Head of Salesforce

Head of Salesforce

Location: Hybrid - Gerrards Cross - 2-3 days per week

Salary: £80-£100k + Bonus

Type: Permanent

No Sponsorship Available

Purpose of the Role

We are looking for an experienced Head of Salesforce to take end-to-end ownership of Salesforce and the wider commercial technology ecosystem supporting Sales, Customer Success, Order Management and Support.

Salesforce is the operational backbone of the commercial organisation, and you will be accountable for its strategy, roadmap, governance, optimisation and day-to-day effectiveness.

This is a leadership role but not a hands-off position. You will need to be technically credible within Salesforce, comfortable getting into the detail of configuration and processes, while providing strategic direction and challenging internal stakeholders and external implementation partners.

A key priority will be ownership of Salesforce CPQ, ensuring pricing, product configuration, bundles, discounting and approval processes are scalable and well governed. Strong working knowledge of Salesforce CPQ is a mandatory requirement for this role.

You will lead a small internal Salesforce team, manage an external Salesforce implementation partner and work closely with senior commercial stakeholders to ensure the platform delivers measurable business value.

Key Responsibilities

Salesforce Strategy & Ownership

Own the Salesforce strategy, roadmap and operating model across the organisation.
Define and prioritise Salesforce initiatives aligned to commercial objectives and business growth.
Act as the senior Salesforce authority, providing direction on platform design, governance and best practice.
Translate commercial requirements into scalable Salesforce processes across lead management, opportunities, pipeline, quoting, renewals, forecasting, attribution and approvals.
Establish effective governance around platform changes, configuration, integrations, data and user access.

Salesforce CPQ

Own the ongoing administration, optimisation and roadmap of Salesforce CPQ.
Manage product configuration, pricing structures, bundles, discounting and approval processes.
Partner with Sales and Finance to ensure CPQ supports effective and scalable quote-to-cash processes.
Manage specialist CPQ development and configuration delivered by external Salesforce partners.
Identify opportunities to simplify and automate quoting and approval processes.

Platform & Technical Leadership

Maintain technical oversight across Sales Cloud and Service Cloud.
Provide hands-on configuration where required, including Flow, validation rules, permission sets, page layouts, record types, reports and dashboards.
Establish technical standards and design principles across the Salesforce environment.
Ensure platform changes are effectively scoped, tested, documented and deployed.
Lead investigations into complex platform issues and address root causes.
Reduce support demand through better design, automation, governance and user self-service.
Manage Salesforce releases and identify opportunities to utilise new functionality.

Commercial Technology Ecosystem

Own the wider Salesforce ecosystem, including platforms such as HubSpot, Clari, SalesLoft and Highspot.
Ensure integrations, field mappings and data flows remain reliable and scalable.
Evaluate Salesforce and AppExchange capabilities based on commercial value.
Identify opportunities to automate, consolidate and improve the commercial technology stack.
Help shape the roadmap for emerging Salesforce capabilities including Agentforce and AI.

Leadership & Partner Management

Lead, manage and develop a small internal Salesforce team.
Establish clear priorities, responsibilities and technical standards.
Coach team members and support professional development and Salesforce certifications.
Own the relationship with the Salesforce implementation partner and relevant technology vendors.
Scope specialist development, integration and transformation work.
Hold external partners accountable for quality, cost, delivery and technical standards.
Manage Salesforce resources, workload and relevant partner budgets.

Governance, Data & Optimisation

Ensure Salesforce remains stable, secure and high performing.
Establish governance around data quality, security, permissions and platform changes.
Own Salesforce data standards, including imports, mass updates, deduplication and data integrity.
Monitor platform health, user adoption, performance and data quality.
Establish KPIs for measuring Salesforce effectiveness and commercial value.
Continuously identify opportunities to simplify processes and improve user experience.

Senior Stakeholder Management

Act as the senior Salesforce subject-matter expert across the organisation.
Partner with leaders across Sales, Customer Success, Finance, Operations and Technology.
Challenge requirements where appropriate and ensure solutions address genuine business problems.
Communicate the Salesforce roadmap, priorities and platform changes to senior stakeholders.
Provide visibility of platform performance, adoption, investment and ROI.
Lead Salesforce adoption, training and change initiatives.

Essential Experience

Significant experience owning or leading Salesforce within a B2B commercial environment, ideally SaaS or technology.
Strong hands-on Salesforce knowledge across Sales Cloud and Service Cloud.
Strong working knowledge of Salesforce CPQ is mandatory, including pricing, product configuration, bundles, discounting and approval processes.
Strong understanding of B2B commercial processes including pipeline, opportunities, quoting, renewals, forecasting and attribution.
Strong declarative Salesforce configuration experience, including Flow, validation rules, permission sets, record types, page layouts, reports and dashboards.
Experience defining and owning a Salesforce strategy and roadmap.
Experience integrating Salesforce with commercial platforms such as HubSpot, Clari, SalesLoft or similar.
Strong understanding of Salesforce data management, governance and security.
Experience managing Salesforce implementation partners and external vendors.
Experience leading, mentoring or managing Salesforce professionals.
Track record of improving Salesforce adoption, reducing technical debt and simplifying business processes.
Ability to influence and challenge senior commercial stakeholders.
Strong communication skills with the ability to translate between commercial and technical requirements.

Desirable Experience

Previous experience as a Head of Salesforce, Salesforce Platform Lead, Salesforce Product Owner, Salesforce Manager or Senior Salesforce Lead.
SaaS, software or technology industry experience.
Salesforce certifications such as Administrator, Advanced Administrator, Platform App Builder or CPQ accreditation.
Knowledge of Agentforce and Salesforce AI capabilities.
Experience with AppExchange products and vendor evaluation.
Familiarity with Jira and Salesforce integrations.
Tableau, Power BI or similar reporting experience.
Experience across broader Quote-to-Cash / Lead-to-Cash transformation.

Key Competencies

Strategic leadership - able to define the direction of Salesforce while remaining technically close to the platform.
Commercial mindset - understands how B2B organisations sell, quote, forecast, renew and grow customers.
Technical credibility - confident challenging solution designs, partners and technical decisions.
Leadership - capable of developing a strong internal Salesforce capability.
Stakeholder influence - comfortable engaging with and challenging senior leaders.
Continuous improvement - constantly looking to simplify, automate and optimise the Salesforce ecosystem