Deal Desk Lead

Perplexity • San Francisco, CA

12h • $200,000 - $250,000

About The Position

The Deal Desk Lead owns the Deal Desk end to end and builds the team as the business grows. This hands-on role partners with GTM teams, the field, the Head of Revenue Operations, and Finance and Legal leadership to structure and close deals that support durable revenue growth while balancing customer needs with company priorities. The role calls for urgency, practical problem-solving, and sound commercial judgment.

The position engages early on complex opportunities, shapes deal terms and exceptions, runs the review and approval process, and ensures accurate execution and clean handoffs. It also owns business requirements and acceptance for quote-to-order workflows, scales the function through playbooks and enablement, and hires, coaches, and develops the Deal Desk team.

Requirements

• At least 4 years of experience in Deal Desk, commercial operations, or a related function in SaaS or another high-growth industry, including complex deal structuring and approvals.
• A track record of earning Sales’ trust through responsiveness, practical solutions, and sound commercial judgment that protects the business.
• Ability to prioritize independently, surface risks early, and drive issues to resolution without close supervision.
• Strong analytical skills and exceptional attention to detail across deal economics, terms, and documentation, including under tight deadlines; ability to distinguish material risks from issues that should not delay a deal.
• Ability to handle Sales exception and clarification requests tactfully, influence stakeholders, and escalate appropriately to senior leadership.
• Experience with CRM, quoting or CPQ tools, and approval workflows, and ability to translate field needs into actionable business requirements.
• A strong perspective on how AI is changing traditional quote-to-order workflows and a passion for putting that perspective into practice across the business.
• Experience managing and developing direct reports, with the ability to build a team while remaining hands-on.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with consumption-based, usage-based, or hybrid subscription models.
• Experience with enterprise procurement and multiyear agreements.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the field early on complex opportunities, understand customer needs, remove obstacles to close, and bring Sales, Finance, and Legal together to resolve issues.
• Shape pricing, discounts, commitments, and payment terms; balance customer value, revenue, profitability, and risk; and propose practical alternatives.
• Run a responsive review and approval process for nonstandard deals and exceptions, apply policies consistently, and escalate decisions beyond authority with clear options and a recommendation.
• Ensure quotes, order forms, approvals, and CRM records reflect agreed terms; resolve discrepancies before signature; and enable clean handoffs to billing and post-sale teams.
• Define business requirements, priorities, and acceptance criteria for quote-to-order workflows; hold Systems accountable for delivery; and own business acceptance testing and sign-off.
• Build playbooks, approval frameworks, and field enablement to reduce recurring friction.
• Use deal and exception patterns to recommend improvements to pricing and commercial policy.
• Hire, coach, and develop the Deal Desk team as the business grows.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed