Director, Commercial Operations

About Karius

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. Karius delivers unprecedented diagnostic insight detecting microbial cell-free DNA circulating in the body to assist physicians to make rapid treatment decisions.

Position Summary
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.

Why Should You Join Us?

Karius aims to conquer infectious diseases through innovations around genomic sequencing and machine learning. The company’s platform is already delivering unprecedented insights into the microbial landscape, providing clinicians with a comprehensive test capable of identifying more than a thousand pathogens directly from blood, and helping industry accelerate the development of therapeutic solutions. The products Karius offers today are some of the most advanced solutions available to physicians who aim to deliver better care to many otherwise ineffectively treated patients. Our tests are the result of some incredible work done by our scientists, statisticians, engineers, and physicians, all driven by the same mission. You, as part of the Karius team, will be able to see how directly your work has a life-changing impact on people, and at scale.

Reports to: Chief Commercial Officer

Location: Redwood City, CA (Hybrid) or Remote (USA)

Primary 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, not just short term compliance.

• 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 written, verbal, presentation, and executive communication skills, including 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.

Disclaimer

The above job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by individuals assigned to this position. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, and skills required. Responsibilities and duties may change or be adjusted to meet the needs of the company, and additional duties may be assigned as necessary. The job description is subject to change at any time at the discretion of Karius.

At Karius, we value a diverse and inclusive workplace and provide equal employment opportunities for all applicants and employees and are committed to honor and invest in the full diversity of people, in our hiring, recruiting and development of employees across the Company.  All qualified applicants for employment are encouraged to apply and will be considered without regard to an individual’s race, color, sex, gender identity and gender expression (including transgender individuals who are transitioning, have transitioned, or are perceived to be transitioning to the gender with which they identify), religion, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, marital status, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local laws. If you are unable to submit your application due to a disability, please contact us at [email protected] and we will accommodate qualified individuals with disabilities.