Benchling

Head of Global Deal Desk

Benchling$150K — $200K *
Enterprise Technology
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 12+ years in Deal Desk, Revenue/Sales Operations, Commercial Strategy, and/or Finance, with several years in leadership roles, particularly in high-growth B2B enterprise SaaS or life-sciences software.
  • Proven experience in structuring and closing complex enterprise agreements, demonstrating effective judgment and negotiation skills.
  • Strong cross-functional partnership abilities, with a focus on communication and relationship building.
  • Expertise in CPQ processes and tools (Salesforce/Steelbrick), including approval frameworks and contract generation in quote-to-cash systems.
  • Deep understanding of SaaS bookings policies and revenue models related to commercial structures.
  • Proven record in process improvement to enhance deal desk operations and reduce manual touchpoints through automation.
  • Experience leading pricing governance initiatives across global deal portfolios.

Responsibilities

  • Develop and advise on enterprise deal strategies and pricing frameworks for complex agreements.
  • Lead and scale a global deal strategy and order management team, connecting Sales, Finance, Product, and Legal.
  • Drive transformation of pricing and packaging strategies and enhance CPQ systems.
  • Ensure high operational execution and excellence in moving deals from quote to booked revenue.
  • Sponsor cross-functional initiatives to streamline quote-to-cash processes and minimize customer friction.

Benefits

  • Flexible hybrid work arrangement with in-office collaboration 3 days a week.
  • Development opportunities as a player-coach to guide a high-impact team.
  • Access to advanced automation and AI tools to improve efficiency.
  • Engagement in significant cross-functional initiatives that influence company-wide strategies.
Full Job Description
ROLE OVERVIEW

Benchling is looking for a high-impact, strategic leader comfortable with change and execution to lead our deal strategy and order management team as we scale. Sitting at the intersection of revenue growth, new products, financial control, and cross-functional partnership, you will be the trusted commercial advisor to sales on deal strategy, operationalize and deploy an updated pricing and packaging strategy, and driving operational improvement and excellence. As a player-coach leading and developing a respected team, you will stay close enough to the hardest deals, while driving high impact change as the company grows through its next phase.

RESPONSIBILITIES
  • Enterprise deal strategy & structuring. Coach, partner and proactively advise enterprise account executives and sales leadership around the architecture and pricing of our largest and most complex agreements. With your deep experience in complex enterprise software deals (large, multi-year ramped deals, ELAs, etc), you will be a trusted thought partner with sales as they structure, price, and optimize customer agreements for long-term growth across multiple dimensions, and support high-value negotiations alongside sales leadership. Having built trusted relationships with stakeholders, you will help the team win today's deal while protecting long-term objectives across the company portfolio. Leverage your experience with your order management team members to get scale across our whole book of business.
  • Lead our global deal desk team & connect our partners. Lead, develop, and scale a trusted global deal strategy and order management team, keeping the field unblocked and serving as the connective tissue between Sales, Finance, Product and Legal. You will help evolve and proactively deliver executive-grade reporting and insights to finance and field leadership on deal mix, discount and pricing trends, win/loss, cycle time, and other key metrics to drive better business outcomes. Sponsor and deploy automation and AI-assisted execution alongside coaching and development, so the function scales on leverage, not just headcount.
  • Transformation. Serve as a key leader in operationalizing our redesigned pricing and packaging, and driving continued enhancement of the CPQ system that deploys it. Help advise and support implementation of new sales motions to the field, and devise playbooks that lead to optimal business outcomes, while minimizing customer and sales friction. Serve as a key leader and sponsor of cross-functional quote-to-cash system initiatives, driving lower-touch deal pathways, leveraging scrappiness to make progress, and distilling - and helping the team distill - what actually matters from what doesn't, so we move the model forward.
  • Operational execution and excellence. Own how deal desk partners with the business, and moves deals from quote through to clean, booked revenue with laser focus on operational excellence: the right balance of speed and control, continuously minimizing touches and exceptions, and sponsoring a continuous improvement mindset. Own the approval framework, ensuring clear, enforceable definitions, and anticipating and resolving downstream risk through process rather than reactivity. Maintain controls that align with public-company readiness without unnecessary bureaucracy so we scale at pace, but with the right deal governance and business outcomes.


QUALIFICATIONS

Requirements:
  • 12+ years in Deal Desk, Revenue/Sales Operations, Commercial Strategy, and/or Finance, with several years leading and scaling teams (including team members across regions), ideally in high-growth B2B enterprise SaaS or life-sciences software. With at least 4 years in a leadership role.
  • Demonstrated track record of advising how to structure and close complex enterprise agreements, exercising judgment and enforcing commercial guardrails while keeping deals moving.
  • Outstanding cross-functional partnership skills, including communication, trusted relationship building, culture carrying, outcome orientation and operational excellence.
  • Deep command of process and CPQ (Salesforce/Steelbrick) - approval frameworks, quote configuration, and the realities of contract generation in the broader quote-to-cash stack (NetSuite, Gong, etc.).
  • Strong working fluency in SaaS bookings policies and revenue, subscription and consumption/usage-based models, and how commercial structure drives revenue treatment.
  • Demonstrated skills in process improvement and operational excellence, redesigning and automating deal and order workflows to minimize manual touch, balancing control and speed using AI tooling to scale Deal Desk throughput and quality.
  • Demonstrated ownership of pricing governance - discount authority matrices, approval hierarchies, and exception policy - applied across a complex, global deal portfolio.
  • Experience operationalizing a pricing and packaging change across a live selling organization, not just designing it.
  • Analytical, data-driven mindset with fluency in BI/SQL/spreadsheets to turn deal data into decisions.

Nice to have:
  • Experience owning or co-owning a CPQ implementation or major quote-to-cash systems initiative.
  • Experience structuring consumption/usage-based deals (commits, ramps, overages, true-ups) for recurring revenue.
  • Familiarity with cloud marketplace (AWS/GCP/Azure) private offers, reseller and partner billing, and international/EMEA deal nuances.
  • Life sciences or scientific-software domain familiarity.


HOW WE WORK

We offer a flexible hybrid work arrangement that prioritizes in-office collaboration. Employees are expected to be on-site 3 days per week (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday).

#LI-Hybrid

#BI-Hybrid

About Benchling

Benchling is a cloud-based informatics platform that accelerates life sciences R&D by streamlining workflows and centralizing data. The platform offers a suite of applications for molecular biology, including DNA design, antibody design, CRISPR analysis, and protein expression. Benchling's customers include pharmaceutical companies, biotechs, and academic institutions. The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.
Learn more about Benchling
Size
500 employees
Industry
Founded
2012

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