Owner of the I+S Commercial Operating System

Business: Ingredients + Specialties (I+S) • Reports to: SVP – Innovation, Growth & Strategy • Location: The Woodlands, TX / Hybrid • Experience: 10+ years

About the Role:

The Director, Revenue Operations owns the commercial operating system for the Ingredients + Specialties business — the process, technology, data, planning, and operating rhythm the entire go-to-market organization runs on. This is the “run the engine” seat: it does not sell, set price, build AI models, or author growth strategy. It makes the commercial machine faster, cleaner, and more predictable, and its distinctive contribution is owning the seams — the handoffs, definitions, and shared rails — where value is lost between functions.

What This Role Owns:

1. Commercial Operating System & GTM Process Architecture

• Own the end-to-end commercial process — lead-to-cash / opportunity-to-order — with standards, playbooks, and stage definitions across the customer journey.

• Design and enforce clean handoffs across Marketing, Field and Virtual Sales, Customer Service, and Technical, so no opportunity or customer falls between teams.

• Standardize globally, flex regionally across NA, EMEA, and LATAM.

2. CRM & Commercial Technology Ownership

• Own the commercial tech stack as business owner — Salesforce (SFDC/SFMC/SRM), Service Cloud, and connected systems — with IT delivering.

• Run the Commercial Operations Governance Council — the monthly intake that challenges, sequences, and prioritizes every enhancement request.

• Drive adoption and simplification— measured by usage and reduced administrative burden.

3. Commercial Analytics, Reporting & KPIs

• Own the single source of truth— dashboards, scorecards, the Sales Excellence (SFE) metric set, and the business definitions behind every number.

• Run the monthly reporting rhythm(performance and CX/NPS, repeatable by the 10th) and put clear signals in front of functional leaders to act on.

• Keep reporting descriptive and diagnostic; predictive and prescriptive analytics are commissioned from Data & AI and embedded here.

4. Pipeline Operations

• Own the pipeline process — cadence, hygiene, and forecast data integrity — while Sales owns the commit and the number.

• Instrument pipeline health— coverage, velocity, conversion, slippage — and surface risk early.

5. Sales Planning: Coverage & Quota

• Own the segmentation-to-coverage design and territory/quota governance, so segmentation drives coverage. BU leaders own the final deployment decision; this role owns the design, the rules, and the discipline.

• Run the quota-setting processand keep it linked to plan and the four I+S growth objectives.

6. Sales Enablement Operations

• Own the enablement operating infrastructure — content operations, competency frameworks, certification, and onboarding-to-tools.

• Partner with Commercial Development (under Sales, owning coaching and delivery) so content, data, and measurement stay one loop.

7. Commercial Program Management & Operating Rhythm

• Orchestrate the operating rhythm — MOR / MPR / QBR agendas, data packs, decisions, and action tracking.

• Operationalize the recurring programs — Winback, Retention, Spot-account, and Supplier Onboarding.

• Provide commercial PMO discipline for operational initiatives.

8. Commercial Data Governance & Hygiene

• Own customer and CRM data quality— account, customer, and opportunity master-data stewardship.

• Own the KPI business definitions; Data & AI owns the technical semantic layer that implements them.

Total System Design & Handoff Ownership

The eight areas above are the parts of the system; this role’s distinctive job is to make them work as one. The largest performance leakage sits at the seams between functions, not inside them — and this seat owns closing them.

• End-to-end system integrator Own how Marketing → Demand Gen → Sales → Pricing → Customer Service → Data & AI connect as one flow. Holding no single-function P&L is what lets this seat enforce that the whole beats the parts.

• Handoff design and enforcement Define every material handoff — MQL→SQL, lead→opportunity, opportunity→order, order→CS case, escalation→Sales, Field↔Virtual, KAM↔Field — with stage definitions, ownership, SLAs, and closed-loop measurement.

• Authority boundary Own the design, standards, instrumentation, and measurement of every handoff; the decision to move people or restructure a function stays with the owning line (Sales, Customer Service, or the BU), sponsored through Strategy.

• Single ownership of the commercial tech stack One business owner across Salesforce, Service Cloud, demand-gen attribution, CS case logging, and seller-facing tools, plus the rails through which pricing surfaces to sellers. Pricing owns the engine; Data & AI owns the platform; this seat owns adoption, integration, and the connective rails.

• One truth Own the KPI dictionary and business definitions so every metric means one thing across dashboards, MOR, and board packs.

• System-level scorecard Own the cross-functional metrics no single function can — seller time redeployed to customers, handoff cycle-time and leakage, SLA adherence, adoption, and the through-line from segmentation → coverage → productivity → CM$.

Building Human Capability

A governed operating model only works if the commercial teams can run it. This role closes that gap through clarity, accountability, and support for functional leaders — not mandate.

• Coach the sales manager Supply the tools, playbooks, dashboards, and enablement that make managers effective and let leaders drive decisions.

• Playbooks tied to the value levers Codify commercial playbooks for the plays that move the business — Field focus on higher-value accounts, KAM HQ-overlay, Virtual account-transition governance, Winback / Retention / Spot, demand-generation deployment, and the CS-escalation redesign.

• Adoption is the measure, not deployment Success is usage, cleaner data, faster cycle time, and lower administrative burden — never “features shipped.”

• Change management as a standing capability Communications, training design, adoption instrumentation, and post-launch tuning for a continuous change agenda, not one-off rollouts.

Success Measures — First 12–18 Months

• Seller time given back— measurable seller capacity recovered from CS and administrative work via the escalation redesign and tiered SLAs.

• Coverage that follows value — Field capacity shifted from the low-value long tail to higher-value accounts.

• Trusted numbers — one agreed data set and KPI dictionary; monthly performance and CX/NPS packs land by the 10th.

• Rhythm that runs itself— MOR / MPR with clear decisions and closed-loop actions, and fewer escalations to the SVP.

• Adoption and lighter load— higher tool adoption with measurably less seller administrative time.

• Clean planning cycles — segmentation-driven coverage, territory, and quota set on time and aligned to plan.

• Boundaries holding — no role confusion with Sales, Pricing, Data & AI, or Strategy.

Qualifications & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree (MBA or analytical discipline) preferred.

• 10+ years in revenue / commercial operations, sales operations, commercial excellence, or GTM operations, including 3+ years leading teams.

• Business ownership of CRM and commercial systems (Salesforce preferred), including governance of an enhancement/change pipeline.

• Track record building commercial reporting, KPI frameworks, and forecasting/pipeline processes leaders run on.

• Sales-planning experience — segmentation-driven coverage, territory, and quota design and administration.

• Comfort in a global, matrixed, multi-region (NA / EMEA / LATAM) environment.

• PE-backed or value-creation-plan experience preferred; specialty chemicals, ingredients, or B2B distribution a plus.

Skills & Competencies:

• Systems & process fluency — turns messy processes into standardized, instrumented workflows.

• Systems thinking — works the seams, not the boxes.

• Data and reporting rigor— precise definitions, defended data integrity, a clear performance story.

• Operating-rhythm discipline — cadences that drive decisions without bureaucracy.

• Enablement & change management— drives adoption through coaching, not mandate.

• Boundary-spanning influence— partners across functions without owning them.

• Commercial & value orientation— ties every deliverable to churn, win rate, margin, and CX.

• Bias to simplify— relentlessly cuts administrative burden on customer-facing teams.