[Hiring] Vice President, Professional Services @Certa

Role Description

We're hiring a VP of Professional Services, reporting to the CEO, to own delivery end to end. Our PS team is full of strong operators, but the function has outgrown its structure - no single leader unifies delivery, engagement management, and AI-enabled implementation into one operating model. You'll unify the function under one delivery model, be the firm hand on customer escalations, build engagement-management excellence, and formalize how we deliver with partners. This is a hands-on, delivery-focused leadership role - you'll own scope, quality, timelines, margin, and the people who execute - not a Chief Customer Officer, sales-carrying, or figurehead seat.

What You'll Do

• Build a unified delivery model: Stand up a single PS operating model - repeatable methodology, resourcing, utilization and margin discipline, quality gates, and clear ownership across delivery, EM, and AI-enabled implementation - unifying the EMEA and US regions under one framework while preserving regional accountability.
• Own escalations & commercial discipline: Be the senior, decisive presence on escalation calls, taking the heat off ICs, and bring commercial backbone to delivery - scoping and charging for change appropriately and holding the line without damaging relationships.
• Build EM excellence: Give engagement managers the leadership layer they lack — standardization, a coaching cadence, and a durable EM operating standard that sticks where earlier, part-time efforts didn't.
• Formalize partner delivery: Define how Certa delivers with partners (e.g., Sayari and others) - what each side owns, SOWs, change orders, and new-business tracking - while keeping relationship ownership with the relationship owner and ensuring quality across every partner-led engagement.
• Govern the Managed Services transition: Partner with the Managed Services operational owner to govern the PS-to-MS handoff post-go-live, with pricing discipline, a clear handoff protocol, and safeguards against MS being offered as a concession on distressed accounts.
• Surface expansion & design with data: Build a light-touch process for surfacing expansion signals early and routing them to Sales/CSM, and use real delivery data (including utilization) to drive organizational design, SOW recalibration, and decisions on where the team should grow or become more efficient.

What Success Looks Like

• By 90 days: You're the recognized escalation owner the team routes hard calls to, and you've published a first cut of the PS operating model and a partner delivery framework (starting with Sayari).
• By 6 months: EM coaching cadence and standards are running, partner SOW/change-order/new-business tracking is live, delivery is scoped and charged appropriately, and margin and utilization are visible and improving.
• By 12 months: PS operates as one function under one model rather than parallel lanes, escalations are rarer and cleaner, partner delivery is a reliable tracked channel, and EMs are visibly stronger.

Qualifications

• Delivery leadership: A seasoned PS/delivery leader from complex enterprise B2B SaaS, ideally selling into the Global 2000 in risk, compliance, procurement, or an adjacent regulated domain.
• P&L ownership: Proven at owning delivery P&L levers - methodology, resourcing, utilization, margin, and scope-to-charge discipline.
• Escalation presence: Calm, credible, and firm under pressure - the person a Global 2000 exec wants on a difficult escalation call.
• People leadership: A genuine people leader who coaches (not just directs) senior delivery professionals including regional delivery directors and engagement managers, building standards that outlast their own attention.
• Partner fluency: Experienced with partner-delivered engagements - SOWs, change orders, and clear scope boundaries.
• Commercially sharp, not upsell-driven: You protect margin and surface opportunity, partnering with Sales/CSM rather than competing with them.
• AI-native mindset: Comfortable in an AI-native delivery org and motivated to push automation deeper into how PS operates.
• Culture fit: You embody connectedness, truth-seeking, learning, and high standards held with genuine care for people - raising the bar authentically and making the team better, not just busier.

Compensation and Benefits

• Compensation: Top of market salary + bonuses and equity
• Time off: 49 days paid time off
• Benefits: PTO, full benefits, retirement and wellness plans
• Growth: Professional development support, remote workspace setup bonus
• Team building: Annual company offsites in exciting locations around the world

Location

Certa is a remote-first company and we hire globally. We believe strongly in each team member working from the location that they choose. Should Certers wish to meet and work in person, they have 3 lively office locations they can travel to:

• London
• San Francisco
• Jaipur

Why Certa

• Category leadership: Certa was named a Leader in the inaugural 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Third-Party Risk Management Tools - recognition that we're defining the category, not following it.
• Industry recognition: We've been honored across the analyst and awards landscape, including Top Tech and Customer Value distinctions in The Hackett Group's 2026 Risk Management SolutionMap, the ProcureTech100 (Advanced AI and Risk Management categories), and Best Overall eProcurement Software in the FinTech Breakthrough Awards.
• A top place to work: Certa was named one of Forbes' Best Startup Employers in the US. We're a fast-growing company where you'll wear many hats, ship quickly, and shape decisions that matter.
• Real scale with strong backing: We've processed over 10 million entities for 100,000+ users across 120+ countries. We're well-funded by leading investors including Fin Capital, Vertex Ventures, and Point72 Ventures, on the back of an oversubscribed Series B, headed towards Series C.