Chief Growth Officer

Growth Strategy & Engagement Leadership (30%)

Own the integrated growth strategy across sales, marketing, and communications. Synthesize insights across market segments, deals, and partners to set commercial priorities, guide team focus, and inform product and go-to-market decisions. Define which customer segments, channels, and partnership models will drive CredLens from early traction to broad adoption — and sequence investments accordingly. This is a market-creation role as much as a market-capture role. The right leader will bring both the strategic clarity to see where the market is going and the operational discipline to build toward it.

Fundraising Management (15%)

Lead CredLens's fundraising strategy and execution in close partnership with the CEO, developing and managing a diversified funding pipeline across philanthropic and grant sources as earned revenue scales. Cultivate and steward relationships with funders, craft compelling cases for support that translate CredLens's mission and outcomes data into clear funder value, and partner with the CEO on major donor and board engagement. Build the systems and team capacity to support sustainable fundraising — and integrate that strategy with broader revenue and long-term sustainability planning.

Team Development, Enablement & Pipeline Management (30%)

Lead and grow the sales team and manage the existing marketing and communications function. Build a unified growth culture across both. Design onboarding and enablement so new sales hires can confidently pitch CredLens, run discovery, and assess fit quickly. Oversee execution quality across the engagement team, intervening selectively on complex or high-stakes opportunities. Own the forecast, stress-test assumptions, and optimize the sales process based on data, bottleneck analysis, and team input. The goal is a pipeline that is disciplined, transparent, and predictable — not dependent on heroics.

Board-Ready Communication & Cross-Functional Leadership (25%)

Produce concise, narrative-driven materials that connect fundraising pipeline, revenue pipeline, market positioning, customer demand signals, and product implications — and do it in a way that gives the board and leadership team genuine visibility, not just good news. Working with the leadership team, align Sales, Marketing, Product, and Customer Success around shared feedback loops, roadmap implications, and delivery realities. Serve as a visible and credible ambassador for CredLens across the workforce development, credentialing, and higher education ecosystem.

What Success Looks Like in Year One

Growth Strategy

A clear, data-informed growth strategy is actively guiding decisions — with prioritized customer segments, channels, and partnership models tied to measurable targets. Revenue is on track to hit $2M in Year 1 with a credible path and early pipeline momentum toward $9M in Year 2. Investment sequencing reflects real market insights and is producing demonstrable movement from early traction toward broader adoption.

Fundraising

A diversified funding pipeline is established and actively managed. Relationships with key funders are deepening, compelling cases for support are in use, and the systems and processes to sustain fundraising alongside growing earned revenue are in place and running.

Team & Pipeline

The sales team is growing and well-enabled — new hires are onboarded quickly and confidently running discovery and pitching CredLens. A unified growth culture spans sales, marketing, and communications. The forecast is reliable and stress-tested. Sales process improvements are measurably reducing cycle friction, and pipeline health is visible at every stage without heroic manual effort.

Communication & Cross-Functional Alignment

Board materials are consistently concise, narrative-driven, and trusted. Sales, Marketing, Product, and Customer Success are operating with shared feedback loops and aligned on roadmap implications. CredLens's presence and credibility in the workforce development, credentialing, and higher education ecosystem is visibly growing.

The Person

Education
 
We value demonstrated capability and learning agility above credentials. Bachelor's and/or advanced degrees in business, public policy, education, or related fields are a plus — but not required.

Experience Required

12+ years of progressive experience in sales, marketing, or commercial leadership, including 7+ years in a senior leadership role managing multiple functions
Demonstrated success creating or entering a new product market — you understand what it takes to seed a market, build credibility from scratch, and drive urgency where none previously existed
Experience selling data products, analytics platforms, SaaS, or research services to institutional buyers
A track record of meeting or exceeding revenue targets in environments where the playbook was still being written

Experience Preferred

Background in workforce development, education, credentialing, or adjacent policy ecosystems
Experience selling to or partnering with state agencies, higher education institutions, workforce boards, or philanthropy
Familiarity with the non-degree credential landscape and the real challenges of outcomes measurement
Experience working in or alongside mission-driven or nonprofit organizations
Experience building demand generation programs that connect brand and content efforts to measurable pipeline results

Skills

Strategic leadership orientation — able to set long-range commercial direction while making pragmatic, near-term decisions about tools, processes, and team investments
Exceptional discovery and consultative selling skills — able to ask probing questions about outcomes, data readiness, and constraints to rigorously assess fit
Strong analytical instincts — comfortable synthesizing data across deals, segments, marketing channels, and partners to drive decisions
Clear, compelling communicator — able to produce board-ready materials, shape brand messaging, and translate complex data concepts for diverse audiences
Skilled team builder who leads with transparency, accountability, and genuine investment in people's development across multiple functions
Sound judgment about deal fit, timing, scope, and resource allocation — knows when to pursue, when to walk away, and when to escalate
Pragmatic operator — able to evaluate and assemble the right sales and marketing tools without over-engineering or under-investing
Comfortable with ambiguity and energized by the pace of a high-growth organization

Alignment to CredLens Core Values

At CredLens, we're guided by a shared commitment to integrity, transparency, and empowerment — in the work we deliver and in how we show up for each other every day.

We're looking for someone who thrives in a collaborative, open environment where honest communication is paired with kindness and respect. You bring a genuine learning mindset, a desire to help partners and users succeed, and a belief that trust is built through honesty and reliability — not just results.

If you find real meaning in the work, care about the people you do it with, and want to contribute your unique perspective to a diverse and inclusive team, you'll feel right at home here.