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 SummaryThe 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. 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 model