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Backstory (formerly People.ai) is the leading AI answers platform for sales teams, trusted by companies like OpenAI, IBM, Red Hat, Verizon, and Palo Alto Networks. The company is backed by ICONIQ Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and others, and is based in San Francisco.
You will build the operating system behind Backstory's growth as Senior Director of GTM Operations, reporting to the SVP of Customer Value. This role consolidates GTM operations—comp design, territory and quota planning, pricing approvals, lead routing, and CRM administration—into one integrated function, replacing siloed approaches across Sales, CS, and Partnerships.
Key responsibilities include:
**Measurement and Data Foundation:** Instrument the full customer journey from pre-funnel through credit consumption and expansion. 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. Govern CRM fields and data quality through automation and clear standards.
**Forecasting and Executive Reporting:** Design and run a forecasting rhythm built for a consumption-based, land-and-expand model. Present quarterly results and forward guidance to the Executive Leadership Team. Provide analysis, forecasts, and materials to ELT members. Run forecast reviews, pipeline inspections, and business reviews as decision forums. Use data to pressure-test plans and flag risk early.
**Intelligence Layer and AI:** Build AI-driven reporting and analysis across solution presentation, adoption, credit consumption, and customer outcomes using Backstory as the primary source of truth. Deliver automated briefings, pipeline intelligence, and self-serve analytics to the whole GTM organization. Make build, buy, or connect decisions for GTM data and tooling.
**Retention and Expansion Signals:** Re-anchor the early warning system around solution adoption: credit consumption, feature activation, workflow integration depth, CS engagement, and conversation signals. Turn signals into a review cadence and save/expand plays. Feed adoption-based churn and expansion signals into the forecast.
**Commercial Operations:** Own comp plan design for Sales, CS, and Partnerships in partnership with Finance and People. Lead territory, quota, and capacity planning with clear rules of engagement. Manage CPQ and pricing approvals. Oversee lead routing across marketing, sales, CS, and partners. Manage day-to-day CRM administration and revenue-critical systems.
**Be Our Best Customer:** Run Backstory's GTM on Backstory itself, learning from strongest adopters and trying uses customers have not yet attempted. Document results for customer and prospect conversations. Engage with customers and market as a platform practitioner.
**Requirements:**
- Builder instinct: have built functions, systems, or processes from scratch; reach for leverage before headcount; lead small teams while staying close to work
- Applied AI: deep understanding of AI tooling landscape; deployed LLMs and AI tools in operational workflows; know where AI outperforms traditional automation and where it adds risk; experience building AI infrastructure and supporting change management
- GTM operating model fluency: run GTM operations through real business model change (ideally consumption-based, land-and-expand, or channel-augmented); set right metrics framework without long assessment phase
- Data architecture literacy: understand how GTM data is structured and flows across CRM, warehouse, and AI layers; design instrumentation and make build/buy/connect decisions; don't need to be engineer but can't depend on one to understand data model
- Forecasting authority: know ARR forecasting deeply (inputs, calculations, potential errors); reconcile sources; tell executives how confident to be and why
- Commercial operations depth: hands-on experience with comp design, territory and quota planning, CPQ and pricing approvals, lead routing, and CRM administration
- SaaS metrics fluency: connect ARR, GRR, NDR, CAC, pipeline coverage, capacity, and productivity to business performance
- Modern data tooling: working knowledge of SQL, dbt, or BI tools
- Executive presence: present difficult conclusions to ELT without hiding behind analysis; push back constructively when data calls for it
- Experience: typically 10+ years in revenue operations, GTM operations, or GTM strategy at 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, 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
