Senior Manager - Deals Desk

Job description

Company Description Organizations everywhere struggle under the crushing costs and complexities of “solutions” that promise to simplify their lives. To create a better experience for their customers and employees. To help them grow. Software is a choice that can make or break a business. Create better or worse experiences. Propel or throttle growth. Business software has become a blocker instead of ways to get work done. There’s another option. Freshworks. With a fresh vision for how the world works. Freshworks Inc. builds uncomplicated service software that delivers exceptional employee and customer experiences. Our people-first approach to AI eliminates friction, helping businesses reduce complexity, lower cost-to-serve, and deliver faster, more human support through enterprise-grade yet easy-to-use CX and IT solutions. Nearly 75,000 companies, including Bridgestone, New Balance, Nucor, S&P Global, and Sony Music, trust Freshworks to power their Employee Experience (EX) and Customer Experience (CX) operations. Fresh vision. Real impact. Come build it with us. Job Description The Senior Manager – Deals Desk will lead the deal governance process for the organization, partnering closely with Sales, Finance, Legal, and Product teams to structure scalable, compliant, and profitable SaaS deals. This role is responsible for deal strategy, pricing governance, approval workflows, commercial negotiations and evaluating legal t&c’s, while also driving process transformation and automation initiatives to improve deal velocity, compliance, and operational efficiency. The ideal candidate combines strong commercial acumen with operational excellence, and has experience building automated deal workflows, scalable pricing frameworks, and data-driven decision support within a high-growth SaaS environment. Deal Structuring & Governance Lead APMEA Deals Desk team, supporting sales teams with complex deal structuring, pricing approvals, commercial and legal guidance. Provide strategic recommendations on pricing, discounting, contract terms, and deal structures. Serve as the approval authority for non-standard deals and ensure adherence to pricing policies. Partner with Sales leadership to accelerate deal cycles while protecting margins. Cross-Functional Collaboration Work closely with Sales, Legal, Revenue Operations, and Product teams to resolve complex deal scenarios. Ensure alignment with revenue recognition, billing models, and contract structures. Support negotiation strategies for enterprise and strategic deals. Transformation & Automation Lead initiatives to transform the deals desk into a scalable and automated function. Design and implement automation across deal approval workflows and quote generation. Optimize and manage tools such as CPQ systems, CRM workflows, and approval engines. Drive process standardization and simplification to improve deal cycle times. Implement data-driven decision frameworks and analytics for deal performance. Develop deal intelligence dashboards and reporting on discount trends, win rates, deal velocity, and margin performance. Policy & Framework Development Establish and maintain SOPs and approval matrices. Define deal guardrails, discount thresholds, and exception policies. Create playbooks for common deal scenarios to empower sales teams. Team Leadership Build and manage a high-performing deals desk team for the APMEA region.. Mentor analysts supporting the deal desk process. Foster a culture of operational excellence, automation, and continuous improvement. Qualifications 10–14 years of experience in managing Deal Desk Operations, Pre-Sales, Contract Management, Enterprise Deal Management, System Transformation etc. 6-8 years of experience in SaaS or subscription-based business models. Strong understanding of SaaS pricing models, ARR/MRR, Commercial Constructs, Legal T&C’s, CPQ automation etc. Experience managing complex enterprise deal structures. Proven experience driving process transformation or automation initiatives. Experience implementing or managing following platforms: DealHub (CPQ) SFDC (CRM) Chargebee (Billing System) PowerBI etc. Experience building automated approval workflows in CRM systems like Salesforce. Strong analytical skills with experience using data tools such as Tableau or Power BI. Experience supporting global SaaS sales organizations. Key Skills Enterprise deal structuring Negotiation support Deal governance frameworks CPQ optimization Contract lifecycle awareness Automation of approval workflows Data-driven decision making Cross-functional influence Stakeholder management Team development Additional Information At Freshworks, we have fostered an environment that enables everyone to find their true potential, purpose, and passion, welcoming colleagues of all backgrounds, genders, sexual orientations, religions, and ethnicities. We are committed to providing equal opportunity and believe that diversity in the workplace creates a more vibrant, richer environment that boosts the goals of our employees, communities, and business. Fresh vision. Real impact. Come build it with us.