Sr Director, Commercial Operations
Thermo Fisher Scientific · Waltham, MA
- Level
- Director+
- Team
- Production
- Base pay
- $193k–$275k
- Travel
- 25%
- Experience asked
- 10+ years
- Industry
- Pharma & life sciences
- Posted
- 2 days ago
The role in 30 seconds
A director-level production role at Thermo Fisher Scientific (pharma & life sciences) in Waltham, MA. A key mandate for the role will be advancing the use of artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, automation, and modern sales technologies to improve seller productivity, forecasting accuracy, pipeline management, customer and opportunity.
- They ask for
- 10+ years
- Tools it names
- Automation, Casting, Capacity planning
- Base pay
- $193k–$275k
- Day to day
- about 25% travel
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of October 19, 2026
Production Engineer roles in Massachusetts: typical posted base $155k–$205k. This one lists $193k–$275k.
Median of the low and high ends of 9 live postings that list pay, out of 26 production engineer openings in Massachusetts, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
Massachusetts plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 25 other live production postings in Massachusetts.
- Experience asked
- More than usual (10+ vs 8+)
Similar roles usually ask 8+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- Root cause 31%
- ✓ Automation 31%
- Lean 31%
- New product launch 27%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
Stands out: this posting asks for Capacity planning, which few similar roles mention. If you have it, lead with it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Production team at Thermo Fisher Scientific
We found 1 person at this company and state: 1 in this kind of role. Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. See them ↓
- 2
Send a short, curious note
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Write to Padma → (free) - 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- The posting says about 25% travel. Between which sites?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
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If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
This plant: Thermo Fisher Scientific in Waltham
No other open roles at this site right now · 1 person we found in production roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Full description from Thermo Fisher ScientificAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
Position Summary
The Senior Director, Commercial Operations will lead the advancement of commercial excellence, sales force effectiveness, and data-driven decision-making across the organization. Serving as a proactive, forward-looking strategic partner to senior Sales and Commercial Leadership , this individual will anticipate business needs, identify emerging performance trends, and translate data and market intelligence into actionable recommendations that improve commercial execution and accelerate sustainable growth.
This leader will be expected to look beyond historical reporting to provide leadership with a clear perspective on what is happening, why it is happening, what is likely to happen next, and what actions should be taken . The Senior Director will establish the analytics, operating mechanisms, forecasting capabilities, and leading indicators necessary to identify opportunities and risks early and enable faster, better-informed commercial decisions.
A key mandate for the role will be advancing the use of artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, automation, and modern sales technologies to improve seller productivity, forecasting accuracy, pipeline management, customer and opportunity prioritization, and overall commercial effectiveness.
The Senior Director will lead a diverse, distributed team and collaborate closely with Sales, Marketing, Finance, Digital/IT, and other cross-functional partners to optimize commercial processes and enable disciplined, data-driven decision-making. This leader will oversee key initiatives involving sales planning, performance management, sales compensation, territory alignment, commercial analytics, CRM effectiveness, forecasting, pipeline management, and sales enablement technologies.
Success in this role requires a highly collaborative, commercially minded, and influential leader who can anticipate business needs, translate complex information into clear recommendations, leverage emerging technologies to create competitive advantage, and lead meaningful organizational transformation within a global, matrixed environment.
requirements
into scalable, secure, and sustainable solutions.
- ✓Establish appropriate governance and performance measures to ensure AI-enabled tools are responsible, trusted, adopted, and delivering measurable commercial value.
- ✓Maintain awareness of emerging commercial technologies and proactively recommend innovations that can create competitive advantage or materially improve sales effectiveness.
Show full description ↓Show less ↑
Work Schedule
Standard Office Hours (40/wk)
Environmental Conditions
Office
Job Description
Senior Director, Commercial Operations
Strategic Commercial Partnership
- •Serve as a trusted, proactive strategic advisor to Sales and Commercial Leadership , bringing a forward-looking perspective to business performance, opportunities, and risks.
- •Anticipate leadership needs and proactively identify emerging trends, performance gaps, market dynamics, and commercial opportunities before they become evident through traditional reporting.
- •Translate commercial data and market information into clear executive insights and recommendations, articulating what is changing, why it matters, what is likely to happen next, and what leadership should do about it .
- •Develop and execute the Commercial Operations strategy in alignment with business objectives, growth priorities, and customer needs.
Commercial Analytics & Performance Management
- •Establish comprehensive commercial analytics, dashboards, KPIs, and performance-management frameworks that enable timely, data-driven decision-making.
- •Move the organization beyond retrospective reporting toward predictive and prescriptive insights that identify opportunities, risks, and recommended actions.
Forecasting & Pipeline Management
- •Lead the continuous improvement of sales forecasting processes, methodologies, tools, and governance to improve forecast accuracy and business predictability.
- •Proactively identify pipeline gaps, forecast risks, and emerging opportunities and recommend specific actions to Sales Leadership.
- •Partner with Sales Leadership to strengthen accountability for opportunity management, forecast quality, pipeline development, and execution.
- •Develop scenario modeling and predictive capabilities that allow leadership to understand potential commercial outcomes and identify actions required to achieve growth objectives.
AI, Automation & Sales Technology
- •Champion the responsible application of AI, predictive analytics, automation, and emerging technologies across Commercial Operations and the broader sales organization.
- •Identify, prioritize, and implement AI-enabled solutions that improve seller productivity, forecasting, pipeline management, opportunity prioritization, and leadership decision-making.
- •Develop and deploy next-generation sales tools that help sellers and managers identify the highest-value opportunities, recognize risk earlier, and determine appropriate next actions.
- •Use AI and automation to reduce administrative burden and enable sales teams to spend more time engaging customers and driving growth.
- •Partner with Digital/IT, data, and technology teams to translate commercial
Sales Force Effectiveness & Commercial Excellence
- •Lead initiatives to enhance sales force effectiveness, productivity, and accountability across the organization.
- •Lead sales planning activities, including territory design and alignment, resource deployment, capacity planning, quota setting, and performance measurement.
- •Develop and administer effective sales compensation and incentive programs that align employee behaviors with strategic and financial objectives.
- •Identify opportunities to simplify commercial processes, eliminate inefficiencies, and improve the customer and employee experience.
- •Promote consistency and scalable best practices across regions, functions, and businesses while adapting programs to local marke