Head Of Operations - North America (12 month contract), Xero, CO, US

Our Purpose

At Xero, we’re here to help you supercharge your business. We do this by automating routine tasks, surfacing actionable insights and connecting businesses with the right data, advisors and apps. When that happens, we’re not only making life better for small business, we’ll be building a stronger economy that can change the world.

How you’ll make an impact

The Head of Operations - North America is a critical role joining Xero at an important phase in our journey, with accountability for operational execution of key initiatives in our priority regions. Reporting to the EGM of Strategy and Operations - North America, you will be accountable for the success of the US and Canada regions and will ensure we achieve our 1-2 year performance objectives in the regions.

The role and team provides critical planning and execution support for our North American GTM teams and works closely with the regional leadership teams and our key global partners. You will provide the day-to-day operational expertise to drive performance, lead critical projects, provide commercial analysis of new initiatives, support forecasting and reporting, and lead our annual planning process. You will lead a team of operations team members across the US and Canada

You’ll be an authentic leader who excels and brings cross-functional teams together to drive outcomes quickly and thrive in a fast paced, ever changing environment. You’ll lead and mentor our staff and bring operational expertise and experience from other GTM operations.

What you’ll do

• Be a trusted and respected member of the North American Strategy and Operations team and collaborate with the North American leadership team to lead the development and delivery of regional plans (1 -2 year cycles)
• Identify and lead critical GTM initiatives to drive performance in region, partnering with key GTM leaders and teams
• Develop, update and communicate key performance drivers to the regional team and global senior leadership including monthly and quarterly business reviews
• Work with global teams (product, GTM, strategy, etc) to help them understand regional priorities and needs to drive regional performance including input into the longer term North American Strategy
• Develop business cases for key initiatives supported with rigorous commercial modelling
• Coordinate operational processes with teams across Finance, PX, Legal, Strategy & Business Operations to ensure alignment and collaboration on key regional processes (e.g. annual planning)
• Provide cross functional leadership of key strategic initiatives in-region
• Develop and support the communication of recommendations to senior management, other executive, functional, or regional management and staff in a clear, concise and impactful way
• Manage the day to day work of our ops team including prioritization, review and communication of key pieces of work
• Provide mentorship and direction to junior team members, build their capabilities and set their training and development program

Success looks like

• Successful design and delivery of regional operating plans, aligning to Xero Corporate strategy
• Achievement of annual financial and growth objectives for the region
• Clear articulation of market dynamics, target segments and required propositions
• Delivery of region specific and globally aligned strategic initiatives
• Establishing a data-driven fact base to support forecasting and performance measurement
• High quality thinking and decision making across the business - facilitated by the experience, tools and support of you and your team
• Exceptional internal feedback - you will be seen as someone who collaborates widely and can get stuff done!
• Rapidly developing capabilities of the ops team members

What you’ll bring with you

• 7-10 years experience leading and being a part of operational teams supporting sales and marketing functions and especially sales leaders
• Demonstrated experience in developing and driving annual business plans, commercial modelling and reporting
• Experience in running cross functional projects and managing resource to deliver insightful recommendations that have been implemented and delivered true benefit to the business
• Expert in commercial modelling of new and current initiatives - being able to pull apart the numbers and create recommendations
• Experience in sales methodologies, sales cycles and can identify characteristics of high performing sales teams
• Brings experience working in SaaS / technology environment
• Proven ability to drive results within complex, multi-functional programmes driving sales results
• Ability to critically evaluate and prioritise opportunities to drive strategic growth
• Analytical and problem solving skills bring a practical data driven approach and financial modelling
• Intellectual curiosity, able to understand grasp and interpret internal and market dynamics
• Outstanding communicator, able to adapt and flex across colleague groups
• Able to build consensus and gain alignment
• Ability to work autonomously and take ownership to follow through and resolve problems
• Critical thinker who is adept at rapidly identifying the key drivers of a business issue and developing / leading analyses that produce actionable insights.
• Demonstrates honesty and integrity. Provides objectives and goals with loose guidelines/directions. Clearly communicates expectations. Has an open mind and the flexibility to change opinions. Develops and supports others.
• Keeps the team’s vision and values at the forefront of decision-making and actions.
• Provides opportunities for their team members to perform at the highest level — understanding how much support is required. Recognising that success is team success

Why Xero?

Diversity of people brings diversity of thought, and we like that. Our human-first culture of respect, fairness, and inclusion is what helps Xeros thrive and work and beyond, and that includes our candidates. Research has shown that women and underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single competency or experience, but you could be just the right person for this role. If you are excited about working at Xero, but your past experience doesn't align perfectly, we encourage you to apply anyway.

Offering very generous paid leave to use however you’d like (plus statutory holidays!), dedicated paid leave to care for your physical and mental wellbeing as well as an Employee Assistance Program to access mental health care for you and your family, health insurance and dental reimbursement with vision allowances, a healthcare spending account, fertility and family forming financial support, wellbeing and sports programmes, employee resource groups, 26 weeks of parental leave for primary caregivers, an Employee Share Plan, beautiful offices with shared meals, flexible working, career development, and many other benefits that reflect our human value, you’ll do the best work of your life at Xero.