Function

Sales Operations

Our Company

We’re Hitachi Vantara, the data foundation trusted by the world’s innovators. Our resilient, high-performance data infrastructure means that customers – from banks to theme parks ­– can focus on achieving the incredible with data.   

If you’ve seen the Las Vegas Sphere, you’ve seen just one example of how we empower businesses to automate, optimize, innovate – and wow their customers. Right now, we’re laying the foundation for our next wave of growth.  We’re looking for people who love being part of a diverse, global team – and who get excited about making a real-world impact with data.

Job description

The role

The India Sales Operations Manager is a strategic partner to the India Sales Leader and a key member of the India leadership team. The role translates APAC and company sales strategy into disciplined execution across planning, forecasting, pipeline management, deal governance, pricing, operational rhythm and team leadership. It provides fact-based insights, strengthens cross-functional alignment and removes operational barriers so the India sales organisation can deliver predictable growth, profitability and an effective customer experience.

What you'll be Doing

Go-to-market execution and leadership partnership

• Partner with the India Sales Leader and leadership team to translate business priorities into an effective operating cadence, clear actions and measurable outcomes.
• Review account segmentation, territory coverage, capacity and go-to-market execution regularly; recommend changes based on market opportunity, productivity and business priorities.
• Monitor execution across enterprise, commercial, public sector, partner and strategic-account motions, escalating roadblocks and driving timely resolution.
• Provide independent, fact-based advice on business performance, risks, opportunities and resource trade-offs.
• Connect India priorities with APAC and global Sales Operations programmes, ensuring local requirements are represented and adopted effectively.

Business planning, reporting and insights

• Lead India input to the annual operating plan, target setting and resource planning process in partnership with Sales, APAC BP & A, Finance and other functions.
• Provide country-, segment-, account- and opportunity-level analysis, including trends in revenue, bookings, pipeline, deal size, product mix, customer behaviour, routes to market and competitive activity.
• Support quota design and deployment by providing clear analysis of market potential, account coverage, capacity and historical performance.
• Own the India Quarterly Business Review process, coordinating complete inputs from Sales, Services, Finance, Commercial, Marketing, Partners and other relevant functions.
• Prepare and present concise management insights, recommendations and actions for India and APAC leadership.
• Maintain reliable dashboards and management reporting, with clear definitions, data ownership and follow-through on actions.

Forecast and pipeline management

Own the end-to-end India forecasting rhythm and serve as the primary Sales Operations contact for forecast quality and submission.

• Maintain a rolling quarterly forecast view of at least six months, with clear assumptions for product, services and recurring revenue where applicable.
• Co-lead weekly forecast and pipeline reviews with Sales leadership, challenging opportunity status, timing, value, probability and next steps.
• Identify risks, upside and dependencies early, quantify their impact and drive corrective actions with accountable owners.
• Prepare India week-over-week forecast commentary and submit accurate, timely updates to APAC.
• Drive opportunity-level forecast accuracy, pipeline hygiene, stage discipline, close-date quality and sufficient coverage for current and future quarters.
• Partner with Sales leaders to improve conversion, reduce ageing pipeline and strengthen early-quarter visibility.

Deal governance, pricing and commercial support

• Act as the India escalation point for complex opportunities, removing process barriers and coordinating decisions across Sales, Finance, Pricing, Legal, Services, Supply Chain and regional approval teams.
• Review strategic and competitive business cases, testing commercial assumptions, profitability, risk, investment, return and alignment with account strategy.
• Facilitate pricing and exception approvals within delegated authority and the company’s governance framework, including a structured account deal review submission to APAC and Global review and approval.
• Partner with Sales Management to structure deals that balance competitiveness, revenue timing, gross margin, cash flow and long-term account profitability.
• Review contracts and non-standard terms from a commercial and operational perspective, engaging Legal and other subject-matter experts as required.
• Support customer and partner negotiations when operational or commercial leadership is needed.
• Challenge sales strategies constructively and identify alternative paths to improve win probability or reduce execution risk.

Order execution and supply alignment

• Provide operational oversight from qualified pipeline through booking, shipment and revenue recognition, with particular focus on complex solutions, public-sector requirements, partner dependencies and quarter-end execution.
• Coordinate with Deal Operations, Order Management, Supply Chain and Finance to validate configuration, pricing, order readiness, delivery requirements and revenue dependencies.
• Establish a disciplined process for pre-orders, long-lead items and constrained supply, ensuring decisions are supported by credible demand, customer-required delivery dates and commercial risk assessment.
• Escalate delivery, allocation and booking risks early; recommend prioritisation based on customer impact, revenue, profitability and strategic importance.
• Support Finance during quarter-end close with accurate deal-level information and resolution of outstanding operational issues.

Team leadership and capability development

• Lead, coach and develop the India Sales Operations team, setting clear objectives, service expectations and accountability.
• Build a scalable support model with documented processes, appropriate workload allocation, backup coverage and cross-training to reduce dependency on individual team members.
• Manage recruitment, onboarding, performance, development, succession, recognition and reward in line with company policies and leadership standards.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive and high-performance culture focused on business partnership, continuous improvement and responsive execution.
• Develop team capability in forecasting, data analysis, commercial judgement, stakeholder management, systems and process governance. Have succession plan in mind, select and develop the team members capability to step up where needed and ensure business continuity is not interrupted.

Process governance and cross-functional alignment

• Serve as an active member of the India leadership team and a trusted partner to APAC Sales Operations.
• Align Deal Operations and other shared-service teams to India priorities, service levels and escalation paths.
• Champion adoption of Salesforce, CPQ, forecasting tools, dashboards and standard operating processes.
• Communicate and implement global and APAC process, policy and system changes, adapting enablement to India stakeholder needs.
• Establish effective partnerships across Sales, Services, Finance, Commercial, Legal, Marketing, Partner, Supply Chain, Order Management and other functions.
• Identify process gaps and lead measurable improvements that simplify work, strengthen control and improve speed and quality of execution.
• Be the main advocate to drive clear ownership across functional teams, manage and coordinate training sessions to adopt to best practices and reduce frictions cross functionally

What you'll Bring

• Typically 10 or more years of progressive experience in Sales Operations, Revenue Operations, Business Operations or a related commercial function, including significant experience leading teams in a global technology or enterprise solutions environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, accounting, economics or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience.
• Strong understanding of the India enterprise technology market, including direct and partner-led sales motions, complex solution selling and public-sector or tender-driven business.
• Demonstrated ability to translate company strategy and sales objectives into an effective operating model, governance cadence and execution plan.
• Deep experience in business planning, forecasting, pipeline management, quota deployment, performance analysis and executive reporting.
• Sound commercial and financial judgement, including experience assessing pricing, gross margin, investment, risk and account profitability.
• Strong Salesforce experience; familiarity with CPQ, forecasting, business intelligence and data visualisation tools is highly desirable.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint skills, with the ability to convert complex data into clear insights and recommendations.
• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders, challenge constructively and lead cross-functional decisions without relying solely on formal authority.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with confidence presenting to senior India, APAC and global leaders.
• Strong people leadership, coaching, prioritisation and change-management capability.
• High integrity, attention to detail, resilience and a strong sense of urgency in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.

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About us

We’re a global team of innovators. Together, we harness engineering excellence and passion for insight to co-create meaningful solutions to complex challenges. We turn organizations into data-driven leaders that can a make positive impact on their industries and society. If you believe that innovation can inspire the future, this is the place to fulfil your purpose and achieve your potential.

Fostering innovation through diverse perspectives

Hitachi is a global company operating across a wide range of industries and regions. One of the things that sets Hitachi apart is the diversity of our business and people, which drives our innovation and growth.

We are committed to building an inclusive culture based on mutual respect and merit-based systems. We believe that when people feel valued, heard, and safe to express themselves, they do their best work.

How we look after you

We help take care of your today and tomorrow with industry-leading benefits, support, and services that look after your holistic health and wellbeing. We’re also champions of life balance and offer flexible arrangements that work for you (role and location dependent). We’re always looking for new ways of working that bring out our best, which leads to unexpected ideas. So here, you’ll experience a sense of belonging, and discover autonomy, freedom, and ownership as you work alongside talented people you enjoy sharing knowledge with.

We’re proud to say we’re an equal opportunity employer and welcome all applicants for employment without attention to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, age, disability status or any other protected characteristic. Should you need reasonable accommodations during the recruitment process, please let us know so that we can do our best to set you up for success.