Commercial & Revenue Operations Manager (m/f/d)

ESQlabs is an innovative, internationally acting Contract Research Organization and a global leader in the development and application of the OSP Suite (www.open-systems-pharmacology.org). We are a research-focused provider of specialized computational analyses in the life sciences industry.

To help us grow our global business, we are looking for a Commercial & Revenue Operations Manager (m/f/d) who will design, optimize, and scale the processes, systems, and insights that power our commercial teams to drive predictable, sustainable revenue growth.

This role owns the commercial operating system that turns leads and product usage into recurring software revenue - and that makes the entire commercial function measurably more effective. Software revenue is recurring and metered, not project-based, and that changes everything: the motion is a funnel with conversion rates and drop-off, the numbers are ARR and retention, and a meaningful share of pipeline will come from product trials, not just outbound.

You are the person who instruments that system, holds it accountable, and lifts the performance of everyone in front of a customer. You build the enablement, run the pipeline discipline, own the forecast, and make sure no qualified opportunity is lost to a missed follow-up or a stalled deal. You will work directly with the CEO and the Business Development function and build this out as the first dedicated commercial-operations hire.

What you will own

Funnel and pipeline system

• Own the full funnel: lead to qualified opportunity to closed-won to onboarded to expansion. Own the conversion rate and drop-off at each stage - not just CRM tidiness, but the numbers the stages produce.
• Run the weekly pipeline review. Enforce deal-stage hygiene and honest close dates. No deal stalls without a reason; no forecast is a guess.
• Own win/loss analysis and feed it back into targeting, messaging, and pricing.

SaaS revenue operations and metrics

• Build and maintain the commercial metrics that run a software business: ARR and MRR, ACV, CAC, LTV, payback period, net revenue retention, churn, and pipeline coverage ratio.
• Own forecasting: weighted pipeline, realistic commit, and the dashboards leadership runs the business on. You build the model, not just report the number.
• Quote-to-cash machinery: pricing tiers, subscription contracts, renewals tracking, and seat-expansion motions.

Product-led growth

• Own the trial-to-paid loop: self-serve and trial signups, product-usage signals turned into qualified conversations, and the handoff to sales with full context.

Sales enablement and Business Development Strategy

• Define and maintain the Ideal Customer Profile by segment (pharma MIDD teams, biotech, AI drug discovery, CROs).
• Drive the continuous development of the business strategy with both internal and external stakeholders, integrating bespoke needs into a successful roadmap.
• Define and execute a strategy for the acquisition of prospective new customers in areas such as risk assessment, regulatory approval, drug development, and biological modeling and simulation.
• Generate, respond to, and capitalize on business leads across pharma, biotech, AI drug discovery, and CRO segments.
• Act as the enabler between the company and existing partners, maintaining and growing strategic relationships.
• Define and maintain the Ideal Customer Profile by segment (pharma MIDD teams, biotech, AI drug discovery, CROs).
• Build the playbooks, outbound sequences, battlecards, and call-prep that make every customer conversation better targeted and better prepared - so the team in front of customers performs above its headcount.
• Own the outbound infrastructure and sequences (email and LinkedIn) and hand qualified conversations over with context, not just a name.

Marketing operations (operations only)

• Own the operational and analytical side of marketing: campaign o