Director of Deal Desk

What You Will Do

• Deal Structuring & Approval
• Own the Deal Desk intake, review, and approval workflow for non-standard, strategic, and enterprise-level deals across all media and ad tech product lines.
• Evaluate deal economics including CPM/CPC/CPA pricing, volume discounts, minimum spend commitments, make-good provisions, and margin thresholds.
• Structure commercial terms that balance seller incentives with company profitability, legal enforceability, and revenue recognition standards (ASC 606).
• Serve as the final escalation point for pricing exceptions, custom T&Cs, and non-standard contractual provisions.
• Partner with Sales to develop deal strategies for competitive RFPs, agency holding company negotiations, and multi-year strategic partnerships.
• Contract Management & Governance
• Manage the full contract lifecycle—from initial redline through execution—ensuring all executed agreements are accurately captured and maintained in the contract management system.
• Maintain a master repository of executed contracts, amendments, SOWs, and order forms; enforce document retention and version control standards.
• Draft, review, and negotiate commercial provisions in MSAs, IOs, data licensing agreements, and platform access agreements in collaboration with Legal.
• Build and maintain a library of pre-approved contract templates, fallback positions, and playbooks to accelerate deal cycles and reduce Legal review time.
• Monitor contractual obligations including minimum spend commitments, auto-renewal windows, termination for convenience clauses, and SLA obligations, flagging risks proactively.
• Cook with Finance and Revenue Recognition teams to ensure deal structures are compliant with GAAP and internal revenue recognition policies prior to execution.
• Salesforce & Systems Administration
• Serve as a power user and functional owner of Salesforce CRM, including Opportunities, Quotes (CPQ), Contracts, and custom Deal Desk objects and workflows.
• Design and enforce Salesforce deal approval workflows, price override rules, and opportunity stage gates in partnership with Sales Ops and the Salesforce admin team.
• Ensure data integrity across deal records, including accurate ACV/TCV booking, product line attribution, discount tracking, and contract term dates.
• Leverage Salesforce reporting and dashboards to provide real-time visibility into pipeline health, deal approval cycle times, win/loss trends, and discounting patterns.
• Evaluate and implement complementary tools (e.g., CPQ platforms, CLM software such as Ironclad) that integrate with Salesforce to streamline deal and contract workflows.
• Cross-Functional Leadership
• Act as the central coordination point between Sales, Sales Operations, Finance, Legal, and Product to resolve deal blockers and align on go-to-market commercial policies.
• Develop and enforce Deal Desk policies, discount authorization matrices, and approval SLAs; communicate changes to commercial terms with appropriate training for the sales org.
• Alongside Finance and Sales leadership, lead post-mortem analysis on lost deals, margin erosion, and prolonged approval cycles to identify systemic improvements to the deal process.
• Build, mentor, and develop a team of Deal Desk Analysts and Managers, establishing a high-performance, process-oriented culture.
• Present deal trends, approval metrics, and risk summaries to senior leadership on a regular cadence.

Required

• 8+ years of progressive experience in Deal Desk, Revenue Operations, Sales Operations, or commercial finance, with at least 3 years in a leadership capacity.
• Deep domain knowledge of the media and/or ad tech ecosystem, including programmatic advertising, digital media buying, DSP/SSP/DMP/CTV platforms, data licensing, or SaaS-based ad technology.
• Expert-level proficiency in Salesforce CRM, including Opportunity and Contract management, CPQ or Quotes functionality, approval workflow configuration, and advanced reporting.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex commercial contracts, including drafting and redlining MSAs, IOs, and data licensing agreements.
• Strong understanding of revenue recognition principles (ASC 606) and their application to multi-element media and technology arrangements.
• Exceptional analytical and financial modeling skills; ability to quickly evaluate deal margin, lifetime value, and risk across varied deal structures.
• Proven ability to operate cross-functionally and influence without direct authority across Sales, Finance, and Legal teams.
• Strong executive presence with the ability to communicate complex deal issues clearly to C-level stakeholders.

Preferred

• Experience with Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) platforms such as Ironclad
• Salesforce Administrator certification
• AI and Infrastructure as a Service tool exposure –Rattle, Airtable, Workiva, Zapier, etc.
• Familiarity with agency holding company trading structures (GroupM, Publicis, IPG, Omnicom) and their commercial nuances.