Job Details

About Guardian

Guardian is a global leader in height safety, delivering innovative fall protection solutions that keep workers safe at height. With a commitment to engineering excellence, regulatory compliance, and customer-centric service, Guardian supports industries wheresafety is non-negotiable. We are seeking a Sales Operations Manager who thrives in a fast-paced manufacturing environment and is passionate about enabling sales success through operational excellence.

Position Summary

The Sales Operations Manager plays a critical role in driving sales effectiveness, operational efficiency, and cross-functional alignment across Guardian's commercial organization. This role oversees sales processes, tools, forecasting, reporting, and sales coordination activities to ensure seamless execution from opportunity to order fulfillment. The ideal candidate brings strong analytical capability, exceptional communication skills, and experience supporting sales teams in a technical or manufacturing environment-preferably within height safety, PPE, or industrial equipment.

Key Responsibilities

Sales Operations & Strategy

• Lead the development, optimization, and documentation of sales processes, ensuring consistency, accuracy, and compliance with internal policies and industry regulations.
• Manage sales forecasting, pipeline analysis, and performance reporting to support strategic decision-making.
• Partner with Sales Leadership to develop annual sales plans, quotas, and territory structures.
• Drive adoption and continuous improvement of CRM tools (e.g., Salesforce), ensuring data integrity and actionable insights.
• Identify operational bottlenecks and implement scalable solutions to improve sales productivity and customer experience.

• Serve as the central point of coordination between Sales, Customer Service, Operations, Supply Chain, and Marketing to ensure timely and accurate order processing and customer communication.
• Support the sales team with quoting, pricing updates, product availability checks, and lead-time communication.
• Coordinate cross-functional responses to customer requests, RFPs, and project-based opportunities.
• Ensure alignment between sales commitments and production capabilities, especially for custom or engineered height safety solutions.
• Facilitate onboarding and training for new sales team members on tools, processes, and product knowledge.

• Partner closely with Sales Leadership to manage and support Guardian's network of independent agency rep groups.
• Serve as a primary operational liaison for rep groups, ensuring they have timely access to product information, pricing, sales tools, and performance data.
• Coordinate onboarding, training, and ongoing enablement for rep groups to ensure alignment with Guardian's sales strategy and brand standards.
• Monitor rep group performance, provide reporting and insights to Sales Leadership, and help drive accountability to sales targets.
• Support communication flow between rep groups and internal teams to ensure consistent messaging, efficient issue resolution, and strong customer experience.

• Develop and maintain dashboards, KPIs, and performance metrics to monitor sales activity and business health.
• Analyze sales trends, customer behavior, and market data to identify growth opportunities and operational improvements.
• Prepare executive-level reports and presentations summarizing sales performance and operational insights.

• Ensure sales processes adhere to industry standards, safety regulations, and Guardian's quality management systems.
• Support documentation and compliance requirements related to height safety products, including certifications, testing records, and regulatory documentation.
• Partner with Quality and Product Management teams to ensure accurate product information is available to the sales organization.

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Operations, Sales Management, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in sales operations, sales coordination, or commercial support roles-preferably in manufacturing, industrial equipment, PPE, or height safety.
• Strong proficiency with CRM systems (Salesforce preferred), ERP systems, and data analytics tools.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex cross-functional workflows and drive process improvements.
• Excellent communication, organizational, and project management skills.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities.
• Travel up to 25%

• Experience in the height safety, fall protection, or broader safety equipment industry.
• Knowledge of OSHA, ANSI, and other relevant safety standards.
• Familiarity with engineered-to-order or custom product workflows.
• Advanced Excel or BI tool expertise (Power BI, Tableau, etc.).

• Safety Focus
• Operational Excellence
• Analytical Thinking
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Customer Focus
• Process Improvement
• Change Management
• Technical Aptitude
• Attention to Detail