6 templates by level, with salary, FLSA, and commission compliance. Download as DOCX.
Most sales operations templates online hand you one generic duties list and skip the things that actually matter when you make this hire: which level you need, whether you are even ready to hire, and the FLSA and commission rules that come with a sales-facing operations role. Sales ops spans everything from an entry-level coordinator to a VP, so the right template depends entirely on your stage and scope.
At FirstHR, we build templates for the teams making this hire directly, often a scaling startup formalizing its sales function for the first time. The six templates below cover the role by level and setting, including a startup first-hire version, each with the FLSA and commission-compliance guidance built in. Fill in the brackets and post, and the guide to writing a job description covers the fundamentals.
TL;DR
Six free templates: Coordinator, Specialist/Analyst, Manager, Director/VP, Startup First Hire, and RevOps. Two things competitors skip, both built in: a when-to-hire trigger (usually around 5-8 reps) and FLSA plus commission compliance (usually exempt; written commission agreements may be required by state). Pay anchor: $81,270 median for the business-operations proxy, $138,060 for sales managers (BLS, May 2024).
What Does Sales Operations Do?
Sales operations makes a sales team run efficiently by owning the systems, data, and process behind selling, administering the CRM, building forecasts, managing territories and routing, reporting on performance, and supporting quota and compensation planning. There is no dedicated federal code for sales ops; individual contributors are usually grouped under business operations specialists (SOC 13-1199), with managers closer to sales managers (SOC 11-2022).
For the employer writing the posting, two facts shape the hire: the role spans several levels, from coordinator to VP, and it is normally formalized once a sales team is large enough to need it. The six templates split by level and setting so the document matches the real role.
When Should You Hire Sales Ops?
Before writing the posting, decide whether you are ready. Sales ops usually gets formalized when a sales team reaches roughly 5 to 8 reps, the point at which the CRM, forecasting, and reporting become too much for a founder or sales leader to handle on the side. The signals are messy CRM data, reps missing quota from poor pipeline visibility, and leaders buried in manual reporting.
If you are below that point, a generalist or the founder usually covers the work, and you can specialize later. If you are scaling past it, the startup first-hire template below fits the moment one person builds the function from scratch. For the manager-level role, see the related sales manager job description.
Sales Operations Duties and Responsibilities
Sales operations duties cluster into systems and data, analytics and forecasting, process, and planning and enablement. The emphasis shifts by level, more strategy for a director, more support work for a coordinator, but these areas hold across the function.
Systems and data
Administer the CRM and sales tools
Maintain data hygiene and standards
Manage integrations and access
Analytics and forecasting
Build forecasts and pipeline analysis
Report on performance and win rates
Track quota attainment
Process
Design and document the sales process
Set lead routing and territory rules
Drive process improvements
Planning and enablement
Support compensation and quota planning
Help onboard and enable reps
Maintain playbooks and tools
A strong posting grounds these in your specifics: your CRM, your sales motion, your team size, and your reporting line. For a structured way to scope any role before posting, the guide to defining job responsibilities walks through the process.
Which Template Should You Use?
Pick the template by level and setting. Four are seniority levels; the startup first-hire version is for a small team building the function, and RevOps is an adjacent, broader role. Use this guide to choose.
Coordinator (Entry)
Support and CRM hygiene
An entry-level support role: keep the CRM clean, prepare reports, and help the sales process run day to day.
Specialist / Analyst
Forecasting and analysis
For analytical work: CRM administration, forecasting, pipeline analysis, lead routing, and performance reporting.
Manager
Owns process and tech stack
The highest-demand role: owns the sales process, tech stack, comp planning, and reporting, and manages ops staff.
Director / VP
Strategy and governance
For senior leadership: territory and quota design, comp governance, and the strategy that makes revenue predictable.
First Hire (Startup)
Build from scratch
For a scaling SaaS or B2B startup's first ops hire: clean the CRM, build the first dashboards, and set up the systems.
Revenue Operations
Sales + marketing + CS ops
An adjacent, broader role aligning sales, marketing, and customer success operations behind one revenue engine.
Match the Template to the Hire
Support and CRM hygiene: Coordinator. Forecasting and analysis: Specialist/Analyst. Owns the function: Manager. Strategy and governance: Director/VP. Scaling startup's first ops hire: First Hire. One role across sales, marketing, and CS ops: RevOps. Confirm the FLSA classification by the actual duties, especially for the coordinator.
6 Free Sales Operations Job Description Templates
Download all six as a single Word document or copy individual templates. Each follows the same structure: company and role summary, key responsibilities, qualifications, the FLSA note, reporting line, and pay, with an EEO statement. Fill in the brackets and post.
Download All 6 Templates
Coordinator, specialist, manager, director, startup first hire, and RevOps. All in one DOCX.
Most sales ops roles weigh CRM and analytics skill, process thinking, and communication alongside a typical bachelor's in business or a related field. List what is truly required separately from what is preferred, and weigh demonstrated CRM and data ability over a specific degree.
Two compliance points matter for this role, and competitors almost never mention either: the FLSA classification and the rules around sales commission documentation.
Usually Exempt, with Commission Rules to Watch
Sales ops at the specialist level and above is almost always exempt under the FLSA administrative exemption: paid on a salary basis of at least $684 per week ($35,568 per year), with a primary duty of office or non-manual work directly related to management or general business operations, including discretion and independent judgment. An entry-level coordinator doing routine data entry may instead be non-exempt. Separately, because sales ops touches how reps are paid, watch commission rules: some states require written commission agreements. California Labor Code section 2751, for instance, requires a written commission plan, a signed copy to the employee, and a signed receipt. Review DOL Fact Sheet 17C and classify by the actual duties.
There is also currently no federal non-compete ban: the FTC's 2024 rule was struck down and the agency moved to drop its appeals in 2025, so enforceability is state by state, with California, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Minnesota banning most non-competes. For the underlying rules, the exempt vs non-exempt guide and the Fair Labor Standards Act guide explain the tests. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm commission and covenant language with an employment attorney, since state law varies.
Sales Operations Pay
Pay varies widely by level, region, industry, and company stage, and because there is no dedicated occupation code, figures come from proxy occupations.
Sales Operations Pay Anchor (BLS Proxies)
Sales ops individual contributors are commonly grouped under business operations specialists (SOC 13-1199), with a median annual wage of about $81,270 in May 2024 (BLS data via O*NET), a broad residual category that only approximates the role. Manager-level roles align with sales managers (SOC 11-2022), median $138,060 in May 2024, with the lowest 10 percent under $66,910 and the highest 10 percent over $239,200 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
In practice, a coordinator sits at the lower end, a specialist or analyst in the middle, and a manager or director higher, with B2B SaaS and high-growth companies often paying above these proxies. Set your range using current market data for your region, the seniority level, and your industry rather than the proxy medians alone.
A Note on the Data
Sales operations has no dedicated federal occupation or O*NET code, so the figures above come from proxy categories: business operations specialists (a broad residual group) and sales managers. They bracket the role rather than measure it precisely. Treat them as a starting range and confirm against current market data for your specific level and industry, since the titled sales-ops function is growing faster than these residual occupations suggest.
Hiring Sales Ops for a Scaling Team
A large company has a full revenue-operations team and the volume to justify dedicated specialists. A scaling small or mid-size team is in a different position, often making its first ops hire, and faces three things most templates skip: when to hire, the FLSA classification, and the commission and covenant rules that come with a sales-facing role. Here is how to handle them.
The right time to hire sales ops is usually when you reach about 5 to 8 reps
Sales operations is a function that gets formalized once a sales team is big enough that the founder or a sales leader can no longer run the CRM, forecasting, and reporting on the side. Industry consensus puts that trigger at roughly 5 to 8 reps, which can land just inside or just past a 50-person company. The practical signals that you are ready: the CRM data is messy and untrusted, reps are missing quota partly because pipeline visibility is poor, and the founder or VP of Sales is buried in manual reporting instead of selling or leading. Before that point, the work is usually absorbed by the founder, a sales leader, or a generalist, and a dedicated hire is hard to justify. The two profiles inside the 5 to 50 band that genuinely need this role are a seed or Series A B2B SaaS company scaling its first account-executive team, and a B2B services firm with several commissioned reps. The First Hire (Startup) template on this page is written for exactly that moment, when one generalist builds the function from scratch.
Sales ops is almost always exempt, but the title alone never decides it
A sales operations professional at the specialist level and above is almost always exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act administrative exemption, which is a compliance detail competing templates skip entirely. The administrative exemption applies when the employee is paid on a salary basis of at least $684 per week ($35,568 per year), the primary duty is office or non-manual work directly related to management or general business operations, and the primary duty includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance. Sales ops work, designing process, building forecasts, and making CRM, territory, and quota decisions, fits that standard well, so specialists, managers, and directors are typically exempt. The one role to look at carefully is an entry-level coordinator whose primary duty is data entry, scheduling, and routine reporting without independent judgment, which may be non-exempt and overtime-eligible, which is why the coordinator template here flags the classification. Remember that job titles never determine exemption on their own; classify by the actual primary duties and salary, and check state rules, since some set a higher threshold.
Commission plans and restrictive covenants carry real documentation rules
Because sales ops sits at the center of how reps are paid, the hire intersects two compliance areas worth getting right. First, commission agreements: some states require written commission plans. California Labor Code section 2751, for example, requires that a commission agreement be in writing, set out how commissions are computed and paid, and that the employer give the employee a signed copy and obtain a signed receipt, and it applies to out-of-state employers with staff working in California. Even where not strictly required, a clear written commission plan prevents disputes. Second, non-competes: there is currently no federal non-compete ban. The Federal Trade Commission's 2024 rule was struck down in court, and in September 2025 the FTC moved to drop its appeals, so enforceability is governed state by state, with California, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Minnesota banning most non-competes. Any restrictive-covenant language in an offer should reflect the law of the relevant state. FirstHR supports the people-process side: e-signature for the offer letter, commission-plan acknowledgment and receipt, and NDA, document management to store signed commission plans and the state-appropriate agreements, onboarding workflows and an AI onboarding wizard for the sales-ops ramp, training modules for CRM and data-hygiene orientation, and an HRIS with an org chart placing the role under the VP of Sales or founder. FirstHR does not run payroll, administer benefits, calculate commissions, or provide legal advice, so pair it with your payroll provider and an attorney for commission and non-compete specifics. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
After You Hire: Onboarding a Sales Ops Person
Once the offer is accepted, onboarding centers on systems access, process, and the agreements tied to a sales-facing role. Send the offer letter stating the classification and salary, collect the signed offer, complete Form I-9 and tax forms as part of the new hire paperwork, and have them sign confidentiality and, where relevant, commission-plan acknowledgments and state-appropriate agreements.
Then set up what they need to do the work: CRM and sales-tool access, the existing data and reports, the sales process documentation, and an introduction to the reps and leaders they will support, with signed onboarding documents kept in one place. The offer letter template covers the terms.
FirstHR supports the people side of this hire: e-signature for the offer letter, commission-plan receipt, and NDA, document management to store signed commission plans and agreements, onboarding workflows and an AI onboarding wizard for the sales-ops ramp, training modules for CRM and data-hygiene orientation, and an HRIS with an org chart placing the role under the VP of Sales or founder. FirstHR does not run payroll, administer benefits, calculate commissions, or provide legal advice, so connect your payroll provider and an attorney for commission and non-compete specifics. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Key Takeaways
Sales operations owns the systems, data, and process behind selling: CRM, forecasting, pipeline, territories, quotas, and reporting.
The function usually gets formalized at about 5 to 8 reps, often just inside or past a 50-person company; a startup's first hire builds it from scratch.
Specialist and above are usually exempt under the FLSA administrative exemption, but an entry-level coordinator may be non-exempt.
Because the role touches how reps are paid, use written commission agreements (required in states like California) and state-appropriate non-compete language.
Pay anchor: about $81,270 median for the business-operations proxy and $138,060 for sales managers (BLS, May 2024); there is no dedicated sales-ops code.
Revenue operations (RevOps) is an adjacent, broader role spanning sales, marketing, and CS ops, not a seniority level of sales ops.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a sales operations professional do?
Sales operations, often shortened to sales ops, makes a sales team run efficiently by owning the systems, data, and process behind selling. The core work includes administering the CRM and sales tech stack, building forecasts and analyzing the pipeline, managing lead routing and territories, reporting on sales performance and win rates, maintaining data hygiene, supporting quota and commission planning, and driving process improvements that help reps sell more. In short, sales ops handles the operational backbone so that reps can focus on selling and leaders can make data-driven decisions. The role spans several levels, from an entry-level coordinator keeping the CRM clean, to a specialist or analyst doing forecasting and analysis, to a manager owning the whole function, to a director or VP setting strategy. There is no dedicated federal occupation code for sales operations; it is usually grouped under business operations specialists (SOC 13-1199), with manager-level roles closer to sales managers (SOC 11-2022). The templates on this page split by level and setting so the description matches the exact role you are hiring.
When should a company hire its first sales operations person?
The common trigger is reaching roughly 5 to 8 sales reps, the point at which the CRM, forecasting, and reporting become too much for a founder or sales leader to manage on the side. The practical signals are messy, untrusted CRM data, reps missing quota partly because pipeline visibility is poor, and the founder or VP of Sales spending more time on manual reporting than on selling or leading. Below that point, the work is usually absorbed by the founder, a sales leader, or a generalist, and a dedicated hire is hard to justify. This means sales ops often gets formalized just inside or just past a 50-person company. Within the 5 to 50 employee range, the two profiles that genuinely need the role are a seed or Series A B2B SaaS company scaling its first account-executive team, and a B2B services firm with several commissioned reps. If that is you, the First Hire (Startup) template on this page is built for the moment when one generalist sets up the function from scratch.
Is a sales operations role exempt or non-exempt under the FLSA?
Sales operations roles at the specialist level and above are almost always exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act administrative exemption, but the title alone never decides it. The administrative exemption applies when the employee is paid on a salary basis of at least $684 per week ($35,568 per year), the primary duty is office or non-manual work directly related to management or general business operations, and the primary duty includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance. Sales ops work, designing process, building forecasts, and making CRM, territory, and quota decisions, fits that standard, so specialists, managers, and directors are typically exempt. The role to examine carefully is an entry-level coordinator whose primary duty is data entry, scheduling, and routine reporting without independent judgment, which may be non-exempt and overtime-eligible. The Department of Labor is explicit that job titles do not determine exempt status, so classify by the actual primary duties and the salary, and check your state, since some set a higher salary threshold than the federal floor.
What is the difference between sales operations and revenue operations?
Sales operations focuses on making the sales team run well: the CRM, forecasting, pipeline, territories, quotas, and sales process. Revenue operations, or RevOps, is broader. It aligns the operations of sales, marketing, and customer success behind a single revenue engine, owning the systems, data, and process across the entire customer lifecycle rather than the sales function alone. In practice, a company often starts with sales ops and adds RevOps as it grows and wants to unify go-to-market operations that have become siloed. The roles overlap heavily and the titles are sometimes used loosely, but the simple distinction is scope: sales ops is sales-only, RevOps spans the full funnel. For hiring, choose based on the scope you actually need. If you only need the sales function supported, use the sales operations templates on this page; if you want one role spanning sales, marketing, and customer success operations, the Revenue Operations template fits. RevOps is an adjacent function, not a seniority level.
What is the difference between a sales operations specialist and a manager?
The difference is scope and ownership. A sales operations specialist or analyst is an individual contributor focused on the analytical and administrative work: managing CRM data, building forecasts and pipeline analysis, handling lead routing, and producing reports. A sales operations manager owns the whole function: the sales process, the tech stack, compensation planning, reporting strategy, and data standards, and often manages ops staff and vendors. The manager is accountable for outcomes like CRM adoption, forecast accuracy, and sales productivity, while the specialist executes the analysis and operations that feed those outcomes. There is also a coordinator level below the specialist, focused on support and CRM hygiene, and a director or VP level above the manager, focused on strategy and governance. For hiring, match the title to the responsibility you need owned: pick a specialist if you need analysis and execution, a manager if you need someone to own the function end to end, and a coordinator if you mainly need support. This page includes templates for each level.
How much does a sales operations role pay?
Pay varies widely by level, region, industry, and company stage, and there is no single federal occupation code for sales operations, so figures come from proxy occupations. Sales ops individual-contributor roles are commonly grouped under business operations specialists (SOC 13-1199), which had a median annual wage of roughly $81,270 in May 2024 according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data via O*NET, a broad residual category that only approximates sales ops. Manager-level roles align more closely with sales managers (SOC 11-2022), who had a median annual wage of $138,060 in May 2024, with the lowest 10 percent under $66,910 and the highest 10 percent over $239,200. In practice, a coordinator sits at the lower end, a specialist or analyst in the middle, and a manager, director, or VP higher, with B2B SaaS and high-growth companies often paying above these proxies. Because the proxies are imperfect, set your range using current market data for your region, the seniority level, and your industry rather than relying on the occupation-wide medians alone.
What should a sales operations job description include?
A strong sales operations job description includes a short company and role summary, the core responsibilities, the required and preferred qualifications, the reporting line, and the employment and pay details. For responsibilities, focus on the real work: CRM and tech-stack administration, forecasting and pipeline analysis, process design, reporting, and support for quota and compensation planning, scaled to the level you are hiring. Two things most templates skip but that matter here: state the FLSA classification thoughtfully, since the role is usually exempt under the administrative exemption but a junior coordinator may be non-exempt, and note that because sales ops touches how reps are paid, written commission agreements and any restrictive-covenant language should follow the relevant state's law. Be clear about the reporting line, since it usually runs to the VP of Sales, head of revenue, or founder. The templates on this page give you a role-matched, fill-in-the-blank starting point, including a startup first-hire version and a RevOps option, with the FLSA and commission-compliance guidance built in.
What happens after I hire a sales operations person?
Once the offer is accepted, onboarding a sales ops hire centers on systems access, process, and the agreements tied to a sales-facing role. Start with the basics before day one: send the offer letter stating the classification and salary, collect the signed offer, complete Form I-9 and tax forms, and have them sign confidentiality and, where relevant, commission-plan acknowledgments and any state-appropriate restrictive-covenant agreements. Then set up what they need to do the work: CRM and sales-tool access, the existing data and reports, the sales process documentation, and an introduction to the reps and leaders they will support. Because sales ops depends on clean systems and clear agreements, a repeatable onboarding pays off, especially for a scaling team formalizing its sales function. FirstHR supports the people side of this: e-signature for the offer letter, commission-plan receipt, and NDA, document management to store signed commission plans and agreements, onboarding workflows and an AI onboarding wizard for the sales-ops ramp, training modules for CRM and data-hygiene orientation, and an HRIS with an org chart and employee database. FirstHR does not run payroll, administer benefits, calculate commissions, or provide legal advice, so connect those providers and an attorney separately. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
