Director of Commercial Operations

Karius is a life science, venture-backed clinical metagenomics company focused on elevating patient care through microbial insights. We are committed to advancing diagnostic science and technology to optimize the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. Through the use of genomics and AI, we are driven to improve the diagnostic landscape for infectious diseases.

The Role

The Director of Commercial Operations is a strategic and operational leader who owns and drives the sales systems, processes, and analytics that support Karius's commercial success. This includes sales forecasting, pipeline analytics, and process optimization, ensuring commercial strategy is grounded in data and aligned with Karius's mission of delivering exceptional customer experiences. Reporting to the Chief Commercial Officer, the Director partners closely with Sales, Marketing, and Finance to improve operational efficiency, sharpen forecasting accuracy, and accelerate revenue growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the strategy and architecture for sales operations, including CRM systems, sales automation, territory design, and performance analytics, ensuring the infrastructure scales with the business and supports multi-year growth plans.
• Build and lead a high-performing commercial operations team, setting priorities, developing talent, and establishing the function's long-term operating model as the organization scales.
• Establish and govern sales goals, metrics, and KPIs at the individual, team, and organizational level, presenting performance and risk directly to leadership.
• Own the end-to-end sales forecasting process, including pipeline analysis, forecast preparation, scenario modeling, and performance reporting, serving as the primary analytical partner to the CCO and executive team on revenue outlook.
• Design, implement, and govern sales compensation structures and incentive programs in partnership with Finance and HR leadership, owning the annual planning cycle and ensuring plans remain competitive and aligned to strategy.
• Own vendor strategy, selection, contract negotiation, and budget management for the commercial technology stack, ensuring tools deliver measurable ROI and scale with headcount growth.
• Lead change management for new sales tools, processes, and systems, building adoption plans that drive real, sustained behavior change across the sales organization.
• Partner with sales leadership to identify and operationalize cross-sell and upsell opportunities within the existing customer base, translating insight into repeatable, scalable processes.
• Serve as the executive owner of data integrity across CRM and other commercial systems, establishing governance standards and escalation paths that make the data trustworthy enough to drive company-wide decisions.
• Build and oversee training and enablement programs that standardize how the sales team uses tools, processes, and methodology, raising execution quality across the team.
• Act as the connective tissue between Sales, Marketing, and Finance, ensuring commercial initiatives are coordinated, mutually reinforcing, and tied to broader company strategy.
• Translate data into strategic insight, shaping commercial strategy and identifying performance improvement opportunities at the organizational level.
• Partner with Finance to monitor performance against targets, flagging variances early and recommending course corrections, including input into annual and quarterly planning cycles.
• Own market intelligence and competitive analysis, building a repeatable process for tracking the competitive landscape and directly informing go-to-market strategy at the leadership level.

What’s Fun About the Job?

Karius is operating at the edge of what is now known to be possible in diagnostics. With that comes a wave of new and incredible challenges and opportunities. To deliver on that value, you will be tapping into some of the most advanced technologies, architecting and innovating where the current solutions simply don't suffice. You will get to see how much your work really matters.

Travel

Travel required up to 25%.

Physical Requirements

Subject to extended periods of sitting and/or standing, vision to monitor and moderate noise levels. Work is generally performed in an office, lab, or clinical environment.

Position Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Operations, or a related field; MBA preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive commercial operations or sales operations experience with a Bachelor's degree, or 8+ years with a Master's degree, including at least 4+ years in a people management role, ideally within life sciences, healthcare, or diagnostics.
• Proven track record architecting and scaling the systems and infrastructure that underpin a growing commercial organization, including CRM platforms, sales automation, territory design, and performance analytics built to support increasing headcount and complexity.
• Command of the full sales forecasting lifecycle, including pipeline analysis, forecast modeling, scenario planning, and performance reporting, with direct experience serving as a trusted analytical partner to executive leadership on revenue outlook.
• Direct experience designing, implementing, and governing sales compensation structures and incentive programs, partnering closely with Sales, Finance, and Legal to keep plans competitive, compliant, and tied to business strategy.
• Demonstrated ownership of vendor strategy for the commercial technology stack, including selection, negotiation, and budget management, with a clear focus on measurable return on investment.
• A track record of leading change management for new tools, processes, and systems, building adoption plans that produce lasting shifts in how a sales organization operates.
• Sharp commercial and analytical instincts, with the ability to turn complex, sometimes messy data into insights that sharpen forecasting accuracy and shape strategy.
• A history of earning trust and alignment across Sales, Marketing, and Finance leadership, translating competing priorities into coordinated commercial action.
• Deep fluency in CRM systems (Salesforce or equivalent), sales analytics platforms, and the data governance standards that keep them trustworthy.
• Comfort operating at both altitudes, setting strategy one moment and rolling up sleeves the next, backed by sound judgment and a track record of delivering results under ambiguity.
• Polished written, verbal, and executive presentation skills, including direct experience presenting to senior leadership and board-level audiences.
• Excellent organizational and project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines across a growing function.

Personal Qualifications

• Excellent leadership and communication skills, with the ability to influence and collaborate across teams.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with a focus on continuous improvement.
• High level of professionalism, integrity, and commitment to achieving results.
• Passion for supporting Commercial teams and driving operational success.
• Meticulous attention to detail without losing sight of the bigger picture, able to juggle competing priorities and still deliver high-caliber work in a fast-moving environment.
• An excellent communicator who builds credibility quickly across functions and seniority levels, equally comfortable in a working session or a leadership team meeting.
• Steady judgment in ambiguous or fast-changing circumstances, balancing long-term thinking with the discipline to execute now.
• A collaborative, values-driven leadership style that reflects Karius's culture and mission.