Director, Sales Operations

Reports to: VP of Revenue Operations  |  Department: Revenue Operations |  

Compensation: $144,000 - $180,000 bonus. This role requires a minimum of two days a week onsite at our Boston, MA office.

About IANS Research

IANS is the trusted intelligence partner for enterprise CISOs and security leaders. We provide actionable advisory, peer benchmarking, and proprietary data that help security organizations make faster, more confident decisions. Our MCP connector and Vendor Intelligence Database (VID) peer benchmarking platform deliver intelligence and structured benchmarks across the security organization, putting IANS insights where security leaders are already working.

The Role

IANS is looking for a Director of Sales Operations to lead the operational foundation of our revenue organization. This is a strategic and execution-oriented leadership role — responsible for how our Sales teams are measured, enabled, and run. The Director will lead the Sales Ops function, set the operating model for the revenue team, and serve as the primary GTM liaison to TechOps on all Salesforce and CPQ matters. The right candidate is equally at home in an executive strategy conversation and a TechOps sprint review: a systems thinker who builds with rigor, leads with data, and moves fast without leaving process debt behind.

What You'll Do

Salesforce & GTM–TechOps Partnership

• Serve as the primary GTM liaison to TechOps for all Salesforce needs — translating business requirements into clear, actionable requests and ensuring GTM priorities are reflected in the roadmap
• Bring solid working knowledge of Salesforce architecture to every conversation — enough to write a clear spec and sanity-check TechOps work, without needing to build it yourself
• Partner with TechOps on CPQ enhancements — quoting flows, product catalog, pricing rules, approval workflows — by translating GTM requirements clearly, not by configuring CPQ directly
• Own GTM-side data governance: define field standards, hygiene rules, and usage policies; hold the revenue team accountable to them
• Act as the connective tissue between GTM stakeholders (Sales, Marketing, Finance, CS) and TechOps — ensuring both sides speak the same language and projects don't stall in translation

Revenue Operations & Execution

• Own the Sales Ops function end-to-end: define the operating model, set the cadence, and hold the team accountable to results
• Drive strategic planning cycles: territory design, quota setting, segmentation, and annual capacity modeling in partnership with Sales leadership and Finance
• Identify and eliminate systemic friction in the revenue motion — from lead routing to close to renewal — through process redesign, automation, and cross-functional alignment
• Partner with Finance on revenue recognition, bookings reconciliation, and commission accuracy; ensure Sales Ops is a trusted partner in financial planning

Deal Desk Oversight

• Own the Deal Desk function end-to-end: approval policy, discounting guardrails, non-standard terms review, and contract turnaround SLAs
• Directly manage a Deal Desk contractor — set priorities, review their work on complex or time-sensitive deals, and be the quality-control backstop
• Serve as the final escalation point for deal structuring questions that fall outside standard approval thresholds
• Continuously tighten Deal Desk workflows in partnership with Sales, Finance, and Legal to reduce cycle time without sacrificing deal quality

AI & Technology Forward

• Set the AI strategy for Sales Ops: evaluate, prioritize, and lead adoption of tools that materially improve forecast accuracy, rep productivity, and operational efficiency
• Champion a data-first, automation-first operating culture — reduce manual work through LLMs, workflow automation, and intelligent tooling across the GTM stack
• Stay ahead of the RevOps and AI tooling landscape; bring opinionated, well-reasoned recommendations to leadership rather than waiting to be asked
• Partner with TechOps to ensure the GTM tech stack is architected to support AI-readiness: clean data, integrated systems, and scalable automation

What You Bring

• 8–12 years in Sales Operations, Revenue Operations, or a closely related GTM function, with at least 2–3 years in a leadership or director-level role
• Working knowledge of Salesforce architecture — comfortable reading flows, validation rules, and data models well enough to write a clear spec and partner with TechOps; Salesforce Admin certification a plus, not required
• Familiarity with CPQ concepts — quoting flows, pricing rules, approval workflows — enough to partner with TechOps on requirements; hands-on CPQ configuration experience a plus, not required
• Proven track record as a GTM–TechOps liaison: you've successfully bridged business requirements and technical execution in a high-growth B2B environment
• Strong strategic instincts backed by analytical rigor — you build frameworks, not just reports, and you know how to move from data to recommendation to action
• Experience leading or growing a small team; you develop people and know how to build a function's culture and capability over time
• Fluency with modern RevOps and AI tooling — Gong, Clari, LLMs, automation platforms — and a genuine curiosity about what's next
• Exceptional cross-functional communicator: equally credible in a TechOps architecture review and a board-level pipeline discussion

Why Join Us?

• Impact: This role directly contributes to IANS’ new ARR growth and helps security leaders adopt differentiated intelligence, workflow, and benchmarking capabilities at the frontier of cybersecurity and AI-powered productivity.
• Culture: We are a collaborative, low-ego team that values intellectual curiosity, rigorous thinking, customer obsession, and genuine interest in how security organizations make decisions.
• Benefits: IANS offers competitive compensation, uncapped variable earnings, medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401(k) with company match, hybrid work, professional development opportunities, President’s Club recognition, and performance-based equity awards.