UK

United Kingdom · Sales · Principal/Manager (12-16 years)

Manager/Director, Growth & Strategy

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  • Experience bandPrincipal/Manager (12-16 years)
  • Direct reports10-25 reports
  • Reports toVP of Growth or VP of Revenue Operations
  • UK framework levelUsually someone running a function, or a director

Also advertised as Head of Revenue Operations · Senior Growth Lead · Director of Sales Strategy · Principal RevOps Manager

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

No confident skill match yet for Manager/Director, Growth & Strategy. The closest we hold is below.

OTHM Level 7 Diploma in Data Science OTHM Qualifications · Level 7 · covers 1 of 1 standard

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

The units you would start with

Data Analysis and Visualisation OTHM Level 7 Diploma in Data Science
Data Analytics Primer NOCN Level 4 certificate for Data Analysts
Data Analytics Pearson BTEC Level 5 Higher National Diploma in Computing for England
Data Analysis Highfield Level 3 Diploma for Team Leaders and Supervisors (RQF)

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
Foresight Fluency seeing round the corner
Systems Fluency seeing the whole picture
Your Plan Illustration

Built for Manager/Director, Growth & Strategy

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

  1. Data Analysis and Visualisation OTHM Qualifications · covers 1 of 1 standards Level 7
  2. Data Analytics Primer NOCN · covers 1 of 1 standards Level 4
  3. Data Analytics Pearson Education Ltd · covers 1 of 1 standards Level 5
  4. Data Analysis Highfield Qualifications · covers 1 of 1 standards Level 3
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 Manager/Director, Growth & Strategy?

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

The new skills this role is being asked for

  • Ethical AI Governance & Bias Mitigation
  • Advanced Data Storytelling for Executives
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 Manager/Director, Growth & Strategy plan as you set up, starting with the free Automation Fluency module. No card.

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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 role means leading a team of analysts and strategists, connecting strategy to execution so sales and marketing efforts turn into revenue.

4What you'd actually use

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

Salesforce (CRM) Strategic/Architect

Architecting the entire Salesforce instance, making decisions on AppExchange integrations, and aligning the data model with our overarching GTM strategy. You'll define how Salesforce supports our growth objectives.

HubSpot / Marketo (Marketing Automation) Strategic/Architect

Owning the MarTech stack strategy, selecting platforms, and ensuring data flows seamlessly to support the entire customer lifecycle. You'll be designing complex attribution models and nurturing workflows.

Tableau / Power BI (BI & Analytics) Strategic/Architect

Defining the enterprise-wide BI strategy for growth, championing data literacy across teams, and using dashboards to tell a compelling, data-backed story to the executive team and board.

Anaplan / Pigment (Financial & Sales Planning) Strategic/Architect

Owning the entire revenue and capacity planning model. You'll be building complex 'what-if' scenarios for territory planning, quota setting, and sales capacity forecasting, then presenting these to the executive team and board.

Snowflake / BigQuery (Data Warehouse) Strategic/Architect

Defining the data architecture for the entire RevOps function, ensuring a single source of truth for all growth-related metrics. You'll work closely with data engineering to ensure data quality and accessibility.

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
Budget Allocation (within department) None. Follows budget set by manager. Proposes budget adjustments for specific projects (e.g., £5K-£20K) for manager approval. Approves project budgets up to £50K, consults Director on larger allocations.
Hiring & Performance Management No hiring authority. Receives performance feedback. Provides input on candidate interviews, receives performance reviews. Leads interviews, provides formal feedback, mentors junior staff. Consults on performance improvement plans.
Strategic Programme Design Executes tasks within defined programmes. Proposes improvements to existing processes or small programme segments. Designs and implements end-to-end workstreams or small-to-medium strategic projects.
Vendor Selection & Management Uses existing tools. Researches potential tools, provides recommendations to manager. Evaluates and recommends specific tools/vendors for project needs (up to £20K).

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.

Net Revenue Retention (NRR)
The percentage of recurring revenue retained from existing customers over a specific period, including upsells, cross-sells, and downgrades/churn.
Target · Increase NRR from 105% to 115% year-on-year.

If our NRR was 105% last year, we'd expect you to implement programmes that push it towards 115% by the end of the next financial year. This means more upsells, fewer churns, and happier customers.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Payback Period
The time it takes to recoup the cost of acquiring a new customer through the gross margin generated by that customer.
Target · Reduce CAC Payback Period from 18 months to 12 months.

If it currently takes us 18 months to earn back what we spent to get a new customer, you'll be driving initiatives to get that down to a year. This might involve optimising lead sources or improving sales efficiency.

Revenue Growth (YoY)
The percentage increase in total revenue compared to the same period in the previous year.
Target · Achieve 30%+ year-on-year revenue growth for your managed segment/department.

If your segment brought in £10M last year, we'd expect to see that climb to at least £13M this year, directly attributable to the strategies and operations your team put in place.

Sales Forecast Accuracy
The variance between projected sales revenue and actual sales revenue at the end of a period.
Target · Maintain forecast accuracy within +/- 5% at a departmental level.

If your team's Q3 forecast was £2.5M, and actual revenue came in at £2.4M, that's a 4% variance, which is well within our acceptable range. We need to trust those numbers.

Strategic Alignment & Influence
How well you get different teams (Sales, Marketing, Product, Finance) to agree on a unified growth strategy and execute against it.
  • You're regularly invited to C-suite strategy sessions, not just to present data, but to shape the agenda. Other department heads proactively seek your input before launching major initiatives. You're seen as the 'honest broker' who can get everyone on the same page, even when it's tough.
Team Leadership & Development
Your ability to build, mentor, and motivate a high-performing team of growth professionals, ensuring they're growing in their careers.
  • Your direct reports consistently hit their individual goals and show clear career progression. Retention rates within your team are above average. You're known for giving clear direction, empowering your team, and providing constructive feedback that helps them improve.
Operational Excellence & Innovation
The continuous improvement and strategic innovation of our sales and marketing operations, making them more efficient and effective.
  • You've successfully implemented new tools or processes that have demonstrably reduced manual effort or improved conversion rates. Your team is regularly proposing and testing new approaches, not just maintaining the status quo. We see a clear roadmap for future operational improvements.
Data-Driven Decision Making Culture
How effectively you embed a culture where decisions are made based on solid data and analysis, rather than gut feeling or anecdotes.
  • When you present, you always back up your recommendations with clear data. You challenge assumptions with evidence and encourage your team and peers to do the same. You've built dashboards and reporting that are actually used by leadership to make critical choices.

7Would you like it

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

What people enjoy
Driving Tangible Business Impact

You get a real buzz from seeing your strategies translate directly into increased revenue or improved efficiency. You're always looking at the dashboards, not just for reporting, but to see the fruits of your team's labour.

Successfully launching a new territory plan that visibly boosts sales figures in that region within two quarters.

Building and Developing High-Performing Teams

You love coaching your team, helping them overcome challenges, and seeing them grow into bigger roles. Their success is your success, and you actively invest in their development.

Mentoring a Senior Growth Strategist who then successfully takes on a major strategic project independently.

Solving Complex, Cross-Functional Puzzles

The 'warring kingdoms' problem (Sales vs. Marketing) doesn't frustrate you; it energises you. You enjoy figuring out how to get disparate teams to work together towards a common revenue goal.

Designing and implementing a new lead qualification process that finally satisfies both the Sales and Marketing teams, leading to higher conversion rates.

What frustrates people
  • The Warring Kingdoms: You'll spend a lot of time being the designated peacemaker between Sales (who will claim leads are weak) and Marketing (who will claim sales doesn't follow up), while Finance questions the ROI of both. It's like being a translator between two different languages.
  • Data Hell: Your life will be a constant battle against data silos. Trying to build a coherent Customer Lifetime Value model when customer data lives in Salesforce, Zendesk, a proprietary billing system, and three different spreadsheets is, frankly, a nightmare. It's a never-ending clean-up job.
  • Short-Termism vs. Long-Term Vision: You'll be trying to build a sustainable growth engine for the next three years, but the CEO and board will be breathing down your neck about hitting this quarter's number. This tension never, ever goes away. You need to be able to hold both perspectives simultaneously.
  • 'Shiny Object' Syndrome: The CEO might read an article about Product-Led Growth on a flight and suddenly want to pivot the entire go-to-market strategy, completely derailing the meticulously planned programme you spent six months building and getting alignment on. Be prepared for sudden shifts.
  • Accountability Without Authority: You are held 100% accountable for the revenue number, but you don't have direct control over the product roadmap, engineering capacity, or brand marketing budget—all of which directly impact your ability to succeed. You'll need to influence, not command.
What this role does not give you
  • A purely individual contributor path where you don't manage people or budgets.
  • A predictable, 'set it and forget it' operational environment.
  • Complete control over all contributing functions (e.g., product development, brand marketing).
  • A role where you only focus on one specific aspect of the customer lifecycle (e.g., just lead generation).

8Who you work with

You'll directly shape our go-to-market strategy and operational efficiency, significantly impacting revenue generation, customer acquisition costs, and customer lifetime value. Your decisions will influence how we allocate resources, design territories, and compensate our sales teams, essentially defining how we grow as a business unit or department.

Inside the business
  • SVP of Sales
  • Head of Marketing
  • CFO and Finance Leadership
  • Product Leadership
  • Customer Success Directors
  • Regional Sales Directors
Outside the business
  • Key Technology Vendors (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot)
  • Industry Bodies and Consultants
  • Strategic Channel Partners

9What you need before you start

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

  • Proven experience (at least 3-5 years) leading teams of analysts or strategists in a growth or revenue operations function.
  • Demonstrable track record of owning and significantly improving key business metrics such as NRR, CAC, or revenue growth.
  • Deep expertise in at least two major CRM/Marketing Automation platforms (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo) at an architectural level.
  • Strong financial literacy, including experience managing a departmental budget and understanding P&L statements.
  • Exceptional ability to influence and align senior stakeholders across different departments without direct authority.
  • A clear understanding of a modern go-to-market strategy, including digital marketing, sales processes, and customer success.

10What to practise next

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

Prompt Engineering & LLM Integration (for strategic use)

Your team will be using LLMs for daily tasks, but you, as a Director, need to understand how to architect complex prompts for strategic outputs—like drafting GTM plans or competitive analyses. You'll be guiding your team on how to get the most out of these tools, not just using them yourself.

Advanced Prompt Chaining · RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) for Internal Data · Output Validation & Hallucination Detection

  • This week: Experiment with Claude or ChatGPT to draft executive summaries or a competitive analysis. Focus on refining your prompts.
  • This month: Research RAG architectures and discuss with our data engineering team how we could implement it for strategic planning documents.
  • Next quarter: Lead a session with your team on advanced prompt engineering techniques and best practices for validating AI-generated content.

Quick win: Use an LLM to summarise long internal documents or meeting transcripts. It's a quick way to get comfortable with its capabilities and limitations.

Cloud Data Architecture & Governance (Strategic Oversight)

As our data volumes grow and we rely more on cloud data warehouses, you need to understand the strategic implications of our data architecture. This isn't about being a data engineer, but about making sure our data infrastructure supports our growth ambitions effectively and securely.

Data Lake vs. Data Warehouse Strategy · Data Governance Frameworks · API Integration Strategy

  • This quarter: Schedule a meeting with our Head of Data Engineering to understand our current cloud data architecture and future roadmap.
  • Next 6 months: Identify one key data quality issue impacting your team's work and collaborate with data engineering to implement a solution.
  • Month 9: Review our data governance policies and propose any necessary updates to ensure they support our evolving growth strategy.

Quick win: Ask 'where does this data come from?' and 'how reliable is it?' for every report you review. Push for clearer data lineage.

11Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up
  • Regularly attending industry conferences (e.g., SaaStr, Dreamforce, Revenue Summit) to stay abreast of the latest trends and network with peers.
  • Subscribing to and actively engaging with leading industry publications and thought leaders in growth, RevOps, and SaaS sales.
  • Participating in executive leadership development programmes, especially those focused on strategic thinking and change management.
  • Mentoring junior professionals in the sales or growth space, as teaching often solidifies your own understanding and hones leadership skills.

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.

Ethical AI Governance & Bias Mitigation

As we lean more heavily on AI for lead scoring, forecasting, and even sales content generation, the potential for bias (e.g., in lead prioritisation) and ethical pitfalls grows. Regulators are starting to pay attention, and customers care about fairness. Ignoring this is a huge risk.

  • Algorithmic Bias Detection
  • Explainable AI (XAI)
  • Data Privacy in AI
  • AI Policy Development

Advanced Data Storytelling for Executives

It's not enough to just present data; you need to tell a compelling story with it, especially to time-poor executives and board members. With the explosion of data, the ability to distil complex insights into a clear, actionable narrative is becoming a superpower.

  • Narrative Arc Development
  • Visualisation Best Practices (Beyond Basic Charts)
  • Audience-Centric Communication
  • Call to Action Integration

13What you’ll use

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

  • Revenue Operations (RevOps) Framework
  • Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy Design
  • Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Ratio Analysis
  • Sales Velocity Equation Application
  • Channel Partner & Ecosystem Strategy

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 Lead, GTM Strategy / Principal RevOps Architect (L4)

    3-5 years at L4

    Skills to master

    • Moving from architecting systems to designing organisational structures, managing budgets at a departmental scale, and leading other managers. You'll need to master the art of influencing executive peers.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Successfully led multiple complex, cross-functional programmes with significant business impact.
    • Consistently delivered on strategic objectives and demonstrated strong leadership of project teams.
    • Proactively identified and solved ambiguous, high-stakes problems without direct supervision.
    • Developed strong relationships with senior stakeholders across multiple departments.
  2. 2

    From Director of Sales Operations (at another company)

    Typically 2-4 years as a Director

    Skills to master

    • Broadening your scope beyond just sales operations to encompass marketing and customer success. Understanding the full customer lifecycle and how all pieces fit into a unified growth engine. P&L management for a broader function.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Managed a significant Sales Operations function and team, with clear metrics of success.
    • Demonstrated ability to implement sales process improvements that directly impacted revenue.
    • Strong command of sales tech stack and data analytics for sales performance.
    • Experience collaborating closely with marketing and finance teams.
  3. 3

    From Senior Marketing Operations Manager (at another company)

    Typically 3-5 years in a senior marketing ops role

    Skills to master

    • Developing a deeper understanding of the sales process, sales compensation, and direct sales management challenges. Integrating marketing operations more tightly with sales and customer success data. P&L management.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Successfully managed complex marketing automation platforms and lead generation processes.
    • Proven track record of improving MQL-to-SQL conversion rates and marketing ROI.
    • Strong analytical skills, particularly in marketing attribution and campaign performance.
    • Experience working closely with sales leadership to align on lead definitions and handoffs.

15Where this role leads

The long view: This work builds a foundation in commercial leadership. It can lead to an executive role such as chief revenue officer, to running a business unit, or to advising other companies on their growth strategy.

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 Manager/Director, Growth & Strategy is actually changing.

Where it leads

Roles this leads to

The record names a next step, but the catalogue has no page for it yet:

  • VP of Growth / VP of Revenue Operations (L6)

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 Data Analysis and Visualisation, worked against Manager/Director, Growth & Strategy.

Data Analysis and Visualisation Level 7

Applied to your work in Manager/Director, Growth & Strategy

1. To enable the learner to critically analyse the theoretical underpinnings of data analytics and their impact on decision-making in business management contexts. 2. To enable the learner to assess diverse data analysis activities, techniques, and tools applicable to business management scenarios. 3. To enable the learner to compare and contrast various predictive analytic techniques, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses in forecasting future business events. 4. To enable the learner to evaluate how predictive analytic techniques can be practically implemented for forecasting purposes within the business sector. 5. To enable the learner to evaluate prescriptive analytic techniques, illustrating their application with relevant examples from the business management domain. 6. To enable the learner to apply a suitable programming language or data analysis tool to conduct data analysis and visualisation tasks related to business management problems.

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
Manager/Director, Growth & Strategy
  • Revenue Operations (RevOps) Framework
  • Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy Design
  • Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Ratio Analysis
  • Sales Velocity Equation Application
  • Channel Partner & Ecosystem Strategy
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

Manager/Director, Growth & Strategy is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

  1. VP of Growth / VP of Revenue Operations (L6)

    3-5 years in this Manager/Director role

    This is a significant jump, moving from managing a department/function to shaping the entire business unit's growth strategy and managing multiple teams.

    • Developing and executing multi-year growth roadmaps for an entire business unit.
    • Leading large-scale organisational change programmes across multiple departments.
    • Shaping the company's overall go-to-market strategy and market positioning.
    • Building and nurturing strategic alliances and partnerships at an executive level.
Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

Let's be real, you're already swamped. As a Growth Director, your plate is full with strategic planning, team management, and hitting those tough P&L targets. What if you could get back a significant chunk of your week, not by working less, but by working smarter? We're talking about using AI to take the grunt work off your plate, freeing you up for the truly strategic stuff.

The truth is, AI isn't some far-off future; it's here now, and it's transforming how we drive growth. For a Manager/Director in Growth & Strategy, this means moving beyond manual data crunching and repetitive tasks to focusing on high-impact decisions. Our AI Productivity Hub shows you exactly how to put these tools to work, giving you a serious competitive edge.

Automated Lead Scoring & Routing

Imagine an AI tool (like Salesforce Einstein or 6sense) analysing thousands of behavioural and firmographic signals in real-time. It automatically scores leads on their likelihood to buy and routes the hottest ones to the right sales rep, instantly. You'll spend less time debating lead quality and more time closing deals.

Predictive Forecasting & Churn Analysis

Use AI models to dig through historical deal data and customer health scores. This doesn't just give you a more accurate revenue forecast; it flags at-risk accounts before they churn. You can proactively intervene, saving valuable customers and reducing manual forecast roll-ups and analysis that used to take days.

AI-Powered Market Intelligence

Forget manually sifting through competitor press releases and market reports. AI assistants can scrape and synthesise all that information into a concise daily or weekly briefing. You'll identify threats and opportunities faster, getting crucial insights without the tedious research hours.

Strategic Narrative Generation

Staring at a blank page for a board presentation or a new GTM strategy document is painful. Use a generative AI model (like GPT-4) to create the first draft. Give it your key data points, objectives, and desired tone, and it'll give you a solid starting point, saving you hours of initial drafting.

Common questions

Common questions

How do you become a Manager/Director, Growth & Strategy?

Common routes in include From Lead, GTM Strategy / Principal RevOps Architect (3-5 years at L4), From Director of Sales Operations (at another company) (Typically 2-4 years as a Director) and From Senior Marketing Operations Manager (at another company) (Typically 3-5 years in a senior marketing ops role). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Manager/Director, Growth & Strategy progress to?

This role can lead on to VP of Growth / VP of Revenue Operations (3-5 years in this Manager/Director role), depending on the skills you build.

What new skills matter most for a Manager/Director, Growth & Strategy?

Increasingly, Ethical AI Governance & Bias Mitigation and Advanced Data Storytelling for Executives. These are the skills our record of this role lists as growing.

Free tools

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

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17Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 6

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

Strategic thinking, P&L management, team leadership and data driven growth transfer across industries, particularly in B2B SaaS, FinTech and e-commerce. Building revenue engines is a skill sought in many 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.