates in 21 days for a flat $6,500, with a 12-month replacement guarantee.

The short version

Choose the market, the number and the contract first; pick the country from the language and the overlap; put base, OTE, quota, ramp and contract type in the post and the offer. Screen in 20 minutes, score the interview on five criteria, and let a paid 2-hour outbound task decide the shortlist. Median base pay is about €34,000 in Spain, £39,000 in the UK and €44,000 in Germany, with OTE roughly half again. If you want three vetted SDR candidates in 21 days for a flat $6,500, book a call. If you would rather run the search yourself, post the role for $299 and it is live for 60 days.