Spyglass Talent Solutions is a retained recruitment firm based in the Southeast United States. Our firm has been engaged by a leading manufacturer of commercial piping systems to conduct a search for a Senior Director of Commercial Operations.
The Senior Director of Commercial Operations will lead the company’s front-end commercial execution, including estimating workflow, customer experience, quote responsiveness, bid quality, pricing, order handoff, and related process improvement. This role is responsible for building a scalable, transparent, and accountable commercial operating system that supports growth, improves customer experience, and strengthens cross-functional coordination between sales, estimating, operations, and finance.
This role partners closely with executive leadership to develop and execute commercial strategy, improve operational efficiency, strengthen customer satisfaction, and ensure alignment across Sales, Operations, and Finance. The Senior Director will build and lead a high-performing team, establish clear accountability systems, implement scalable processes, and create visibility into key commercial metrics that drive business decisions.
Responsibilities include:
· Strategic Commercial Leadership & Performance
o Drive commercial bid speed, quote quality, responsiveness, conversion and visibility into department workload
o Establish scalable systems, operating standards, processes, priorities, metrics, and accountability across the commercial front end
o Partner with technical experts to ensure estimates and customer commitments are accurate, complete, and commercially sound
o Establish KPIs, dashboards, and reporting rhythms that give leadership visibility into quote status, bottlenecks, capacity, customer priorities, and overall department performance.
o Optimize handoffs from sales to estimating, estimating to order entry, and order entry to operations to improve customer outcomes
o Develop standard work, training, templates, and communication expectations for the department
o Work closely with the CEO and senior leadership team to support revenue growth, margin discipline, customer satisfaction, and operational consistency
· Operational Excellence
o Define and professionalize customer-facing communication standards, issue resolution, and internal follow-through
o Lead process improvement initiatives focused on workflow simplification, automation, and continuous improvement
o Establish dashboards and reporting rhythms that provide actionable insights and support resource planning and forecasting
o Partner closely with Sales, Engineering, Finance, and Operations to align priorities and ensure seamless execution across departments
o Remove silos and strengthen communication, accountability, and collaboration throughout the customer lifecycle
o Ensure positioning and pricing align with company profitability targets and strategic goals
· Leadership
o Provide strategic leadership and operational oversight for estimating, customer experience and commercial operations functions
o Serve as a strong people leader who can coach, lead, organize, prioritize, and develop a high-performing team
o Preserve and leverage existing technical knowledge within the team while building scalable processes, clearer accountability, and stronger management discipline.
o Establish clear priorities and performance expectations while creating a culture of accountability, coaching, and feedback.
o Address team challenges proactively, including interpersonal conflicts
o Coordinate and prioritize design workload related to estimating, bid support, and customer deadlines.
o Champion organizational change and continuous improvement initiatives that strengthen operational maturity
Qualifications:
· Education & Experience
o Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Construction Management, Business, or related field preferred
o 10+ years of experience in commercial operations, estimating, sales operations, or related functions.
o Experience within technical environments such as mechanical systems, piping, or construction-related industries strongly preferred
o Proven success leading teams through organizational change and growth
o Proven success improving process and driving business outcomes
· Preferred Experience
o Ability to read, interpret, and analyze drawings and specifications, with an understanding of how design decisions impact estimating, fabrication, delivery, and customer commitments.
o Experience across multiple commercial functions, ideally including sales operations and bidding.
o Experience creating KPIs and metrics that align with organizational strategy and drive improved performance.
· Key Competencies
o Process and system-level thinking
o Attention to detail and execution discipline
o Customer and engineer-focused mindset
o Leadership and team development
o Cross-functional collaboration
Pay: $150,000.00 - $180,000.00 per year
Application Question(s):
- Have you owned estimating or bidding as a core function — building or approving bids — for a team of at least 3 within a distribution, building-products, or industrial manufacturing company?
- Have you led a sales operations function (pricing, quote-to-order, CRM/process management, or sales support) supporting a commercial team?
Work Location: In person
