Sr Director, Commercial Operations

Position Summary

The Senior Director, Commercial Operations will lead the advancement of commercial excellence, sales force effectiveness, and data-driven decision-making across the organization. Serving as a proactive, forward-looking strategic partner to senior Sales and Commercial Leadership, this individual will anticipate business needs, identify emerging performance trends, and translate data and market intelligence into actionable recommendations that improve commercial execution and accelerate sustainable growth.

A key mandate for the role will be advancing the use of artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, automation, and modern sales technologies to improve seller productivity, forecasting accuracy, pipeline management, customer and opportunity prioritization, and overall commercial effectiveness. The Senior Director will lead a diverse, distributed team and collaborate closely with Sales, Marketing, Finance, Digital/IT, and other cross-functional partners.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as a trusted, proactive strategic advisor to Sales and Commercial Leadership, bringing a forward-looking perspective to business performance, opportunities, and risks.
• Anticipate leadership needs and proactively identify emerging trends, performance gaps, market dynamics, and commercial opportunities.
• Translate commercial data and market information into clear executive insights and recommendations.
• Develop and execute the Commercial Operations strategy in alignment with business objectives, growth priorities, and customer needs.
• Establish comprehensive commercial analytics, dashboards, KPIs, and performance-management frameworks.
• Lead the continuous improvement of sales forecasting processes, methodologies, tools, and governance.
• Proactively identify pipeline gaps, forecast risks, and emerging opportunities and recommend specific actions to Sales Leadership.
• Develop scenario modeling and predictive capabilities to understand potential commercial outcomes.
• Champion the responsible application of AI, predictive analytics, automation, and emerging technologies across Commercial Operations.
• Identify, prioritize, and implement AI-enabled solutions that improve seller productivity, forecasting, pipeline management, and leadership decision-making.
• Partner with Digital/IT, data, and technology teams to translate commercial requirements into scalable, secure, and sustainable solutions.
• Lead initiatives to enhance sales force effectiveness, productivity, and accountability.
• Lead sales planning activities, including territory design and alignment, resource deployment, capacity planning, quota setting, and performance measurement.
• Develop and administer effective sales compensation and incentive programs.
• Optimize CRM systems, sales technology platforms, and enablement tools.
• Develop a team capable of operating as strategic business partners.
• Lead change-management and organizational-transformation initiatives.
• Build strong partnerships across Sales, Marketing, Finance, Digital/IT, and other functions.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Science, a related technical discipline, or another relevant field.
• Minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in sales operations, commercial operations, sales effectiveness, commercial excellence, analytics, or a related discipline.
• Significant leadership experience, including responsibility for leading teams and enterprise-level commercial initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to serve as a strategic and forward-looking advisor to senior Sales and Commercial Leadership.
• Experience with Salesforce.com or a comparable CRM platform.
• Demonstrated experience applying AI, advanced analytics, predictive methodologies, or automation to commercial or sales processes.
• Strong financial acumen, including experience with revenue planning, business performance management, and sales compensation design.
• Advanced analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• Experience optimizing sales processes and leading large-scale change-management or organizational-transformation initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to lead distributed teams and operate effectively within a global, matrixed organization.
• Strong project and program-management skills.
• Exceptional communication, presentation, and executive-engagement skills.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior stakeholders and collaborate effectively across functions, regions, and cultures.
• Ability to travel approximately 20-25%.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting complex scientific, technical, healthcare, life sciences, or similarly regulated markets.
• Experience implementing AI, machine learning, predictive analytics, or automation capabilities within Sales or Commercial Operations.
• Experience leading commercial-transformation initiatives across multiple businesses, regions, or customer segments.