Staff Sales Operations Analyst - North America
At Cadence, we hire and develop leaders and innovators who want to make an impact on the world of technology.
Cadence is seeking a strategic, analytical, and business-oriented individual to join our Sales Operations team as a Staff Sales Operations Analyst. This role will report into the Group Director of Sales Operations of AIM and will partner closely with North America, India, Sales Finance, Sales Leadership, and cross-functional business partners to support high-impact sales planning and operating cadences.
The Staff Sales Operations Analyst will serve as a senior analytical partner to Sales Leadership, with a primary focus on quota analysis and quota setting, forecast governance, pipeline inspection, account review preparation, and executive-ready business review materials. The role is expected to translate complex sales, bookings, pipeline, and productivity data into clear recommendations that help leaders evaluate performance, allocate resources, and make timely operating decisions.
This position requires strong business judgment, executive communication, and the ability to work independently across multiple sales stakeholders. The ideal candidate is comfortable building models, synthesizing insights, creating presentation narratives, and facilitating alignment across Sales, Finance, Commissions, HR, IT, and Operations while keeping focus on scalable processes and measurable business outcomes.
Position Responsibilities:
- Lead quota analysis and quota-setting support for North America and India, including quota capacity modeling, historical attainment analysis, territory and account segmentation inputs, and scenario analysis for annual planning cycles.
- Coordinate and execute annual quota distribution in partnership with Sales Leadership, Sales Finance, Sales Commissions, HR, and IT; document business rules, assumptions, approval status, and downstream system requirements.
- Provide quota attainment, productivity, and coverage analysis to identify risk, upside, and required leadership actions across teams, territories, products, and strategic accounts.
- Own business forecast rollups and forecast governance, including opportunity accuracy management, pipeline coverage analysis, commit/upside tracking, forecast variance analysis, and reporting based on Salesforce.com and related planning platforms.
- Partner directly with Sales Leadership to prepare materials for QBRs, pipeline review meetings, account reviews, monthly operating reviews, and quarterly business review meetings; convert data into clear executive narratives, observations, and recommended actions.
- Build and maintain executive-ready presentations, dashboards, and analytical packages that highlight bookings performance, pipeline health, forecast accuracy, quota progress, account trends, and key operational risks.
- Facilitate recurring review cadences with Sales and Finance stakeholders by preparing agendas, pre-reads, action-item tracking, and follow-up analysis required to drive decisions after business reviews.
- Manage the interface between the field and internal systems such as GSS, SFDC, Tableau, Anaplan, TM1, and related reporting environments; ensure operating metrics and reporting outputs are consistent, timely, and actionable.
- Develop and improve scalable reporting and dashboard solutions for sales managers and executives, with an emphasis on insight generation rather than transactional reporting alone.
- Identify opportunities to improve forecast, quota, pipeline, and account review processes as the organization evolves; recommend automation, governance, or process improvements that increase accuracy and reduce manual effort.
- Support commission, bonus, and quota-related inquiries by partnering with Sales Finance, Sales Commissions, HR, and IT to evaluate root causes, resolve escalations, and improve data quality and process controls.
- Serve as a senior peer resource within Sales Operations by sharing analytical approaches, improving documentation, and helping standardize best practices across reporting and planning workstreams.
Position Requirement / Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree required with an emphasis in Business Administration, Finance, Economics, Statistics, Math, Computer Science, Information Science, or a related analytical discipline preferred.
- Significant experience in sales operations, revenue operations, business analytics, sales finance, or a closely related function, with demonstrated ownership of quota, forecasting, pipeline, or executive reporting workstreams.
- Strong understanding of sales planning concepts, including quota allocation, attainment analysis, pipeline coverage, forecast accuracy, territory/account segmentation, bookings performance, and operating cadence support.
- Microsoft Excel skills, including structuring, analyzing, and reporting on large data sets using pivots, lookups, formulas, and repeatable analysis frameworks; experience with executive presentation creation in PowerPoint.
- Experience with Salesforce.com and reporting/analytics tools such as Tableau, Anaplan, TM1, or similar business intelligence and planning platforms preferred.
- Ability to synthesize complex data into clear business insights, recommendations, and executive-level presentation materials for Sales Leadership and Finance audiences.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with executive presence, strong attention to detail, and the ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders without direct authority.
- Ability to take initiative, work flexibly, manage competing priorities, and operate with minimal direct supervision in a fast-paced sales environment.
- Knowledge of the EDA and semiconductor industry is preferred.
The annual salary range for California is $105,000 to $195,000. You may also be eligible to receive incentive compensation: bonus, equity, and benefits. Sales positions generally offer a competitive On Target Earnings (OTE) incentive compensation structure. Please note that the salary range is a guideline and compensation may vary based on factors such as qualifications, skill level, competencies and work location. Our benefits programs include: paid vacation and paid holidays, 401(k) plan with employer match, employee stock purchase plan, a variety of medical, dental and vision plan options, and more.