Sales Operations Manager

Who you are

• Five or more years in sales operations, revenue operations, or a related go-to-market function
• Real experience supporting new-product launches or emerging-business initiatives, where the playbook didn’t exist yet
• Three or more years hands-on in Salesforce, building and maintaining reports, dashboards, and data structures
• Advanced Excel, comfortable building models, running variance analysis, and turning raw data into decision-ready output
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including executive-level presentations. A bachelor’s degree is preferred

What the job involves

• You’re the operational engine behind New Markets’ newest product bets
• You’ll own the end-to-end go-to-market lifecycle for pod products, from market sizing and early strategy through launch, performance tracking, and the handoff when a product graduates into the core
• When a pod proves customers will pay, you make that motion repeatable and hand it to the full seller base
• This is a blank-page job: the playbook doesn’t exist yet, and you’ll write it
• The role reports directly to the President, New Markets, with a matrixed dotted line to Instructure’s Go-to-Market Strategy and Operations leadership
• You own go-to-market operations across the portfolio, and you’re the voice of the New Markets business in the rooms where commercial decisions get made
• Own the end-to-end GTM lifecycle for pod products. Carry each product from market sizing and early strategy through launch planning, field execution, and post-launch performance tracking
• Shape the go-to-market approach with each pod. Partner with Pod Founders, marketing, and the sales overlay on ideal-customer definition, pricing and packaging input, channel strategy, and competitive positioning
• Design the sales motion. Build the coverage models, pipeline processes, forecasting cadences, and rules of engagement for the first seller cohort on each product
• Build the reporting backbone. Stand up and maintain the analytics in Salesforce and Excel that track pipeline health, win/loss, attach rates, average contract value, and renewal trends, and turn that data into insight leadership can act on
• Run launch readiness. Lead CRM buildout in Salesforce, playbook documentation, tool configuration, and alignment across enablement, marketing, finance, deal desk, and IT
• Own the graduation playbook. Define the criteria and the integration motion for products that complete a pod’s journey, so the full seller base can carry and sell the product without a messy handoff
• Be the voice of the business. Translate early-stage complexity into clear, data-backed narratives in planning forums, business reviews, and executive sessions, and support annual planning across capacity, quota, incentive design, and growth roadmaps
• What we expect:
• Blank page to operating framework. You go from nothing to a working system without a lot of hand-holding, then improve it as results and field feedback come in
• Rigor under ambiguity. You structure messy, early-stage go-to-market problems, build the analytical frame, and land a recommendation you can defend
• Accuracy you stand behind. The insights and reporting you put in front of leadership are right, and you own them
• Influence without authority. You move product, finance, marketing, and sales toward a shared plan without managing any of them
• Your first 90 days:
• Month 1. Immerse yourself in the New Markets portfolio, the key stakeholders, and the current go-to-market infrastructure. Understand where each product sits in its lifecycle and find the most pressing operational gaps
• Month 3. Establish a clear view of performance across active pods: pipeline health, coverage, and leading indicators. Build or refine the reporting framework in Salesforce and Excel, and set a recurring operating rhythm with product and sales leadership
• Month 6. Own and drive the go-to-market motion for at least one pod through a checkpoint. Deliver an integration-readiness recommendation for any product approaching graduation, and present a prioritized roadmap for improving New Markets go-to-market operations to senior leadership

Benefits

• Join a passionate community of educators and the people working to support them
• Access to a large course library, mentoring and coaching opportunities, and regular feedback
• Community engagement (partnerships, volunteering, free learning resources, and ongoing outreach efforts)
• Office culture that values outcomes and impact above all
• Equity and ownership programs give every employee a stake in our future
• Ownership, recognition, and celebrations of shared success
• Growth opportunities (we’re all about helping our people move into (and thrive in) new roles)