CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER (CRO)

Nws; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 250,000 - 450,000; Full time

Job summary

Nws seeks a Chief Revenue Officer to lead the company’s revenue strategy across all customer segments, sales channels, products, solutions, and geographic markets. This role will build a high-performance revenue organization aligned with market strategy, pricing, and go-to-market execution.

Reporting to the CEO, the CRO will direct direct and indirect sales, solutions, data center and digital infrastructure, and business development while driving growth, margin, and market share.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Telecommunications, Technology, Engineering, or related discipline.
• 15+ years of progressive sales and commercial leadership experience.
• 8+ years of senior executive sales leadership experience.
• Experience leading complex B2B sales organizations.
• Experience in telecommunications, technology distribution, digital infrastructure, networking, data center, connectivity, or related industries.
• Experience managing direct and indirect sales channels.
• Experience with revenue, gross margin, forecasting, pricing, and sales operations.
• Experience building and scaling sales organizations.
• Strong executive-level customer and supplier relationship skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the company's comprehensive multi-year revenue and go-to-market strategy.
• Lead and develop the company's overall sales organization across multiple channels (direct, indirect, enterprise, carrier, data center, digital infrastructure, solutions).
• Establish revenue priorities across telecommunications, connectivity, wireless, fiber, data center, cloud, networking, security, and digital infrastructure markets.
• Translate corporate strategy into actionable revenue plans for each business unit and sales channel.
• Monitor developments and adjust commercial strategy accordingly.
• Drive revenue growth, margin expansion, and customer retention through disciplined sales practices.

Job description

Position Summary

The Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) is a member of the executive leadership team responsible for developing and executing the company's overall revenue strategy and delivering sustainable, profitable growth across all customer segments, sales channels, products, solutions, and geographic markets.

The CRO will lead the organization's revenue-generating functions, including direct sales, indirect/channel sales, strategic accounts, solutions sales, data center and digital infrastructure sales, business development, sales operations, and commercial strategy.

This executive will establish a high-performance revenue organization that aligns market strategy, sales execution, customer relationships, supplier partnerships, pricing, pipeline management, and operational discipline to maximize revenue, gross margin, customer retention, and market share.

The CRO will work closely with the CEO, President, CFO, COO/CAO, and other executive leaders to translate corporate strategy into measurable revenue objectives and a scalable go-to-market model.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Enterprise Revenue Strategy

• Develop and execute the company's comprehensive multi-year revenue and go-to-market strategy.

• Establish annual revenue, gross-margin, bookings, customer acquisition, retention, and profitability objectives.

• Identify new markets, customer segments, technologies, products, and services capable of generating incremental revenue.

• Balance short-term revenue performance with long-term strategic growth initiatives.

• Establish revenue priorities across telecommunications, connectivity, wireless, fiber, data center, cloud, networking, security, and digital infrastructure markets.

• Translate corporate strategy into actionable revenue plans for each business unit and sales channel.

• Monitor competitive, technological, supplier, and market developments and adjust commercial strategy accordingly.

1. Sales Leadership

Lead and develop the company's overall sales organization, including:

• Direct Sales

• Indirect/Channel Sales

• Strategic Accounts

• Enterprise Sales

• Carrier and Service Provider Sales

• Data Center Sales

• Digital Infrastructure Sales

• Solutions Sales

• Business Development

• Partner/Reseller Sales

• Sales Operations and Administration

Establish clear organizational accountability, sales territories, quotas, compensation structures, reporting relationships, and performance expectations.

Develop a disciplined sales culture focused on:

• Revenue growth

• Gross-margin expansion

• New customer acquisition

• Customer retention

• Cross-selling and upselling

• Pipeline generation

• Forecast accuracy

• Strategic account development

• Supplier and partner expansion

1. Direct Sales

• Develop and execute the direct-sales strategy across enterprise, carrier, data center, infrastructure, and strategic accounts.

• Establish account segmentation and customer-specific growth strategies.

• Build executive relationships with key customers and strategic accounts.

• Develop large-account and national-account strategies.

• Ensure sales teams effectively position the company's products, services, technical capabilities, and value proposition.

• Establish sales methodologies, qualification standards, opportunity-management processes, and closing disciplines.

• Drive expansion within existing accounts while continuously developing new business.

1. Indirect and Channel Sales

• Develop the company's indirect-channel strategy encompassing distributors, resellers, dealers, agents, integrators, contractors, VARs, MSPs, and other channel partners.

• Recruit, enable, manage, and grow strategic channel relationships.

• Establish channel segmentation, partner tiers, incentives, rebates, and performance standards.

• Develop programs designed to increase partner loyalty, wallet share, and recurring revenue.

• Establish channel conflict-management policies between direct and indirect sales.

• Create joint business plans with strategic partners and suppliers.

• Measure partner productivity, revenue contribution, profitability, retention, and growth.

1. Telecommunications & Digital Infrastructure Solutions

Drive commercial growth across relevant infrastructure markets, including:

• Fiber optic infrastructure

• Broadband

• Wireless infrastructure

• 5G infrastructure

• Data centers

• Edge computing

• Structured cabling

• Networking

• Connectivity

• Cloud infrastructure

• Network security

• Power and electrical infrastructure

• Outside plant infrastructure

• Enterprise communications

• Digital infrastructure solutions

Partner with technical and operational leadership to develop solutions that address evolving customer requirements.

1. Supplier and Manufacturer Relationships

• Develop executive-level relationships with key manufacturers, suppliers, technology providers, and strategic partners.

• Negotiate commercial programs that improve revenue opportunities and gross-margin performance.

• Establish joint go-to-market initiatives with strategic suppliers.

• Develop preferred-supplier strategies based on market demand, product availability, pricing, technology, and customer requirements.

• Collaborate with suppliers on new product introductions and emerging technologies.

• Monitor supplier performance and address commercial or service issues affecting customers.

1. Revenue Operations & Forecasting

Establish a rigorous revenue-management discipline across the organization.

Responsibilities include:

• Pipeline management

• Sales forecasting

• CRM discipline

• Opportunity management

• Territory management

• Quota allocation

• Sales productivity

• Revenue analytics

• Customer segmentation

• Pricing analytics

• Sales compensation

• Win/loss analysis

• Forecast accuracy

Establish standardized dashboards and executive reporting that provide visibility into:

• Revenue

• Gross margin

• Bookings

• Pipeline

• Pipeline coverage

• Forecast

• New customers

• Customer retention

• Average customer value

• Sales productivity

• Channel performance

• Supplier performance

1. Pricing, Margin & Commercial Management

• Establish pricing strategy in partnership with the CFO and executive leadership.

• Protect and improve gross-margin performance.

• Establish pricing governance and approval thresholds.

• Monitor market pricing and competitive pressures.

• Develop discounting policies and approval procedures.

• Identify opportunities for margin expansion through product mix, supplier negotiations, services, and value-added offerings.

• Ensure sales incentives align with profitable revenue rather than revenue volume alone.

1. Customer Strategy & Executive Relationships

• Establish a customer-centric revenue strategy.

• Maintain executive relationships with the company's largest and most strategic customers.

• Develop key-account plans and executive sponsorship programs.

• Establish customer-retention and expansion strategies.

• Monitor customer satisfaction, service issues, churn, and competitive threats.

• Work with operations and customer service leadership to resolve issues affecting strategic accounts.

1. Business Development & Strategic Growth

Identify and develop new revenue opportunities through:

• New geographic markets

• New customer segments

• New product categories

• Strategic partnerships

• Supplier relationships

• Acquisitions

• Joint ventures

• Technology partnerships

• New distribution models

• Value-added services

• Recurring-revenue opportunities

Evaluate emerging telecommunications and digital infrastructure markets and translate market trends into actionable commercial opportunities.

1. Executive Leadership

Serve as a principal member of the executive leadership team and provide the CEO and Board with clear visibility into revenue performance and market opportunities.

The CRO will:

• Participate in corporate strategy development.

• Establish revenue priorities.

• Present revenue performance to executive leadership and the Board.

• Collaborate with Finance on revenue and profitability planning.

• Collaborate with Operations on inventory, fulfillment, service levels, and customer requirements.

• Collaborate with Marketing on demand generation and market positioning.

• Collaborate with Human Resources on organizational development and sales compensation.

• Support M&A and strategic-investment initiatives.

1. Organizational Leadership & Talent Development

• Build a scalable, high-performance revenue organization.

• Recruit, develop, coach, and retain high-performing sales executives and leaders.

• Establish clear career paths and succession plans.

• Create performance-management standards for the sales organization.

• Develop sales leadership capabilities throughout the organization.

• Establish a culture of accountability, collaboration, ethical conduct, and continuous improvement.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIs)

The CRO will be accountable for measurable performance across the following areas:

Revenue

• Total revenue growth

• Organic revenue growth

• New customer revenue

• Existing customer expansion

• Recurring revenue growth

Profitability

• Gross margin

• Gross-margin dollars

• Contribution margin

• Margin by customer/channel/product

• Pricing realization

Sales Performance

• Bookings

• Pipeline value

• Pipeline coverage

• Win rate

• Average deal size

• Sales-cycle duration

• Quota attainment

• Forecast accuracy

Customer

• Customer retention

• Customer churn

• Net customer growth

• Strategic-account growth

• Customer concentration

Channel

• Channel revenue

• Active partners

• Partner productivity

• Partner retention

• Revenue per partner

• Channel gross margin

Strategic Growth

• New markets launched

• New supplier relationships

• New product/category revenue

• Strategic partnerships

• M&A/business-development opportunities

Organizational

• Sales productivity

• Employee retention

• Leadership succession

• Time-to-productivity for new sales hires

• Sales compensation effectiveness

AUTHORITY & DECISION-MAKING

The CRO will have executive authority within Board-approved and CEO-approved parameters to oversee:

• Revenue strategy

• Sales organization structure

• Sales territories

• Sales quotas

• Channel strategy

• Customer segmentation

• Sales compensation recommendations

• Pricing strategy

• Strategic account strategy

• Revenue partnerships

• Sales hiring and organizational development

• Commercial programs

Material pricing exceptions, capital expenditures, acquisitions, strategic contracts, and financial commitments remain subject to applicable company approval policies.

REPORTING RELATIONSHIP

Reports To: Chief Executive Officer

Executive Peer Relationships:

• President

• Chief Financial Officer

• Chief Operating Officer / Chief Administrative Officer

• Chief Technology Officer / Chief Information Officer

• Chief Marketing Officer

• General Counsel

Direct Reports May Include:

• Executive Vice President / Senior Vice President – Direct Sales

• Senior Vice President – Indirect & Channel Sales

• Senior Vice President – Solutions & Digital Infrastructure

• Vice President – Data Center Sales

• Vice President – Sales Operations & Administration

• Vice President – Business Development

• Vice President – Strategic Accounts

• Revenue Operations / Sales Analytics Leadership

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Telecommunications, Technology, Engineering, or related discipline.

• 15+ years of progressive sales and commercial leadership experience.

• 8+ years of senior executive sales leadership experience.

• Demonstrated experience leading complex B2B sales organizations.

• Experience in telecommunications, technology distribution, digital infrastructure, networking, data center, connectivity, or related industries.

• Demonstrated experience managing direct and indirect sales channels.

• Experience managing revenue, gross margin, forecasting, pricing, and sales operations.

• Proven experience building and scaling sales organizations.

• Strong executive-level customer and supplier relationship skills.

Preferred

• Master's degree or MBA.

• Experience with telecommunications distribution.

• Experience with data center and digital infrastructure markets.

• Experience managing national or multi-regional sales organizations.

• Experience with private-equity-backed or high-growth organizations.

• Experience with M&A integration and commercial transformation.

• Experience developing channel-partner ecosystems.

CORE COMPETENCIES

• Enterprise Revenue Strategy

• Strategic Sales Leadership

• Telecommunications Industry Knowledge

• Digital Infrastructure Expertise

• Channel Management

• Strategic Account Management

• Business Development

• Commercial Strategy

• Pricing & Margin Management

• Revenue Operations

• Forecasting & Analytics

• Executive Leadership

• Supplier Negotiation

• Customer Relationship Management

• Organizational Development

• Change Management

• Financial Acumen

• Negotiation

• Communication

• Strategic Planning

LEADERSHIP EXPECTATIONS

The CRO is expected to operate as an enterprise executive rather than solely as the head of sales. The position requires the ability to connect market opportunity, customer demand, supplier strategy, sales execution, operational capacity, financial performance, and organizational capability into a unified revenue strategy.

The successful executive will create a disciplined revenue-management system that provides leadership with clear visibility into where revenue is being generated, where growth opportunities exist, where margins are being created or eroded, and what resources are required to achieve the company's strategic objectives.

EXECUTIVE SUCCESS PROFILE

Success in this position will be demonstrated by the CRO's ability to:

1. Deliver sustainable and profitable revenue growth.
2. Build a scalable and accountable sales organization.
3. Increase customer acquisition, retention, and wallet share.
4. Expand the company's indirect and strategic channel ecosystem.
5. Increase participation in telecommunications and digital infrastructure growth markets.
6. Improve forecast accuracy and sales execution.
7. Strengthen strategic supplier relationships.
8. Improve gross-margin performance.
9. Establish consistent revenue-management processes and KPIs.
10. Develop a strong pipeline of future revenue opportunities and sales leadership talent.