Sales Operations Lead

Covalent; Sunnyvale, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Covalent, based in Sunnyvale, CA, seeks a Sales Operations Lead to backfill a senior role, including direct management of the Customer Service Administrator. This position owns financial and contract workflows, HubSpot administration, and automation projects while shaping the CRM roadmap and ensuring data integrity.

The role requires leading cross-functional teams, optimizing onboarding, and driving process improvements with Finance, Legal, Sales, and Marketing.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent applicable experience.
• 3+ years in sales operations, customer success, or business operations with financial or contract administration.
• Hands-on HubSpot across Sales/Marketing/Operations Hub with workflows, properties, reporting; certification preferred.
• Experience reviewing or redlining NDAs/MSAs, or willingness to be trained.
• Designing or implementing CRM automation with no-code/low-code tools; familiarity with API integrations.
• Strong organizational and communication skills; leadership and mentoring experience preferred.
• Experience in a B2B services, lab/testing, manufacturing, or technical environment is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Directly manage and coach the Customer Service Administrator and oversee the Sales Ops inbox and quality standards.
• Build and maintain the Sales Ops SOP library and lead onboarding/training for new team members.
• Own client onboarding, intake, service request coordination, and workflow steps; manage escalations.
• Serve as escalation point for complex client calls; support satisfaction tracking and training sessions.
• Own day-to-day HubSpot administration; drive roadmap, configuration, and data quality across CRM/portal.
• Support portal data access issues and administer contract records; review vendor forms and agreements.
• Handle PO review, invoicing, terms, and assist Finance on Financial Hold items; manage Sales Financials.
• Drive automation and AI-driven processes; scope opportunities and partner with Engineering for testing.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Sales, Finance, Legal, Technical Ops, and Marketing.

Skills

HubSpot experience

CRM administration

Process automation

Cross-functional coordination

People management

Contract reviews

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

HubSpot API

N8N

Slack

Microsoft 365

Job description

The Sales Operations Lead is a full backfill of an existing, fully-loaded Sales Operations role, now also carrying direct management of the Customer Service Administrator. This role owns the senior half of the Sales Ops book of work — financial and PO processing, contracts and legal documentation, HubSpot and systems administration, and automation/AI projects — while supervising the Administrator's day-to-day inbound inquiry, intake, and client coordination work. It is accountable for the full client engagement lifecycle and the judgment calls that get escalated upward, with direct exposure to commercial leadership. This role will also own our HubSpot roadmap as we significantly expand our usage, with real input into which Hubs, tiers, and integrations we invest in next.

Key Responsibilities

• Directly manage and coach the Customer Service Administrator — set priorities, review work quality, and hold overall accountability for the Sales Ops inbox (process, standards, and quality) while the Administrator executes daily volume.
• Build and maintain the Sales Ops SOP library, lead onboarding/training for new team members, and proactively document and share process knowledge so coverage and handoffs stay seamless

Client Onboarding, Intake & Service Request Coordination

• Own new client account setup and guide clients through service request submission, forms, and workflow steps, including judgment calls not yet delegated to the Administrator.
• Track service requests, project timelines, and order-structure exceptions (e.g., splitting/canceling lines); monitor stalled or incomplete threads and elevate/drive resolution as needed.

Client Communication & Experience

• Serve as the escalation point for complex client calls and inquiries, providing clear updates, next steps, and expectations via approved channels (including phone/Teams).
• Support client satisfaction tracking and outreach initiatives, and partner on Data Portal live client training sessions as needed.

CRM, Portal, & Systems Administration

• Own day-to-day HubSpot administration and drive our HubSpot roadmap as usage scales — pipeline configuration, workflows, custom properties/objects, lead scoring, database health, and reporting/dashboards — and maintain accurate client records across the CRM, portal, and internal tracking systems.
• Support client troubleshooting on portal use and resolve client data access issues, including root-cause/system-level cases escalated from the Administrator
• Review and redline customer legal documents (NDAs, MSAs, MTAs, ARPAs), run initial conflict checks, and administer ContractSafe and DT contract records.
• Process vendor setup forms and service agreements, ensuring documentation is complete, accurate, and properly stored, coordinating with Sales and Finance as needed.

Financial & PO Processing/Billing

• Own PO review (including monthly end-of-month close-out), purchase orders, and blanket/parent BPOs for key accounts.
• Handle prepayments, invoicing, net terms, and credit line decisions; support Finance on Financial Hold items and own overall Sales Financials management for the function.

Automation, AI, & Process Improvement

• Own AI inbox management/automation tuning (e.g., Watchdog-style tooling) and drive SalesOps-side implementation of AI-driven intake processes, partnering with Software/Engineering to test and validate.
• Own ongoing automation projects (e.g., N8N, Slack notifications), scope new opportunities, and contribute to AI feature brainstorming for the Sales Inbox.
• Identify recurring patterns and drive process improvements (routing rules, templates, checklists), and build/maintain client-facing resources (FAQs, training materials, chatbot content).

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Sales, Technical Operations, Finance, Legal (OMM), and Marketing to support clean handoffs, onboarding, and retention initiatives, and lead cross-functional process improvement projects (e.g., onboarding redesign) with Finance and Operations leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent applicable experience, plus 3+ years in sales operations, customer success/service, or business operations combining client coordination with financial or contract administration; prior experience leading or mentoring a teammate strongly preferred.
• Hands-on HubSpot experience across Sales Hub, Marketing Hub, or Operations Hub is required — you've built and scaled workflows, custom properties/objects, deal and pipeline automation, lead scoring, and custom reporting/dashboards, and are comfortable working with the HubSpot API and native integrations. HubSpot certification (Sales Software, RevOps, or Marketing Software) strongly preferred.
• Comfort with financial/billing-adjacent tasks (POs, invoicing, credit terms) and sound judgment on when to upscale; experience reviewing or redlining standard business contracts (NDA/MSA-type), or strong willingness to be trained into this.
• Demonstrated experience designing or implementing process automation (CRM workflows, no-code/low-code tools, or AI-assisted tools), and proficiency with Microsoft 365 and CRM/portal tools.
• Strong organizational and communication skills with high attention to detail — this role carries financial, contractual, and people‑management responsibility with limited day-to-day oversight.
• Experience in a B2B services, lab/testing, manufacturing, or technical/scientific environment is a plus, but not required.

People leadership and delegation; process discipline and documentation accuracy; client-focused communication; cross-functional coordination and escalation judgment; independent decision-making; and a continuous improvement mindset.

What Success Looks Like in the First 90 Days

• Fully ramped on PO review, PO/BPO processing, and HubSpot administration, with a working management rhythm established with the Customer Service Administrator (regular 1:1s, clear priorities, delegated ownership of routine inbox/intake volume).
• Independently handling standard contract reviews/redlines (NDA/MSA) with legal escalation only for novel terms, and active ownership of the automation/AI project backlog with at least one initiative in progress.
• Established working relationships with Finance, Legal (OMM), Project Operations, and BI/Data stakeholders

Acknowledgement

This job description reflects the essential responsibilities of the role and does not limit the organization's ability to assign additional duties as needed.

Covalent is a modern analytical services and engineering consulting company based in the San Francisco Bay Area (Sunnyvale). Our mission is to accelerate materials science innovation by serving as a problem-solving partner for technology leaders of all sizes and providing access to outstanding data generated quickly and cost-effectively.

• Covalent provides cutting-edge tools and expertise to equip our customers with the high-quality experimental data and insights they need to achieve their goals.

The pay range for this role is:

110,000 - 140,000 USD per year (Covalent Sunnyvale)