Manager, Pricing--Commercial Excellence (OPEN TO ALL U.S. LOCATIONS)

Overview

The organization is seeking a Pricing Manager—Commercial Excellence to lead Revenue & Margin Management efforts within its Private Equity Performance Improvement Services practice.

Location: OPEN TO ALL U.S. LOCATIONS

This role supports private equity portfolio companies by driving performance improvements across top-line revenue, margin improvement, and marketing mix optimization. The Commercial Excellence team is focused on growth over the next 2–4 years.

Responsibilities

• Advise clients on Revenue & Margin Management, including:
  • Margin transparency
  • Product portfolio optimization
  • SKU rationalization
  • New product development
  • Pricing and margin recovery
• Lead teams of professionals to address complex business challenges within Commercial Excellence.
• Communicate effectively with C-level management and present analytical findings and recommendations.
• Conceive, structure, and execute analytical plans to identify performance drivers.
• Design actionable solutions for Revenue & Margin Management issues and develop implementation plans.
• Lead execution of clients’ ongoing Revenue & Margin Management programs and deliver data-driven business insights.
• Contribute to development of intellectual property and internal team building.

Margin Transparency

• Evaluate current cost allocation processes and mechanisms (cost categories and allocation bases).
• Assess profitability by market, customer, product category, SKU, etc.
• Identify and quantify additional complexity-driven costs-to-serve (e.g., product customization, extra customer service, samples, expedited freight, special customer terms).
• Identify improvements for future product costing analyses (e.g., allocations for indirect costs, costs-to-serve) and implementation.
• Assess potential for and implement cost-to-serve premiums and targeted price adjustments; quantify impact on margin and profitability.

Product Portfolio Optimization

• Assess competitive landscape and customer trends.
• Evaluate product portfolio (financial measures, product life-cycle stage, and competitive differentiation).
• Develop product-category-specific sales and investment strategies and implementation plans.

SKU Rationalization

• Using a Cost-to-Serve framework, identify low or negative net margin SKUs and evaluate opportunities to eliminate identified SKUs.
• Evaluate potential for complexity reduction (e.g., SKU rationalization).
• Implement SKU rationalization and complexity reduction initiatives.

Price Optimization

• Assess pricing strategies and quantify profitability opportunities through pricing levers such as:
  • Value price setting
  • Transactional price management (e.g., leakage, discounts, escalators)
  • Pass-through (inflation, material costs)
• Assess pricing discipline across products, markets, and customers.
• Evaluate and improve pricing processes (e.g., price setting, target profitability, approval processes for discounts).
• Assess potential for and implement broad-based and selective price increases based on market factors, competitive situations, existing contracts, etc.
• Evaluate whether margin improvement is driven by volume, price, or mix.

Margin Recovery

• Review costs-to-serve by market value and potential for pass-through.
• Identify and implement specific recovery opportunities tied to drivers of complexity.
• Assess current pricing/quoting processes for recovering costs-to-serve and implement improvements.

Professional Skills (Project Execution and Leadership)

• Project management: Own and manage end-to-end project execution, including roadmap design, project team and plan management, and delivery of final presentations.
• Project fulfillment: Combine creative problem solving with analytical rigor to deliver actionable insights (e.g., margin transparency, pricing analysis, reporting frameworks/dashboards, B2B/B2C customer segmentation, statistical modeling).
• Data manipulation & analysis: Use client and market data and tools including MS Excel, SQL Server, BI tools (Alteryx or Tableau), and statistical programs (SPSS or R).
• People & team leadership: Motivate, develop, and challenge project team members; provide mentorship and value-added thinking.
• Client relations: Manage day-to-day client relationships and collaborate with internal client teams to define requirements, develop hypotheses, gather data, brainstorm alternatives, and generate recommendations.

Requirements

• Industry experience in B2B and Business Services; experience working with PE and/or PE relationships is a plus.
• Strong financial acumen, including understanding of P&L and cost drivers.
• 7–10 years of experience focused on Revenue & Margin, including experience developing and implementing pricing processes and methodology.
• Experience with pricing aspects including value-based pricing, transactional pricing, discount leakage, and pass-through, plus best practices in review and approval processes and waterfall analysis; experience with tools such as Vendavo.
• Analytically driven experience using tools and technologies, including:
  • Relational database (SQL)
  • BI (Alteryx, Tableau)
  • Statistical (SPSS, R)
  • Web analytics (SiteCatalyst, Google Analytics)
• Strong quantitative mindset and excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Exceptional project management and presentation skills.
• Strong people development and management capabilities, including leading junior team members and guiding their careers.
• Demonstrated experience providing intellectual and task leadership on complex projects.
• Ability to work independently in an unstructured environment, think quickly, and respond with confidence and creativity.
• Consulting experience preferred (not required).
• MBA from a top-tier university preferred (not required).

Compensation & Benefits

Salary range: $125,000–$190,000 annually, dependent on several variables including but not limited to education, experience, skills, and geography.

Discretionary bonus: A discretionary bonus program is available and is based on a number of factors, including individual and firm performance. Please ask your recruiter for details.

Benefits (Hours-based eligibility)

• Full-time positions and part-time positions over 30 hours: Eligible for healthcare plans, flexible spending and savings accounts, life, AD&D, and disability coverages (rates determined from time to time), and a 401(k) retirement plan. Provided eligibility requirements are met, employees will receive a discretionary contribution to their 401(k). Paid time off includes vacation, personal days, seventy-two (72) hours of sick time (prorated for part time employees), ten federal holidays, one floating holiday, and parental leave. Vacation and personal day amounts vary based on tenure and role type.
• Part-time positions under 30 hours: Eligible for a 401(k) retirement plan. Provided eligibility requirements are met, employees will receive a discretionary contribution to their 401(k).

Additional Information

• Applications are considered on an ongoing basis until the opportunity is filled.
• The employer does not require or administer lie detector tests as a condition of employment or continued employment. It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment.
• An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.