Senior Director of Business Operations

About Backstory

Backstory (formerly People.ai) is the leading AI answers platform for sales teams. With more than a decade of training AI models on billions of sales interactions, Backstory enables modern sales teams to ask questions and get the right answer in the moment directly within their existing AI workflows. Sales leaders from companies like OpenAI, IBM, Red Hat, Verizon, Palo Alto Networks, Iron Mountain, TransUnion, Randstad and others rely on Backstory to get trusted answers wrapped in real business context helping them orchestrate deals more effectively and drive revenue.

By connecting every signal to the right accounts and opportunities, Backstory shows teams exactly what is happening and what to do next. Customers across industries including enterprise, cybersecurity, data and analytics, and defense use Backstory to drive trillions in pipeline and revenue.

Recognized by Gartner and Forrester, the Inc. 5000, Y Combinator Top Companies, and the Forbes AI 50, Backstory is based in San Francisco and backed by ICONIQ Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Akkadian Ventures and Mubadala Capital.

The Role

We are hiring a Sr. Director of GTM Operations to build the operating system behind Backstory’s growth. You will own the metrics, systems, cadences, and commercial operations that let a small, AI-leveraged team run what once took a much larger ops function. The role reports to the SVP of Customer Value.

This role brings GTM operations together in one place. Comp design, territory and quota planning, pricing approvals, lead routing, and CRM administration consolidate here instead of sitting in separate functions. Sales, CS, and Partnerships should run on one integrated operating system.

You will present quarterly results and forward guidance to the Executive Leadership Team, and be the authority on how confident leadership should be in the numbers. You will also run our GTM on Backstory itself, turning our own operating model into a proof point for customers.

Responsibilities

Measurement and data foundation

• Instrument the full customer journey, from pre-funnel and partner activity through credit consumption and expansion. At our scale, this is a weeks-not-months deliverable.

• Define the GTM data model, funnel stages, and metric definitions so numbers reconcile across Sales, CS, Partnerships, and Finance.

• Connect product usage and billing data to the revenue stack so every customer is represented completely and consistently.

• Govern CRM fields and data quality through automation and clear standards, not manual cleanup.

Forecasting and executive reporting

• Design and run a forecasting rhythm built for a consumption-based, land-and-expand model: channel and marketing activity into pipeline, new-logo velocity, consumption trajectories, and expansion revenue.

• Present completed-quarter results and forward guidance to the ELT at each quarter-end.

• Give ELT members the analysis, forecasts, and materials they need to run their functions and report upward.

• Run forecast reviews, pipeline inspections, and business reviews as forums for decisions, not status updates.

• Use the data to pressure-test plans and flag risk early, even when the conclusion is unwelcome.

Intelligence layer and AI

• Build AI-driven reporting and analysis across solution presentation, adoption, credit consumption, and customer outcomes, with Backstory as the primary source of truth.

• Deliver automated briefings, pipeline intelligence, and self-serve analytics to the whole GTM organization, not just leadership.

• Make build, buy, or connect decisions for the GTM data and tooling that power instrumentation and the intelligence layer.

Retention and expansion signals

• Re-anchor our early warning system around solution adoption: credit consumption, feature activation, workflow integration depth, CS engagement, and conversation signals.

• Turn those signals into a review cadence and save and expand plays triggered by what customers are actually doing.

• Feed adoption-based churn and expansion signals into the forecast, so save and expand plays show up in projected revenue.

Commercial operations

• Comp plan design for Sales, CS, and Partnerships, in partnership with Finance and People.

• Territory, quota, and capacity planning, including clear rules of engagement and handoffs across direct, CS, and partner teams.

• CPQ and pricing approvals, from quote to close.

• Lead routing across marketing, sales, CS, and partners, with defined service levels.

• Day-to-day CRM administration and the health of revenue-critical systems.

Be Our Best Customer

• Run Backstory's GTM on Backstory, learning from our strongest adopters and trying uses customers that have not yet tried.

• Document the results so they can be referenced in customer and prospect conversations.

• Engage with customers and the market as a practitioner of the platform.

Qualifications

• Builder instinct. You have built functions, systems, or processes from scratch rather than inheriting mature ones. You reach for leverage before headcount and lead a small team while staying close to the work.

• Applied AI. Deep understanding of the AI tooling landscape and the ability to make informed tooling decisions and understand where Backstory fits. You have deployed LLMs and AI tools in operational workflows, not just evaluated them. You know where AI outperforms traditional automation and where it adds risk. You have experience building the right AI infrastructure and supporting the change management required.

• GTM operating model fluency. You have run GTM operations through a real business model change, ideally consumption-based, land-and-expand, or channel-augmented. You can set the right metrics framework and put it in place without a long assessment phase.

• Data architecture literacy. You understand how GTM data is structured and flows across CRM, warehouse, and AI layers well enough to design instrumentation and make build, buy, or connect decisions. You don't need to be an engineer, but you don't depend on one to understand the data model.

• Forecasting authority. You know ARR forecasting deeply: where each input comes from, how it is calculated, and where it may be wrong. You can reconcile sources and tell executives how confident to be and why.

• Commercial operations depth. You have hands-on experience with comp design, territory and quota planning, CPQ and pricing approvals, lead routing, and CRM administration.

• SaaS metrics fluency. You can connect ARR, GRR, NDR, CAC, pipeline coverage, capacity, and productivity to how the business actually performs.

• Modern data tooling: working knowledge of SQL, dbt, or BI tools.

• Executive presence. You can present a difficult conclusion to the ELT without hiding behind the analysis, and push back constructively when the data calls for it.

• Experience. Typically 10+ years in revenue operations, GTM operations, or GTM strategy at a growth-stage B2B SaaS company, including leading a team.

Nice to have

• Chief of Staff or CEO-adjacent experience: translating strategic intent into operating plans, preparing board materials, and managing cross-functional work without formal authority.

• Channel and partnership operations: tracking, attribution, and handoffs between partner-sourced and direct pipeline.

• Usage- or consumption-based pricing: structuring and governing credit-based deals.

Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Backstory is backed by Y Combinator and Silicon Valley’s top investors, including ICONIQ Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Akkadian Ventures, and Mubadala Capital. Backstory is listed in the top 20 percent of Inc 5000 companies, is a regular leader in our key categories on G2, and is on the Forbes list of America’s Best Startup Employers. For more information, please visit www.Backstory.ai. -- Regular employees may be eligible for commissions or bonus programs (target included in OTE), equity, and benefits. The range is subject to change. Backstory takes into wide range of factors when determining an individual’s pay. These factors can include, skill set, training and experience, licensure and certifications, and location and metropolitan area. We are committed to providing accommodations throughout the hiring process. If you require an accommodation at any stage, please contact [email protected]