Commercial Operations and Strategy Lead

Location: Milton Keynes (Hybrid)
Reports to: CEO
Works closely with: CFO, Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, Product
Company stage: High-growth B2B SaaS + Services (CX & Insight Platform)

Role Overview

Serve First is scaling rapidly and requires a single, trusted operator to sit alongside the CEO and act as the data, insight, and execution engine behind key commercial decisions.

The Commercial Operations and Strategy Lead is a highly analytical, project-owning role that blends:

• Revenue & commercial operations

• Strategic analysis and research

• Cross-functional project leadership and support

• Board-level decision support

This is a "Founders Associate / Chief of Staff" style position with ownership of RevOps, CRM, and commercial insight as core pillars.

The role exists to ensure that decisions are data-led, projects are executed, and the Board always has clarity on what is happening in the business and why.

What Success Looks Like

• The CEO has clear, reliable insight into pipeline, revenue, growth levers, and risks.
• Commercial decisions are evidence-based, not instinct-led
• Cross-functional initiatives move faster, with clear ownership and accountability.
• CRM and commercial data are clean, trusted, and actionable.
• Strategy turns into execution.

Key Responsibilities

1. CEO Right Hand

• Partner directly with the CEO to analyse commercial performance, evaluate growth options, and shape prioritised, data-led decisions across pricing, pipeline, retention, and expansion.
• Prepare analysis, insight packs, and decision briefs for leadership discussions
• Pressure-test assumptions using data and research
• Own follow-through: once decisions are made, ensure they are executed across the business
• Support special projects, initiatives, and strategic workstreams as required

2. Commercial & Revenue Operations Ownership

• Own Serve Firsts commercial operating system, including; CRM (HubSpot), Pipeline architecture, Revenue reporting, Revenue Forecasting models
• Ensure a single source of truth across; Leads, pipeline, and opportunities, Customers, retention, and expansion and Products, modules, and pricing
• Maintain commercial hygiene and visibility across Sales, Marketing, CS, and Finance

3. Data, Insight & Decision Support

• Be the person behind the question: What does the data actually tell us?
• Analyse:

  • Funnel conversion rates

  • Deal velocity and pipeline health

  • Retention, churn, and expansion

  • Pricing, discounting, and packaging performance

• Build dashboards and models that leadership actually uses

• Translate complex data into clear insight, recommendations, and actions

4. Project Ownership & Cross-Functional Execution

• Support high-impact initiatives end-to-end, such as:

  • GTM or pricing changes

  • CRM rebuilds or optimisation

  • New sector or market entry analysis

  • Internal process improvements

• Coordinate across teams to ensure alignment and delivery

• Track progress, remove blockers, and drive accountability

5. Research, Strategy & Growth Support

• Conduct structured research into:

  • New markets, sectors, or ICPs

  • TAM / SAM / SOM analysis

  • Competitive positioning and differentiation

• Support strategic planning with evidence-backed recommendations

• Help turn long-term vision into executable plans

About You

This role suits someone who is analytical, commercially minded, and comfortable operating close to the Board.

Likely Backgrounds

• Founders Associate / Chief of Staff

• Commercial, finance, or strategy analyst

• Consulting or advisory background

• RevOps or commercial ops professional with strong analytical depth

• Early-stage or scale-up experience with broad exposure

Key Skills & Traits

• Strong analytical and problem-solving capability

• Comfortable working with data, models, and CRM systems

• Commercially curious — understands how businesses actually make money

• Confident working with senior stakeholders and founders

• Highly organised, proactive, and ownership-driven

• Equally happy thinking strategically and executing tactically

What This Role Is (and Isn't)

This role is:

• Data-driven

• Project-owning

• Board-facing

• Commercially focused

This role is not:

• A junior ops role

• A pure reporting function

• A sales admin position

• A narrow RevOps specialist

Why Join Serve First

• Work directly with the Board at a critical growth stage

• Shape how the company scales commercially

• High autonomy, high trust, high impact

• Exposure across strategy, revenue, and execution

• Opportunity to grow into a senior leadership role as the business scales