Sales Operations Lead

Job Description

Are you a commercially-savvy sales operations leader who thrives at the intersection of process design, data-driven decision making, and organisational change? Do you excel at building scalable operational frameworks and bringing structure to complexity; whether that's a rapidly scaling AI sales motion, a harmonisation programme, or the integration of an acquired business?

At Zendesk, the AI Product Specialist organisation is central to how we scale AI capabilities embedded in customer experience solutions. As we grow, we need a dedicated operational leader to own the design, execution, and continuous improvement of the sales operations function that underpins this business.

As Sales Operations Lead for AI Product Specialists, you will be the primary operational partner to AI sales leadership, owning the end-to-end operating model; from pipeline governance and forecasting rigour to process harmonisation and M&A integration. You will partner closely with GTM Operations, RevOps, Finance, Data, and Engineering to align operating models, standardise definitions, and improve execution across disparate systems and evolving organisational structures.

This is a high-impact leadership role requiring mastery in CRM management, automation, analytics, process design, and senior stakeholder management; with the additional scope to lead process harmonisation initiatives and drive the operational integration of M&A activity affecting the AI specialist segment.

What You'll Own

Sales Operations Leadership and Operating Model

• Own and drive the operating model for the AI Product Specialist sales motion; process, governance, cadence, and accountability.

• Serve as the primary Sales Operations voice for AI sales leadership; shaping operational priorities and ensuring they align to quarterly and annual business goals.

• Partner with AI sales leadership and AI product stakeholders to design and continuously improve workflows that support quota attainment, pipeline conversion, and AI product adoption.

• Define success metrics and ensure operational priorities; process, tooling, reporting; are consistently delivered.

Process Design and Harmonisation

• Architect scalable, standardised sales processes capable of absorbing organisational change; whether driven by growth, restructuring, or acquisition activity.

• Lead process harmonisation programmes when AI specialist workflows diverge across teams or geographies, producing documented, version-controlled frameworks adopted across the organisation.

• Work cross-functionally to identify best-in-class practices at the sub-regional or team level and advocate for their adoption across the broader business.

M&A Integration

• Act as the Sales Operations lead for M&A activity impacting the AI specialist segment, owning the integration workstream from Day 1 planning through to steady-state.

• Drive CRM migration, territory and quota rationalisation, compensation alignment, data deduplication, and process unification for acquired sales organisations.

• Ensure newly combined sales teams operate from unified frameworks, tooling, and governance without disruption to in-flight pipeline or performance.

Data and Systems Governance

• Establish and enforce data quality standards across Salesforce and connected systems; ensure consistent definitions, taxonomy, and reporting logic.

• Own pipeline integrity mechanisms; stage definitions, required fields, hygiene routines, audit checks; to improve specialist performance reporting and forecast accuracy.

• Drive improvements to integrations and data flows to maintain trusted datasets during scaling and operational change, including integration of acquired systems.

Automation and Process Optimisation

• Build and maintain automation pipelines to streamline data synchronisation, reporting, sales notifications, and governance checks; reducing manual workload and errors during periods of operational change.