Sales Operation Manager

Job Title: Sales Operation Manager

Location: Reading (initially 3 days per week onsite and later 1-2 days per week)

Duration: 12 months contract initially

Max. Budget: £80k - £98k per annum + paid holidays + pension or £400 - £513 per day Inside IR35

The following information aims to provide potential candidates with a better understanding of the requirements for this role.

Job Description:

• The dedicated Sales Operations owner for the Partnerships & Retail business, will manage forecasting, performance tracking, budget oversight, and operational cadence for the global retail rebate programme.
• Partnering closely with Sales, Finance, FP&A, Global Ops, Partner Ops and our external Vistex agency you will ensure the business runs on a consistent set of KPIs, with an accurate forecast, and a tight payment process .
• In this global individual contributor role, you will adapt your schedule across Americas, EMEA, and APAC time zones. You will operate with minimal supervision in a fast paced, evolving environment.

What You Will Do:

Forecasting & Planning

• Own the operational forecast for the retail rebate budget — building scenario-based models (low / mid / high) that incorporate price changes, product transitions, partner mix, macro factors and historical performance.
• Continuously refine forecast methodology to drive accuracy improvements (target ±5%) and reduce unplanned variances or executive escalations.
• Translate promotional plans into multi-quarter financial outlooks, with clearly documented assumptions and buffer zones, working alongside Sales and Finance.
• Drive the operational input into the annual Pricing Action Request (PAR) cycle and any in-year amendments, ensuring forecasts and approvals stay aligned.

Performance Reporting & Analytics

• Run the bi-weekly and monthly performance review cadence — preparing standardised views, surfacing actuals vs. forecast and call-outs across KPIs (Sell-Through NIR, GNARR, Redemption ARR, Cost-of-Sale).
• Define and maintain a single source of truth performance dashboard, partnering with data science / partner ops to integrate multiple data sources (e.g., Databricks, SAP, partner sell-through and Vistex spend).
• Establish clear escalation triggers (Green / Amber / Red) and translate variances into actionable insight for leadership.
• Develop deeper partner-, product- and geo-level analytics to inform commercial and promotional decisions.

Operational Process & Governance

• Own the operational cadence between Sales, Finance, APC Ops and Vistex — ensuring PO/PR raising, accruals, rebate processing and partner payments happen on time, every quarter.
• Track PO balances against forecasted obligations and Vistex spend; partner with APC Ops to trigger PO amendments before issues surface.
• Maintain documentation, SOPs and playbooks so the process is durable, auditable and not personality-dependent.
• Identify automation and tooling opportunities (reporting automation, RPA, AI-assisted analysis) to reduce manual effort and cycle time.

Stakeholder Engagement & Narrative

• Be the operational glue across a multi-stakeholder ecosystem: Retail Sales, Finance / FP&A, Rev Ops, Global Sales Ops, Partner Ops, APC Ops and Vistex.
• Package performance, variance and spend stories into clear narratives for SVP+ leadership reviews — connecting numbers to commercial reality (ARR growth, incrementality, partner dynamics).
• Support quarterly executive reviews and QRF submissions with Sales and Finance leadership, ensuring a single, aligned outlook.

What You Will Need to Succeed:

• 5+ years in a Sales Operations, Revenue Operations, Channel Operations or FP&A role — ideally with exposure to channel, retail, partner or contra-revenue businesses.
• Direct experience owning forecasting, budget management and performance reporting for a sizeable budget line or P&L.

Analytical & Technical Skills

• Strong financial and commercial acumen, with the ability to build complex scenario models in Excel and translate output into clear business decisions.
• Comfort working with large, imperfect datasets across multiple systems (SAP, Databricks, partner files, finance systems). SQL or equivalent querying experience an advantage.
• Hands-on experience building and maintaining dashboards in Power BI, Tableau or equivalent.

Communication & Stakeholder Management

• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills — able to distil detailed analysis into a crisp, one-page narrative for senior leadership.
• Demonstrated ability to influence and align across business units, finance partners and external agencies without direct authority.
• Confident facilitating recurring reviews, driving decisions to closure and holding cross-functional partners to commitments.

Operating Style

• Self-starter attitude — comfortable defining your own operating model, building the playbook as you go, and working independently.
• Strong project / program management approach (plans, turning points, owners, dates) with a controls / audit-ready attitude on financial processes.
• Process improvement orientation — an instinctive feel for what should be standardised, automated or eliminated.

Nice to have:

• Prior exposure to subscription / SaaS commercial models and indirect routes-to-market. xwzovoh
• Familiarity with client’s commercial model, products and internal systems.