[Remote] Director, Sales Operations (Planning)
Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Zendesk is seeking a Director of Sales Operations, Planning to lead critical pillars of their go-to-market organization. This role will operationalize GTM strategy and optimize performance while ensuring alignment across various teams.
Responsibilities
- Co-lead annual GTM planning, including headcount strategy, capacity modeling, segmentation, territory design, and budget alignment
- Lead large-scale strategic initiatives, such as: Territory realignment, Market expansion, GTM process redesign
- Partner with Sales Directors, Business Operations Leaders, and worldwide teams to drive planning accuracy and operational excellence
- Drive alignment across Sales, Marketing, CS, Product, and Finance to ensure cohesive execution
- Act as a program owner for key cross-functional initiatives with clear milestones, owners, and outcomes
- Own the documentation and communication of standard operating procedures across teams
- Identify and eliminate operational bottlenecks; proactively propose scalable solutions
- Own territory management and sales hierarchy changes
- Deliver sales planning insights through operational metrics, reporting, and data quality management to support the rapid growth strategy
- Establish a global quota allocation strategy and drive alignment with regional operations
- Partner with Sales Operations to design quota structures that reflect territory potential, historical performance, and growth expectations
- Ensure quota methodologies are consistent, transparent, and defensible to field leadership
- Partner with Sales Operations and Leadership teams to capture feedback
- Synthesize planning outputs into executive-ready communications for CCRO and senior leadership reviews
- Maintain documentation of planning assumptions, model inputs, and decision rationale to support auditability and year-over-year learning
- Continuously improve planning tools, templates, and processes to reduce cycle time and increase output quality
- Serve as subject-matter expert on territory planning, dispute resolution, and change management
- Serve as a thought partner and trusted advisor to GTM leaders
- Lead a small team or project-based workstreams
- Create a culture of accountability, data-driven decision making, and operational excellence
Skills
- 8–12+ years of experience in Sales/GTM Operations, Business Operations, Sales Strategy, or Revenue Operations
- Deep expertise in Territory Modeling and Quota Setting Methodologies
- Demonstrated experience owning or co-leading an annual GTM planning cycle including target-setting, segmentation, and coverage design
- Exceptional analytical skills; comfortable working with financial models, BI tools, and large datasets
- Strong financial acumen; comfortable modeling revenue scenarios and partnering with Finance on planning processes
- Experience working across Sales Operations, HR, and Compensation functions on quota design, role definition, and incentive alignment
- Exceptional ability to synthesize complex inputs into clear, executive-level recommendations and narratives
- Proven track record driving cross-functional alignment and managing competing stakeholder priorities in a global, matrixed organization
- Excellent written and verbal communication; able to influence across levels and functions
- Familiarity with sales motion models (enterprise, PLG, channel) is a plus
- Tools experience preferred: Gemini/Claude/GenAI, Salesforce, Xactly, Tableau, Clari, Excel/Google Sheets
Benefits
- This position may also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives.
- Our hybrid way of working, enables us to purposefully come together in person, at one of our many Zendesk offices around the world, to connect, collaborate and learn whilst also giving our people the flexibility to work remotely for part of the week.
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