Operating Principal

Sumeru is searching for an Operating Principal based in the San Francisco Bay Area to lead AI first business process re-engineering across the portfolio. The successful candidate will enjoy exposure to multiple B2B software industries designing and executing programs that:

• Map people process and technology to current business workflows
• Redesign those workflows for AI automation and straightthrough processing
• Deliver hard auditable ROI impact within 618 months per company

Ideal candidates have led complex software delivery and operations transformations (backoffice ERP/FP&A professional services supply chain software) and in the last two years have shifted to automation using recent workflow automation AI tools including Claude Code xClaw RPAs/N8N and LLMbased solutions to reduce manual work while improving value delivery. We are looking for an individual with depth similar to executives who have run global SaaS delivery / professional services organizations and led largescale modernization programs.

As part of Sumerus Growth Team of software operating executives this passionate expert will be detail oriented assemble disparate stakeholder views into a comprehensive plan and be hands on as well as able to influence up and down the organizational structure. Critical to success will be a history of deep collaboration within and across functional organizational boundaries such as Sales Marketing Product IT Finance.

Responsibilities:

• Portfolio AI automation roadmap Maintain a portfoliowide AI and automation roadmap across business functions within portfolios and ranking efforts by savings revenue lift and payback period (e.g. support onboarding finance ops field service professional services service delivery). Collaborate with other operating team members to maintain AI transformation best practices (e.g. Tier 1 support automation ordertocash automation customer onboarding copilot knowledge management LLM search).
• Deal team partnership and diligence Participate in predeal operational diligence with specific focus on automation potential and AI readiness of core processes quantifying AI and automation value creation cases (e.g. $35M annual EBITDA uplift via 40% automation of Tier 1 support within 18 months) and defend assumptions with management and IC and recommend critical leadership or org changes postclose.
• Delivery of AI Automation programs Lead 1-3 flagship transformation programs per year as executive sponsor and SME working side by side with portco CEOs COOs CTOs CPOs and Heads of CX/Support/Operations. Own endtoend program lifecycle including discovery & baselining (timeinmotion studies process mining data quality assessment ticket/call analysis funnel analysis) design (futurestate processes automation scope target KPIs and P&L impact) build & integrate (orchestrate vendors and internal teams across workflow tools RPA APIs data platforms LLM stacks and existing SaaS applications) pilot & scale (structured pilots with A/B metrics; industrialize successful use cases across regions customers and products) while ensuring programs move material portions of work from human to machine (for example increasing automation coverage from <20% to >60% of target transaction volumes without degrading CX).
• Business process redesign Rearchitect endtoend business processes (not just point automations) across business functions standardize KPIs SLAs and governance across multiple product lines and embed ITIL / ITSM best practices where relevant with AI tools augmenting service and ticket management.
• AI workflow tooling and vendor strategy - Define reference architectures for standard automation tools (e.g. Claude Cowork/Code xClaw n8n UIPath etc) and build a preferred vendor ecosystem (implementation partners consultants AI platform providers) and negotiate portfoliowide commercial terms.
• Change management and capability building Work with portco CEOs and HR leaders to design org and talent changes (e.g. automation product owners citizen developers prompt engineers) and FTE redeployment strategies and establish AI / automation COEs in key companies; codify and share learnings across the portfolio (patterns code snippets process designs KPIs). Create and deliver executive and managerlevel training on AI/automation concepts business case creation and datadriven decisionmaking. Coach functional leaders to own and extend programs after initial deployment avoiding dependence on external consultants.
• Measurement and outcomes story Build standard ROI tracking frameworks and incorporate AI and automation achievements into board materials portfolio reviews and outcomes narratives (e.g. automated X% of tickets cut MTTR by Y% improved gross margin by Z pts) directly supporting valuation rerating at exit.

Desired Qualifications
Senior leader with Director/VP level experience in domains involving delivery of complex business process software such as ERPs/CRMs FP&A systems supply chain systems on-premise to cloud migrations or RPAs with recent experience in agentic tooling.

• Experience:
  • Operating Principal level: 1015 years with at least 5 years owning largescale software delivery operations consulting or product delivery or support organizations.
• Transformation Track Record:
  • Led at least 23 endtoend enterprisescale transformations where you redesigned processes technology and org structure (not just tools implementation).
  • Demonstrated quantitative impact with provable measures such as reduction in volume handle time or implementation cycle time gross margin/EBITDA improvement or customer satisfaction.
• AI / Automation Expertise:
  • Handson experience using workflow automation/RPA/Agentic tools (e.g. Claude Code/Cowork xClaw ServiceNow Zapier UIPath N8N or similar) to orchestrate crosssystem flows.
  • Practical experience deploying LLMpowered solutions in production such as:
    • Support bots / intelligent virtual agents
    • Knowledge base search and summarization
    • Sales / success / implementation copilots
    • Document understanding (contracts invoices tickets).
  • Strong understanding of data logging and telemetry requirements for AI and automation; familiarity with RAG architectures and prompt design.
• Functional Breadth:
  • Significant leadership responsibility over at least two of the following: CX Revops FP&A DevOps/SRE professional services / implementation field service or backoffice operations.
  • Comfort working with and influencing across functional leaders.
• Leadership & Influence:
  • Proven ability to operate at Board and Csuite level while also engaging deeply with frontline managers and technical teams.
  • Experience leading organizations of several hundred people or more (direct indirect) and managing budgets.
  • Strong changemanagement capabilities: restructuring teams shifting work across regions and leading cultural change around automation.
• Financial & Strategic Acumen:
  • Ability to build robust business cases interpret P&L and unit economics and translate AI/automation outcomes into valuation impact.
  • Familiarity with SaaS metrics (ARR NRR CAC LTV gross margin support cost per ticket implementation margin).
• Education:
  • BS in Computer Science Engineering Information Systems or related field (or equivalent experience).
  • MBA or other advanced degree a plus but not required.

Compensation
The salary range for this position reflects base salary only. This role is also eligible for a discretionary bonus and offers a competitive benefits package.