Commercial Operations Director

About AnywhereNow Founded in 2010 in The Netherlands, AnywhereNow is a global leader in Enterprise Dialogue Management, with a vision to ensure every employee and customer feels heard, understood, and valued. With around 240 employees working from 22 different countries, we partner with over 2,000 leading enterprises, including Mazda, the UN International Organization for Migration, Adecco Group, and the University of Cape Town, to deliver exceptional customer experiences through the power of Microsoft Teams and AI-driven insights. Our commitment to innovation, customer focus, and accountability drives our success. Our portfolio includes Dialogue Cloud, Deepdesk (AI Agent Assist), and Tendfor, delivering cutting-edge capabilities across Microsoft Teams environments and enterprise CX platforms. Position Summary The Commercial Operations Director owns the commercial engine of the post-sale customer lifecycle, renewals, pricing, deal desk, invoicing, and order-to-cash for AnywhereNow’s SaaS portfolio. You’ll protect and grow contract value, safeguard margin, and convert earned revenue into cash, combining commercial leadership, negotiation strength, and operational rigour. You’ll lead the renewals and revenue-operations function and personally manage and negotiate the most difficult, complex, and at-risk renewals, working across Customer Success, Sales, Finance, and Legal to secure timely, profitable outcomes and a frictionless billing experience for customers. The role is deliberately designed to balance effectiveness, efficiency, and cost across the commercial operation. Key Responsibilities Renewals Management & Negotiation • Own the end-to-end renewals process, forecasting, pipeline, administration, and on-time execution across the customer base • Personally lead and negotiate difficult, complex, high-value, and at-risk renewals, including multi-year, escalated, and competitively contested deals • Develop renewal playbooks, negotiation strategies, concession frameworks, and save plays to de-risk and retain at-risk accounts • Partner with Customer Success and Sales to surface renewal risk early and maximise gross and net revenue retention Pricing, Deal Desk & Commercial Governance • Own pricing execution, discount governance, and the deal desk for non-standard and complex commercial terms • Review and approve quotes, price uplifts, and contract terms to protect unit economics and gross margin • Maintain price books, packaging, and approval matrices, and ensure compliance with commercial policy • Provide commercial modelling and deal guidance on high-stakes negotiations Billing, Invoicing & Order-to-Cash • Own accurate, on-time sales invoicing and the full order-to-cash cycle • Drive billing accuracy, revenue-recognition alignment with Finance, and clean contract-to-invoice hand-offs • Reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and accelerate cash collection in partnership with Finance • Resolve billing and pricing queries quickly to protect the customer experience Revenue Processes, Systems & Data • Establish a single source of truth for renewals, contract, and commercial data • Deliver renewal, retention, pricing, and cash forecasts and reporting to leadership • Continuously improve process efficiency, cycle times, and cost-to-serve Retention & Cross-functional Alignment • Translate customer sentiment and account-health signals into proactive renewal and pricing action • Align Sales (hand-offs, expansion), Customer Success (adoption, advocacy), Finance (rev-rec, DSO), and Legal (terms) around commercial outcomes • Feed pricing, churn, and win/loss insight back into commercial and product strategy Team Leadership & Operational Excellence • Lead, coach, and scale the Commercial Operations and renewals team • Establish and own KPIs (renewal rate, GRR / NRR, DSO, invoice accuracy, and cycle time) • Instil a disciplined, data-driven operating rhythm balanced for effectiveness, efficiency, and cost • Escalate only the largest strategic renewals to the COO with a clear recommendation Core Competencies Negotiation & Renewals Expertise • Proven ability to manage and negotiate difficult, complex, and at-risk renewals, consistently delivering profitable outcomes. • Skilled in objection handling, concession strategy, and multi-stakeholder negotiations in high-pressure environments. • Strong track record of protecting and expanding contract value throughout the renewal lifecycle. Commercial & Financial Acumen • Strong understanding of key SaaS metrics, including ARR, GRR, NRR, churn, DSO, cost-to-serve, and gross margin. • Expertise in pricing strategy, packaging, discounting, and deal economics. • Ability to assess commercial decisions and clearly articulate their financial impact. Revenue Operations & Systems • Deep understanding of quote-to-cash and order-to-cash processes. • Proficient in CRM, CPQ, billing, subscription management, and renewals platforms. • Focused on process optimisation, automation, data integrity, and operational efficiency. Customer-Centric Retention Mindset • Balances commercial objectives with customer experience and long-term retention goals. • Leverages customer health indicators and voice-of-customer insights to drive proactive commercial action. • Champions a seamless billing and renewal experience as a core business objective. Data-Driven Decision Making • Uses forecasting, analytics, and reporting to inform renewal strategies, pricing decisions, and cash-flow optimisation. • Comfortable with commercial modelling, business cases, and scenario analysis. Stakeholder Management & Influencing Skills • Communicates effectively with executive, commercial, finance, legal, and customer-facing stakeholders. • Builds alignment across Sales, Customer Success, Finance, and Legal to achieve shared commercial outcomes. • Confident and credible presence in customer-facing negotiations and strategic discussions. Leadership & Execution • Proven experience leading commercial operations, revenue operations, or renewals teams. • Demonstrates a strong delivery mindset with accountability for revenue growth and cash performance. • Equally comfortable operating at both strategic and hands-on execution levels. Experience & Profile • 8+ years in commercial operations, revenue operations, renewals, or senior account management within SaaS • Demonstrable, hands-on track record negotiating difficult, high-value, and complex renewals and commercial terms • Experience owning renewals, pricing / deal desk, and/or order-to-cash at scale • Strong systems fluency (CRM, CPQ, billing / subscription platforms) and commercial modelling • Experience leading and scaling teams in a mid-size (~€40m ARR) SaaS environment • Commercially astute, numerate, and customer-oriented, with excellent negotiation and stakeholder skills Success Indicators (First 12–24 Months) • Renewal rate and gross / net revenue retention improved and predictable • Difficult and at-risk renewals consistently secured or improved through structured negotiation • Pricing and discount governance embedded, with margin protected on non-standard deals • DSO reduced, and invoicing accuracy and timeliness improved • Quote-to-cash automated, with commercial data trusted as a single source of truth • A high-performing Commercial Operations function balanced for effectiveness, efficiency, and cost Information Security Responsibilities All employees are responsible for supporting and maintaining the organisation’s information security standards. This includes: • Adhering to all applicable information security policies, procedures, and guidelines at all times • Protecting company, customer, and partner data from unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or loss • Using company systems, devices, and networks in a secure and compliant manner • Promptly reporting any suspected or actual security incidents, breaches, or vulnerabilities to the appropriate team • Completing mandatory information security and data protection training as required • Ensuring that confidential information is handled and stored securely in line with company policies and legal requirements Failure to comply with information security responsibilities may result in disciplinary action