Commercial Operations Director

Ocado Group is an equal opportunities employer and as such makes every effort to ensure that all potential employees are treated fairly and equally, regardless of their sex, sexual orientation, marital status, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, age, or disability or union membership status.

About us

Ocado is a technology-led, global software and robotics platform providing a unique end-to-end solution for customers on a global scale. As part of growing the Ocado business, we have recently announced a new mission to sell our unique OSRS (Ocado Storage and Retrieval System) product set to customers across the globe.

About the role

We are seeking a Commercial Operations Director to join the team, partnering with Sales and Product to support the execution of profitable deals and thus drive the commercial success of Ocado Intelligent Automation (OIA).

The ideal candidate has previously worked in a business development-esque environment, is competent in the reviewing and writing of contract documentation, and has previously worked with project budgets and P&Ls.

They are an exceptional internal and external relationship builder, energized by working on high-profile projects and are highly analytical and pragmatic. They possess foundational technical knowledge and are a proven problem solver. The role holder will exhibit strong ownership and be comfortable with high degrees of ambiguity.

What you'll do:

• Lead the definition and upkeep of generic services pricing, including determination of margin targets, working with sales and finance teams.
• Lead and/or review specific deal or variation pricing and margin determination, sensitivity analyses and risk and opportunity modelling, working with sales and finance teams.
• Lead the definition of generic commercial terms, their continuous improvement and extension to include new products and services. Includes detailed knowledge of OIA contracts for equipment purchase, software supply and ongoing maintenance and customer support contracts. Oversee the revision of said documents and associated negotiation playbooks
• Lead and/or review proposed commercial terms for specific deals (proposed by Ocado teams or potential customers). Negotiate contract amendments, or amendments to customer contracts to incorporate Ocado’s desired terms (in conjunction with legal team) including post-contract variations.
• Support client engagement / sales activity, feeding back from commercial negotiations to the product/solutions teams and supporting internal discussions around proposition & promise. From time to time, client relationship management.
• Manage risks and issues and creating effective escalations where required.
• Support OIA business evaluation of alternative sales routes (e.g. via integrators) including proposing and reviewing commercial terms, pricing, and the creation and negotiation of any resulting contracts.
• Ensure adherence to OIA business and sales governance, including support of go/no-go decision forums where responsibilities include ultimate recommendation to SLT of whether to proceed with a deal or not.
• Identify, verify, influence and manage key internal stakeholders (up to senior-director (UK) senior-VP(US)) ensuring alignment on specific commercial initiatives or deals.
• Prepare communication materials and supporting key events (i.e Executive Updates / Board Meetings, etc.)

This role is based in Fort Worth, Texas and may require ocassional domestic and international travel.

Who you are:

• Excellent communicator
• Credible, confident and polished presentation skills
• Strong commercial awareness and financial literacy
• Can adapt style and approach to different stakeholders, clients and situations
• Very strong relationship-building skills at all levels in an organisation
• Ability to operate at a macro/strategic level as well as understand and ‘dive in’ to detail, when required
• Ability to work independently and to take full responsibility for scope of role
• Experience working in a technical discipline / demonstrated understanding of challenging technical concepts

Bonus skills

• Commercial Operations role or Business Development role experience.
• Financial modelling & budgeting
• Experienced in the use of a wide range of project/programme management methodologies (ie. APM / PMI, Agile, etc.) as well as Lean methodologies

What do I get in Return?

401k Plan; 100% match up to 5% of earnings; Paid Vacation and Sick Days; 10 Paid Public Holidays; Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance; Medical and Dependent Care; Flexible Spending Accounts Health Reimbursement Account; Company Contribution of 50% of Annual Deductible; Company Paid Life Insurance; Short and Long Term Disability Insurance; Employee Assistance Program

Please let us know in your application if you need any special adaptations for the selection process. At Ocado Group we adapt our selection processes to our candidates.