Sales Operations Manager
About the Role
We are looking for a driven and detail-oriented Sales Operations Manager to serve as the operational engine behind our sales organization. This is a highly autonomous, execution-focused role where you will own the infrastructure, processes, intelligence, and incentive operations that keep our sales team running at peak efficiency. You are someone who thrives in building structure from ambiguity, loves optimizing how things work, and sees Salesforce not as a tool but as a strategic asset.
This role sits at the intersection of process excellence, CRM governance, and sales incentive management. You will be the go-to person for process design, CRM excellence, data quality, commission accuracy, and operational enablement across the entire sales lifecycle.
Job Description
What You Will Own
- Salesforce CRM Administration & Governance
- Serve as the primary administrator and subject matter expert for the Salesforce CRM platform
- Manage all aspects of the instance including user provisioning and role hierarchy, custom objects and fields, page layouts, validation rules, flows, and process automation
- Maintain a clean, reliable, and well-governed data environment — enforcing data entry standards, running regular audits, and resolving data quality issues proactively
- Build and manage dashboards, reports, and list views tailored to each sales role and leadership level
- Evaluate, implement, and manage third-party tools and integrations connected to Salesforce (e.g. sales engagement platforms, enrichment tools, routing tools)
- Document all system configurations, customizations, and change logs to maintain a healthy and scalable org
- Sales Process Design & Optimization
- Own the design, documentation, and continuous improvement of core sales processes across the full funnel — from lead creation and qualification through opportunity management, approvals, and closed-won handoff
- Map current-state workflows, identify friction points and bottlenecks, and implement structured improvements with measurable outcomes
- Build and maintain stage-by-stage opportunity management frameworks that give sales reps clear guidance and give leadership accurate visibility
- Standardize how the sales team works — from how leads are routed and assigned, to how deals are documented, to how handoffs to other teams are executed
- Define and enforce rules of engagement, escalation paths, and exception handling procedures
- Partner with Sales leadership to roll out process changes, ensuring adoption through clear communication, training, and reinforcement
- Commission Management & Incentive Operations
- Own the end-to-end commission calculation and payout process for all quota-carrying sales roles including Account Executives, Sales Development Representatives, and Sales Managers
- Administer and maintain the commission management system (e.g. CaptivateIQ, Spiff, Xactly, or equivalent), ensuring it is accurately configured to reflect current plan structures and business rules
- Translate approved commission plan documents into system logic — building calculation rules, accelerators, clawback conditions, splits, and overlay structures with precision
- Run the monthly and quarterly commission close cycle — pulling attainment data from Salesforce, validating against bookings records, reconciling discrepancies, and delivering final payout files on schedule
- Serve as the primary point of contact for all commission-related inquiries from sales reps — investigating disputes, explaining calculations, and resolving issues with transparency and speed
- Maintain a clear and auditable commission dispute resolution process with defined SLAs for acknowledgment and resolution
- Build and maintain rep-facing commission statements and attainment dashboards so every sales rep has real-time visibility into their earnings, quota progress, and projected payout
- Partner with Sales leadership to model the impact of proposed incentive plan changes — running scenario analyses to understand cost implications and rep behavior outcomes before changes are finalized
- Maintain a centralized, version-controlled library of all commission plan documents, addendums, exception approvals, and historical payout records
- Coordinate with Finance on commission accruals, payout timing, and period-end reconciliation — ensuring commission data is accurate and audit-ready at all times
- Identify recurring sources of commission errors or disputes and implement upstream fixes in data, process, or system configuration to prevent recurrence
- Support the annual Sales Incentive Plan (SIP) design process by providing historical attainment data, payout distribution analysis, and plan effectiveness insights
- Sales Enablement & Tooling
- Develop, maintain, and continuously improve the sales team's operational playbooks, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and process documentation
- Own the sales tech stack from an operational standpoint — assessing tool utilization, identifying redundancies, and recommending additions or removals based on team needs
- Coordinate onboarding support for new sales hires from a systems and process perspective, ensuring reps are productive quickly
- Create training materials, how-to guides, and reference documents that help reps and managers use tools and follow processes correctly and consistently
- Serve as the first point of contact for sales team questions related to process, tools, and CRM
- Pipeline Management & Operational Visibility
- Build and maintain a robust pipeline management framework that gives sales managers and leadership real-time visibility into deal flow, stage health, and velocity
- Design and enforce pipeline hygiene standards — ensuring opportunities are accurately staged, properly documented, and consistently updated
- Create and manage dashboards that surface leading indicators of pipeline risk and opportunity, enabling proactive action by managers
- Partner with Sales managers on weekly pipeline reviews — preparing data, flagging anomalies, and driving accountability on deal progression
- Track and report on key sales activity metrics (calls, emails, meetings, demos) and conversion rates across each stage of the funnel
- Reporting, Analytics & Operational Insights
- Build and own the sales operations reporting suite — covering pipeline health, rep activity, funnel conversion, win/loss trends, and forecast accuracy
- Design self-service dashboards in Salesforce and BI tools that allow sales managers and leaders to answer their own operational questions
- Conduct regular analyses to identify patterns, surface root causes of performance gaps, and recommend concrete operational improvements
- Prepare clear, executive-ready reports and presentations for leadership reviews, team meetings, and QBRs
- Maintain a consistent data definition framework — ensuring metrics are calculated the same way across all reports and stakeholders
- Cross-Functional Operational Coordination
- Act as the primary operational liaison between the Sales team and other internal functions including Marketing, Customer Success, and IT
- Manage the operational aspects of lead handoff from Marketing — ensuring SLAs are met, routing rules are working correctly, and feedback loops are in place
- Coordinate with Customer Success on the post-sale handoff process, ensuring clean, complete data transfer and a smooth customer experience
- Partner with IT and Business Systems on Salesforce infrastructure projects, integrations, and compliance requirements
- Represent Sales Operations in cross-functional meetings, projects, and planning sessions
Required Qualifications
- 7+ years of experience in Sales Operations or a directly related operational role within a B2B sales environment
- Deep, hands-on Salesforce CRM expertise — Salesforce Administrator certification (ADM 201) required; Advanced Administrator or Platform App Builder certification a strong plus
- Hands-on experience administering and operating a commission management platform such as CaptivateIQ, Spiff, Xactly, Everstage, or similar
- Proven experience owning the full commission cycle — from plan configuration and attainment calculation through dispute resolution and payout delivery
- Strong understanding of common sales compensation structures including accelerators, tiered rates, splits, overlays, draws, and clawbacks
- Proven experience designing and improving sales processes end-to-end, with demonstrated business impact
- Strong proficiency in Salesforce reporting and dashboards; experience with BI tools such as Tableau or Looker is an advantage
- Solid working knowledge of sales tech stack tools such as Outreach, Salesloft, ZoomInfo, Gong, LeanData, or similar
- High attention to detail and a strong bias toward data accuracy and process consistency — especially critical in commission calculations where errors directly affect rep earnings and trust
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, prioritize effectively, and deliver results with minimal supervision
- Strong communication skills — able to explain commission calculations clearly to individual reps and present operational data confidently to senior leadership
- Experience creating documentation, SOPs, and training materials for sales teams
Who You Are
You are an operator at heart. You find genuine satisfaction in making complex systems work smoothly, in closing the gap between how things are and how they should be. You don't need to be asked twice — when you see something broken, you diagnose it, design the fix, and drive it to completion.
You understand that commission is deeply personal to every sales rep. You handle it with accuracy, transparency, and urgency — because you know that trust in the commission process is trust in the organization. You build systems that minimize errors, maximize visibility, and give every rep confidence that what they earned is what they will be paid.
You are highly organized, deeply curious about data, and confident enough to push back when something doesn't add up. You communicate clearly, document everything, and build things that last. You take pride in being the person the sales team relies on when they need answers, and the person leadership trusts when they need the truth about what is happening in the pipeline and on the commission ledger.