The modern business environment is data-driven and revenue operations (RevOps) has emerged as the critical function that aligns marketing, sales, and customer success teams to drive a growth that’s predictable.
But what exactly is RevOps, and how should organizations be approaching staffing for this department?
After 15+ years in GTM leadership, I've seen how the right teams can jack up business performance and how the wrong staffing approach can lead to misaligned departments, data disparity, and missed revenue targets.
What is RevOps? A Clear Definition
"RevOps will allow you to grow with purpose and teach you when and how to say no. Growth at all costs used to be acceptable, but now responsible investment in growth is required."
- Cuyler Owens, CRO at TrustRadius
Before going into staffing considerations, let’s set a clear definition of what revenue operations actually is.
What does RevOps do?
Revenue Operations (RevOps) is a strategic approach that aligns sales, marketing, and customer success under a unified revenue team. It breaks down departmental silos for a friction free end-to-end revenue process circling around initial awareness, customer expansion and advocacy.
The core mission that RevOps lives by is to drive growth through operational efficiency, data-driven decision making, and cross-functional alignment.
Unlike traditional departments, the revenue operations responsibilities takes a holistic view of the entire customer journey for the complete revenue picture instead of isolated metrics.
The Core RevOps Responsibilities
A well-structured RevOps team typically handles responsibilities across these four key areas:
1. Process Management
- Designing and optimizing the end-to-end revenue process
- Creating and maintaining SLAs between departments
- Establishing and enforcing rules of engagement
- Developing and managing territory plans and account assignments
2. Technology & Systems
- Managing the tech stack across marketing, sales, and customer success
- Ensuring clean data flow between systems
- Administering CRM and other key platforms
- Implementing new tools and integrations
3. Data & Analytics
- Defining and tracking key performance indicators
- Building dashboards and reports for visibility
- Conducting analysis to identify opportunities and threats
- Managing data quality and governance
4. Enablement & Optimization
- Developing training and onboarding programs
- Creating sales playbooks and content
- Identifying and implementing best practices
- Conducting experiments and optimizations
The expanse of these responsibilities shines a light on why having the right team structure is so important for carrying out a successful revenue operations strategy.
RevOps Team Structure: Models and Approaches
There’s several approaches to structuring a RevOps team, each with its own advantages depending on your organization's size, resources, and growth stage.
Model 1: Centralized RevOps Function
In this model, all operations professionals across marketing, sales, and customer success report to a central RevOps leader (often a VP of Revenue Operations or Chief Revenue Operations Officer).
Advantages:
- Strong alignment across the entire revenue process
- Consistent processes and data management
- Clear ownership of cross-functional initiatives
- Unified reporting and analytics
Disadvantages:
- Potential distance from day-to-day departmental needs
- Risk of becoming a bottleneck for departmental requests
- Challenges balancing competing priorities
Model 2: Hub-and-Spoke Model
This hybrid approach features a core RevOps team that handles cross-functional initiatives and technology, with dedicated operations resources embedded within each department.
Advantages:
- Balance of alignment and specialized support
- Deeper understanding of department-specific needs
- Clearer lines of communication
- Greater agility in responding to department requests
Disadvantages:
- More complex management structure
- Potential for conflicting priorities
- Higher staffing requirements
Model 3: Functional Operations with RevOps Coordination
In this model, departments maintain their own operations teams (Sales Ops, Marketing Ops, CS Ops), but with formalized coordination mechanisms and shared resources for cross-functional needs.
Advantages:
- Deep specialization within departmental operations
- Clear ownership of department-specific processes
- Simplified management structure
- Lower initial investment required
Disadvantages:
- Greater risk of silos and misalignment
- More complex data and system management
- Challenges driving cross-functional initiatives
According to the industry leaders interviewed in the RevOps Blueprint, the most effective structure combines elements of the hub-and-spoke model, with a central RevOps leader coordinating specialized resources across departments.
Revenue Operations Roles and Job Descriptions
As your RevOps function grows, you'll need to consider various specialized roles. Here's a breakdown of key positions and their typical responsibilities (plus revenue operations job descriptions as bonus!)
Head of Revenue Operations
This senior leader oversees the entire RevOps function, developing strategy and ensuring alignment with business objectives.
Key Responsibilities:
- Developing the overall RevOps strategy and roadmap
- Building and managing the RevOps team
- Aligning with executive leadership on revenue goals
- Identifying and addressing cross-functional challenges
- Managing relationships with key technology partners
Required Skills:
- Strategic thinking and executive presence
- Deep understanding of the entire revenue process
- Strong leadership and team management
- Ability to translate complex data into actionable insights
- Experience with change management and organizational design
Revenue Operations Manager
Here’s what a revenue operations manager job description typically looks like in the context of systems, analytics, or enablement.
Key Responsibilities:
- Implementing and managing key systems and processes
- Building and maintaining reports and dashboards
- Conducting analysis to identify opportunities for improvement
- Managing day-to-day operations and troubleshooting issues
- Collaborating with department leaders on operational needs
Required Skills:
- Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities
- Experience with relevant systems and tools
- Process design and optimization skills
- Project management capabilities
- Effective cross-functional communication
RevOps Specialist
This role focuses on execution within a specific area of RevOps, such as CRM administration, reporting, or enablement.
Key Responsibilities:
- Managing specific tools and systems
- Creating and maintaining reports and dashboards
- Supporting day-to-day operations and troubleshooting
- Implementing and enforcing process improvements
- Assisting with training and enablement activities
Required Skills:
- Technical proficiency with relevant systems
- Basic analytical and reporting skills
- Attention to detail and process orientation
- Strong problem-solving abilities
- Collaborative work style
Sales/Marketing/CS Operations Specialists
These roles provide a more specialized support to specific departments from within the RevOps function.
Key Responsibilities:
- Supporting department-specific processes and systems
- Building and maintaining department reports and dashboards
- Providing specialized expertise in department tools
- Identifying and implementing department optimizations
- Collaborating with other operations specialists on cross-functional initiatives
Required Skills:
- Deep understanding of department-specific processes
- Experience with department tools and systems
- Strong analytical capabilities
- Effective communication with department stakeholders
- Ability to balance department and cross-functional priorities
Data Analyst
This specialized role focuses on extracting insights from revenue data to drive decision-making.
Key Responsibilities:
- Conducting in-depth analysis of revenue data
- Building and maintaining advanced reports and dashboards
- Identifying trends and opportunities in the data
- Supporting forecasting and planning activities
- Developing data models and visualizations
Required Skills:
- Advanced analytical and statistical knowledge
- Proficiency with BI tools and data visualization
- Experience with data management and cleaning
- SQL and/or other data query languages
