UK

United Kingdom · Sales · Director/VP (16-20 years)

Director, Sales Excellence & Operations

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, what you decide, how you're judged, how people get here and where they go next. Then the part no course gives you: twelve AI tutors who learn your work.

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  • Experience bandDirector/VP (16-20 years)
  • Direct reports5-10 reports
  • Reports toVP, Revenue Operations
  • UK framework levelUsually a director, accountable for a division and its numbers

Also advertised as VP, Revenue Operations · Head of Sales Strategy · Senior Director, GTM Operations · Director, Commercial Operations

Built on 43,079 real UK job descriptions we analysed · grounded in what real qualifications cover

Two short quizzes about you

1From this job to a course

The qualifications matched to this job

Level 5 Certificate in Professional Sales Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 5 · covers 3 of 7 standards
Level 5 Diploma in Professional Sales Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 5 · covers 3 of 7 standards
Level 5 Award in Managing Sales Technology Systems Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 5 · covers 2 of 7 standards
Level 5 Award in Leadership Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 5 · covers 1 of 7 standards
Level 6 Certificate in Professional Sales Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 6 · covers 1 of 7 standards
ISP Level 2 Certificate in Professional Sales Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 2 · covers 2 of 7 standards

Matched from the standards this job is measured against: a suggestion, not an official ruling.

The units you would start with

Manage Ethical, Legal and Professional Requirements Level 5 Certificate in Professional Sales
Manage Sales Technology Systems Level 5 Award in Managing Sales Technology Systems
Understand Sales Digital Technology Systems ISP Level 2 Certificate in Professional Sales

The future skills this job leans on

AI Fluency working with AI as a thinking partner
Data Fluency turning numbers into a decision
AI Governance Fluency using AI responsibly
Automation Fluency building AI into how work runs
Your Plan Illustration

Built for Director, Sales Excellence & Operations

3 units that map to this job, from the qualifications that cover it.

  1. Manage Ethical, Legal and Professional Requirements Institute of Sales Professionals · covers 3 of 7 standards Level 5
  2. Manage Sales Technology Systems Institute of Sales Professionals · covers 2 of 7 standards Level 5
  3. Understand Sales Digital Technology Systems Institute of Sales Professionals · covers 2 of 7 standards Level 2
These are the real units behind this job, in the order they rank for it. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

2AI and this work

Will AI change your work as a Director, Sales Excellence & Operations?

Nobody can say exactly how. Here is what this job is being asked for next, and where to start.

The new skill this role is being asked for

  • AI-Driven Revenue Strategy
Why each one is rising

The future skills this job leans on

We'll only ever tell you what we can actually back up. No hype, no scare tactics.

What happens when you start

Next, a free account. We build your Director, Sales Excellence & Operations plan as you set up, starting with the free Automation Fluency module. No card.

Your first Future Fluency module is free. After that, your AI tutor is £70 a month.

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Keep this read. One email with what AI is changing in this job, the new skills it asks for and where to start free. Nothing else follows unless you confirm your address.

3What this role really is

This job designs how a sales organisation runs, covering pay structures, territory planning and the systems sales teams use to hit targets. It carries responsibility for a large share of the operational budget.

4What you'd actually use

The tools this job runs on, and how well you'd need to know each one.

Salesforce Sales Cloud Strategic

Governing the data model, evaluating AppExchange partners, making platform-level decisions that impact the entire business unit, ensuring data integrity and reporting capabilities.

Tableau / Power BI Architect

Defining the enterprise BI strategy for Sales, managing Tableau Server/Power BI Premium workspaces, ensuring data visualisation standards, and interpreting complex dashboards for executive insights.

Highspot / Seismic (Sales Enablement) Strategic

Selecting and owning the platform, defining the overall content and enablement strategy for the business unit, ensuring content effectiveness and adoption.

SalesLoft / Outreach (Sales Engagement) Strategic

Evaluating platform ROI, setting governance for messaging and automation across the sales team, ensuring compliance and effectiveness of engagement strategies.

Anaplan / Pigment (Planning & Modeling) Expert

Architecting complex models for compensation, capacity planning, and territory optimisation from scratch, integrating with other data sources, and driving strategic planning cycles.

Snowflake / Google BigQuery (Data Warehouse) Strategic

Influencing data warehousing strategy, defining data requirements from source systems (e.g., ERP, HRIS), and ensuring data accessibility for advanced analytics.

Asana / Monday.com (Project Management) Strategic

Managing the portfolio of all Sales Excellence initiatives across your business unit, allocating resources, reporting progress to leadership, and ensuring programme delivery.

5What you get to decide, and how that grows

Power in a job isn't your title. It's what you're allowed to decide. Here's how it grows as you move up.

The choiceComing in Where you are nowThe step above
Sales Compensation Plan Design Provides data for analysis, identifies potential issues in existing plans. Proposes minor adjustments to existing plans based on analysis, models impact of changes. Designs and models new compensation plans for specific segments, recommends changes to leadership.
Sales Technology Stack Selection Uses existing tools, provides feedback on usability. Researches potential new features or minor tools, provides recommendations to senior team members. Evaluates specific tools for a project, leads proof-of-concept, makes recommendations for adoption.
Organisational Structure & Hiring No direct involvement. Participates in interviews for junior roles, provides feedback. Interviews for senior IC roles, provides input on team structure for specific projects.

6How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, and what is not on it. The hard targets, how often each is actually looked at, and the quiet signals that never reach a dashboard.

Sales Productivity (Revenue per Rep)
The average revenue generated by each quota-carrying sales representative within your business unit.
Target · Increase average revenue per quota-carrying rep by 10% year-over-year.

If our reps currently bring in £500K each, your goal is to push that to £550K next year by optimising processes and tools.

Quota Attainment Rate
The percentage of sales representatives who achieve 100% or more of their assigned sales quota.
Target · Increase the percentage of reps achieving 100%+ of quota from 60% to 70%.

If 60 out of 100 reps hit quota last quarter, we'd expect 70 out of 100 to hit it next year, indicating better enablement and planning.

Pipeline Velocity & Conversion Rates
How quickly deals move through the sales pipeline and the percentage of deals that convert from one stage to the next, ultimately closing.
Target · Decrease the average sales cycle length by 5% and increase stage-to-stage conversion rates by 3% for key product lines.

Reducing a 90-day sales cycle to 85 days, or improving demo-to-proposal conversion from 40% to 43%.

Cost of Sales (as % of Revenue)
The total cost associated with generating sales (including compensation, tech, enablement) as a percentage of the revenue generated.
Target · Optimise sales compensation and resource allocation to reduce commission expense as a percentage of revenue by 2%.

If our cost of sales is 20% of revenue, you're looking to bring that down to 18% through smarter spending and more efficient processes.

Forecast Accuracy
How close our predicted sales revenue is to the actual sales revenue at the end of a period.
Target · Achieve a forecast accuracy of ±5% variance at the business unit level.

If we forecast £10M for Q3, hitting between £9.5M and £10.5M means you're doing well. Anything outside that range needs a deep dive.

Strategic Influence & Adoption
How effectively you influence senior sales leadership and other department heads to adopt new strategies, processes, and technologies.
  • Sales VPs actively seek your input on strategic decisions
  • new sales methodologies or tools are adopted smoothly and widely across the business unit
  • you're regularly invited to executive-level planning sessions and your recommendations are frequently implemented.
Team Development & Retention
The growth and stability of your direct and indirect teams. Are you building a bench of future leaders?
  • Low attrition rates within your teams
  • demonstrable career progression for your direct reports
  • positive feedback on leadership and mentorship from skip-level reports
  • successful internal promotions from within your organisation.
Process & System Scalability
The extent to which the processes and systems you design can support future growth without breaking or requiring constant manual intervention.
  • Successful onboarding of new sales teams or expansion into new markets using existing frameworks
  • minimal technical debt or rework required as the business scales
  • positive feedback from sales leaders on the efficiency and robustness of operational processes.
Stakeholder Trust & Collaboration
The level of trust and effective collaboration you foster with key internal partners like Finance, Marketing, and Product.
  • Proactive collaboration on cross-functional projects
  • positive feedback from peer directors on your ability to work together and find common ground
  • reduced friction points between Sales and other departments due to clear processes and communication.

7Would you like it

Both sides. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy
Strategic Impact & Organisational Design

You'll spend your days thinking about how to structure teams, design incentive programmes, and implement technologies that fundamentally change how we go to market. You'll see your decisions directly influence revenue, productivity, and the overall health of a large sales organisation.

Leading the complete redesign of our territory management system, resulting in a 15% increase in rep productivity within 12 months.

Building High-Performing Teams & Capabilities

A significant part of your role is mentoring, coaching, and developing your direct reports and their teams. You'll get satisfaction from seeing individuals grow into leaders and from building a Sales Excellence function that's seen as a strategic partner, not just a support function.

Developing two of your managers into future Directors, or establishing a new data science capability within Sales Excellence that significantly improves forecast accuracy.

Solving Complex, Multi-faceted Business Problems

The problems you'll tackle aren't simple. They involve data, people, process, and technology, often with conflicting stakeholder interests. If you love untangling complex knots and building elegant, scalable solutions that have a material impact on the business, you'll thrive.

Designing a new global compensation plan that aligns incentives across different regions and product lines, while staying within budget and motivating reps.

What frustrates people
  • The 'Gut Feel' Override: Spending weeks building a data-driven territory plan only to have a Sales VP redraw the lines based on their 'experience,' creating imbalances you'll have to clean up next year.
  • Being the 'Sales Prevention Department': You're the one enforcing the discount approval matrix or the Rules of Engagement, which means you're often seen as a blocker by reps trying to close a deal quickly.
  • Weaponized Dashboards: Building a dashboard to provide insight, only to see leaders use it to punish reps for low activity metrics without understanding the context, causing the team to distrust your work.
  • Organisational Inertia: Proposing a clear, data-backed change only to see it get bogged down in endless discussions, political maneuvering, or simply a lack of will to implement it.
What this role does not give you
  • Direct client interaction or closing deals – your impact is indirect, through enabling others.
  • A purely analytical, heads-down role – you'll spend a lot of time influencing, presenting, and managing people.
  • Quick, easy wins every day – many initiatives are long-term, complex programmes.
  • A quiet, predictable environment – expect urgent requests, shifting priorities, and constant demands from sales leadership.

8Who you work with

Your decisions here directly influence the revenue generation capability of a multi-million-pound business unit. You're responsible for optimising our sales engine, which means your impact is felt across everything from rep productivity and quota attainment to our overall profitability and market position. Essentially, you're a force multiplier for the entire sales organisation.

Inside the business
  • Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)
  • VP of Sales (for your business unit)
  • VP of Marketing
  • Finance Director
  • HR Director (especially for compensation and talent programmes)
  • Product Leadership
Outside the business
  • Key technology vendors (e.g., Salesforce, Anaplan)
  • Industry analysts (e.g., Gartner, Forrester)
  • Strategic channel partners

9What you need before you start

Not a wish list. The things you would be expected to already have.

  • Proven experience leading and developing high-performing teams, ideally in a Sales Operations or Sales Excellence function.
  • Demonstrable track record of designing and implementing complex sales compensation plans, territory structures, and capacity models that have driven measurable business impact.
  • Expert-level proficiency in at least one major CRM (e.g., Salesforce) and one BI tool (e.g., Tableau, Power BI), with a strategic understanding of their capabilities and limitations.
  • Extensive experience presenting strategic recommendations and operational reviews to C-suite executives and senior leadership, with a track record of influencing decisions.
  • A deep understanding of the entire sales lifecycle, from prospecting to close, and how operational excellence impacts each stage.
  • Strong financial acumen, including experience managing budgets and building robust business cases for strategic investments.

10What to practise next

Where the job is going, and what to do about it starting this week.

Data Governance & Data Mesh Architectures

As data volumes explode and AI models become more sophisticated, ensuring data quality, accessibility, and ethical use across the entire GTM organisation is paramount. You'll need to influence data strategy beyond just Sales.

Data Ownership & Stewardship · Data Product Design · Decentralised Data Architectures · Automated Data Quality Monitoring

  • This quarter: Partner closely with our Data Engineering and IT teams to understand their current data governance frameworks and identify gaps for Sales data.
  • Next 6 months: Lead an initiative to define clear data ownership and quality standards for critical sales data points (e.g., pipeline stages, deal size).
  • Next 12 months: Research and propose a strategy for improving data discoverability and accessibility for your business unit's analytical needs.
  • Ongoing: Participate in cross-functional data governance steering committees to ensure Sales' needs are represented.

Quick win: Identify 2-3 critical sales data fields that consistently have quality issues and work with your team to put in place immediate, tactical fixes and monitoring. Small wins build credibility.

11Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up
  • Regularly attend industry conferences (e.g., Sales Innovation Expo, Dreamforce, Forrester/Gartner events) to stay abreast of the latest trends in sales technology and operations.
  • Participate in executive leadership programmes or workshops focused on strategic planning, change management, or organisational development.
  • Actively network with other Directors and VPs of Sales Excellence/Revenue Operations to share best practices and learn from their experiences.
  • Mentor emerging leaders within your own organisation or externally, which is a fantastic way to solidify your own leadership skills and give back.
  • Contribute to industry thought leadership through articles, webinars, or speaking engagements – it helps build your brand and ours.

12The rising capability

The rising capability

Zavmo analysis

What's rising in its place

This is where the work is heading, and the higher pay with it. Get fluent here and the shift stops being a threat and starts being your edge.

AI-Driven Revenue Strategy

AI isn't just a tool for automation anymore; it's becoming central to how we identify market opportunities, predict customer behaviour, and optimise our entire GTM strategy. Leaders who can harness AI for strategic advantage will outperform those who don't.

  • Predictive Analytics for Market Shifts
  • AI-Optimised Resource Allocation
  • Ethical AI in Sales
  • AI-Powered Customer Journey Orchestration

13What you’ll use

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

  • Sales Methodology Implementation (Strategic)
  • Territory & Quota Architecture (Advanced)
  • Sales Compensation Design & Optimisation (Advanced)
  • Pipeline Velocity & Health Analysis (Strategic)
  • Sales Capacity & Productivity Modeling (Strategic)
  • Rules of Engagement (ROE) & Deal Desk Management (Strategic)

14The pathway

The pathway

How you actually get there, here

How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.

  1. 1

    From Manager, Sales Excellence & Strategy (L5)

    3-5 years

    Skills to master

    • At the Manager level, you'd have been accountable for the operational cadence of a region or segment, managing a team of analysts and business partners. To step up to Director, you need to prove you can think beyond your current scope, drive strategic initiatives across a larger business unit, and effectively lead other managers. It's about expanding your influence and strategic ownership.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Successfully led 2-3 major cross-functional programmes (e.g., new GTM launch, major comp plan redesign) end-to-end.
    • Consistently exceeded operational KPIs for your managed segment/region.
    • Developed and promoted at least one direct report into a more senior role.
    • Demonstrated ability to influence senior VPs and directors outside of your direct reporting line.
    • Taken on significant P&L responsibility or budget management for a substantial operational area.
  2. 2

    From Principal, Sales Strategy & Planning (L4)

    4-6 years

    Skills to master

    • As a Principal, you're an individual contributor who architects complex systems like compensation plans or sales capacity models. Moving to Director means adding significant people leadership, budget ownership, and broader strategic accountability for an entire business unit. You'll need to transition from 'expert builder' to 'leader of builders' and 'strategic owner'.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Successfully designed and implemented 3-5 enterprise-level sales systems or programmes.
    • Acted as a recognised subject matter expert, regularly consulted by C-suite on complex sales strategy issues.
    • Informally mentored 3-5 junior team members, with demonstrable impact on their growth.
    • Taken on interim leadership roles or led significant project teams without direct authority.
    • Demonstrated strong commercial acumen and understanding of the broader business context beyond your technical domain.
  3. 3

    External Hire (from a similar Director/VP role)

    N/A

    Skills to master

    • We'd expect you to bring a proven track record of leading Sales Excellence or Revenue Operations for a similar-sized business unit, ideally within a comparable industry or growth stage. You'll need to quickly understand our specific GTM model, cultural nuances, and existing tech stack to hit the ground running strategically.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Successfully led a Sales Excellence function through a period of significant growth or transformation.
    • Managed a budget and P&L of similar scale (£2M-£10M+) in a previous role.
    • Demonstrated ability to build, lead, and retain high-performing teams.
    • Strong network within the Sales Operations/Revenue Operations community.
    • Clear examples of driving measurable improvements in sales productivity and efficiency.

15Where this role leads

The long view: Experience in this role can lead to Chief Revenue Officer or Chief Operating Officer positions, or independent board and advisory work.

The ten Future Fluencies

Zavmo analysis

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

A qualification proves you can do the job as it's defined today. These ten are what decide whether you're still the obvious person for it in five years. They're the capabilities employers are now writing into senior roles faster than people are learning them. Zavmo weaves them through whatever you study, so you come out with both: the credential and the fluency.

The highlighted ones are the Fluencies your role leans on hardest, from how Director, Sales Excellence & Operations is actually changing.

Where it leads

Roles this leads to

How you would learn this

One to one, on the work you already do

A tutor sets the task against your own job and marks the reasoning, at your pace. There is no cohort to fall behind.

A lesson from Manage Ethical, Legal and Professional Requirements, worked against Director, Sales Excellence & Operations.

Manage Ethical, Legal and Professional Requirements Level 5

Applied to your work in Director, Sales Excellence & Operations

This unit aims to provide learners with an understanding of ethical, legal, and professional requirements within the sales function. Learners will understand relevant legislation, codes of conduct, and best practices. Furthermore, they will be able to implement policies and procedures to ensure compliance and respond appropriately to non-compliance.

How the thinking builds
  1. 1 Remember
  2. 2 Understand
  3. 3 Apply
  4. 4 Analyse
  5. 5 Evaluate
  6. 6 Create
An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

It is £70 a month, billed monthly. Your free first module is Future Fluency, and you can cancel any time.

See Your Progress Grow Illustration
Director, Sales Excellence & Operations
  • Sales Methodology Implementation (Strategic)
  • Territory & Quota Architecture (Advanced)
  • Sales Compensation Design & Optimisation (Advanced)
  • Pipeline Velocity & Health Analysis (Strategic)
  • Sales Capacity & Productivity Modeling (Strategic)
  • Rules of Engagement (ROE) & Deal Desk Management (Strategic)
This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

16The detail, folded away

Everything else the record holds

The career branches in full, how AI is already showing up in the day-to-day, and the questions people ask about this job. Here when you want them, out of the way while you decide.

Where it leads next, rung by rung

Where it leads

The career path, and where it branches

Director, Sales Excellence & Operations is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

  1. VP, Sales Excellence / Revenue Operations (L7)

    3-5 years

    This is the natural next step, moving from owning the strategy for a major business unit to owning the entire operational strategy for the entire GTM (Go-to-Market) organisation, including Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success. You'd report directly to the CRO/COO and interact regularly with the Board.

    • Marketing Operations Leadership Strategic oversight of marketing automation, lead management, and campaign analytics.
    • Customer Success Operations Leadership Strategic oversight of customer onboarding, retention, and expansion programmes.
    • Enterprise Data & Analytics Governance Defining and enforcing data standards and analytics strategies across the entire GTM organisation.
Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

Let's be real, as a Director, your time is precious. You're juggling strategic planning, team leadership, and executive presentations. Imagine cutting through the noise and getting straight to the insights that matter. Our AI Productivity Hub isn't just for junior analysts; it's designed to give leaders like you a serious edge, freeing you up to focus on what only you can do.

We're not talking about replacing your strategic brain; we're talking about augmenting it. Our AI tools can handle the heavy lifting of data synthesis, report drafting, and pattern detection, giving you more time for high-level thinking, team development, and influencing critical business decisions. Think of it as having a super-smart assistant for every aspect of your operational oversight.

Automated Executive Summaries

Use generative AI to automatically draft the first version of your weekly, monthly, and quarterly executive performance summaries. The AI synthesises key metrics, highlights strategic trends, and even flags potential risks from your BI dashboards, giving you a polished starting point for your C-suite updates.

Proactive Strategic Risk Detection

Leverage AI models to scan your entire sales pipeline and operational data for early warning signs of strategic risks – think stalled product launches, unexpected market shifts, or emerging competitor threats that might impact your business unit's revenue. Get alerted to issues before they become crises.

Market & Competitor Strategy Synthesis

Feed earnings call transcripts, industry reports, and competitor announcements into an AI research assistant. It'll synthesise the information, identifying key strategic moves, pricing changes, and GTM shifts from the competition, giving you a concise, actionable overview for your strategic planning.

Policy & Programme Documentation Drafts

When you're rolling out a new compensation plan, a major territory realignment, or a new Rules of Engagement policy, use AI to generate the first draft of all supporting documentation – from detailed policy guides to internal FAQs and communication plans. This saves you hours of tedious writing.

Common questions

Common questions

How do you become a Director, Sales Excellence & Operations?

Common routes in include From Manager, Sales Excellence & Strategy (3-5 years), From Principal, Sales Strategy & Planning (4-6 years) and External Hire (from a similar Director/VP role) (N/A). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Director, Sales Excellence & Operations progress to?

This role can lead on to VP, Sales Excellence / Revenue Operations (3-5 years), depending on the skills you build.

What new skills matter most for a Director, Sales Excellence & Operations?

Increasingly, AI-Driven Revenue Strategy. These are the skills our record of this role lists as growing.

Free tools

Want a read on where you stand?

Three free tools, no account needed. Each one ends with a role, a level and a way in.

Read the Zavmo manifesto to understand how you will be taught Meet your tutors

Or try another one

17Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 7

Same depth of qualification, different job. Useful if the work appeals but this particular role does not.

 More jobs in sales

Stay in the field you know and move sideways rather than up.
If you leave this industry

The strategic and operational skills built in this role transfer to other high-growth companies, in similar director or VP roles. They also apply to management consulting, particularly in go-to-market strategy and operational transformation. Building efficient, scalable revenue engines is a challenge that appears across sectors.

This role profile is © 2026 Growth Engineering Technologies Ltd. Built from UK occupational standards and regulated qualification data, and written for Zavmo.

You're not behind. You're right on time. The shift is only just beginning. Your role won't look the same in two years. Be the one who leads the change, not the one it happens to. Start my free Automation Fluency module What happens next: a free account, then we build your plan as you set up. No card. Build your plan, see your roadmap and meet the twelve tutors matched to you. All free. When you're ready to start learning, it's £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.