Chief Revenue Officer

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Role: Chief Revenue Officer
Location: SmarterX HQ (Cleveland)
Reports To: CEO

About SmarterX

SmarterX is an AI transformation company. We educate and empower leaders to reimagine business models, reinvent industries, and rethink what's possible. 

  • We believe AI will rapidly transform businesses, industries, jobs, the economy, educational systems, and society. 
  • We believe you can build a smarter version of any business through a responsible, human-centered approach to AI.
  • We believe the future of all business is AI native, AI emergent, or obsolete.  
  • We believe AI education and training is the foundation for success in every organization.

Our goal is to Accelerate AI Literacy for AllTM through courses, content and events. Consulting and speaking are also secondary solutions under the SmarterX brand.

SmarterX has three primary public-facing business units and brands:

  • Marketing AI Institute: Media, event and education business founded in 2016 that is designed to make AI approachable and actionable for marketers. The Institute has more than 90,000 contacts, and its flagship in-person conference, MAICON, draws 1,000+ marketers to Cleveland each year. 
  • AI Academy by SmarterX: Originally launched in 2020 under the Marketing AI Institute brand, AI Academy is being spun off as a dedicated site and brand. AI Academy is a high-growth business unit designed to prepare individuals and organizations for the future of work by making AI education accessible and personalized.
  • The Artificial Intelligence Show: The podcast is SmarterX’s fastest growing media channel with 65,000+ downloads per month. The podcast serves as a promotional tool and lead generator for SmarterX and its business units. 

SmarterX also has an internal AI Content Studio that supports audience growth, demand generation, and customer success across all brands / business units. The AI Content Studio produces blog posts, books, blueprints, courses, newsletters, podcasts, presentations, research, videos and webinars.

Role Overview

The Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) is responsible for the company’s revenue strategy, execution, and growth. This executive leader will oversee sales, partnerships, and customer success to create a seamless revenue engine that drives acquisition, retention, and expansion. 

The CRO will work closely with the CEO and leadership team to align all revenue-generating functions and ensure scalable, predictable growth.

Key Responsibilities

Revenue Strategy & Growth

  • Develop and execute a comprehensive revenue growth strategy aligned with company goals.
  • Drive short-term revenue performance while building a long-term scalable revenue model.
  • Own the revenue forecast, ensuring accurate projections and tracking against key KPIs.

Sales Leadership & Business Development

  • Lead and optimize the sales organization, ensuring strong pipeline development and high win rates.
  • Implement data-driven sales processes and performance metrics.
  • Identify and scale new revenue streams, including strategic partnerships and business development opportunities.

Marketing Alignment & Demand Generation

  • Partner with the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) to ensure marketing efforts generate high-quality, sales-ready leads.
  • Optimize the customer acquisition funnel and track marketing-driven revenue contributions.
  • Collaborate with the CEO and CMO on go-to-market strategy for new products, services, and expansion opportunities.

Customer Success & Retention

  • Oversee customer success and support functions to maximize retention and lifetime value (LTV).
  • Implement data-driven strategies to reduce churn and drive customer engagement.
  • Develop upsell and cross-sell strategies to increase expansion revenue from existing customers.

Revenue Operations & Analytics

  • Implement and optimize revenue-related technology, including CRM, sales automation, and analytics tools.
  • Establish key revenue performance metrics and ensure data-driven decision-making.
  • Drive revenue forecasting, reporting, and operational efficiency across teams.
  • Support AI agent planning, development, management and integration for revenue operations.

AI Agent Management

  • Support AI agent planning, development, management and integration for revenue operations.
  • Oversee and optimize the use of AI-powered sales and customer success agents to enhance revenue operations.
  • Ensure AI agents are trained with up-to-date information to support lead qualification, sales outreach, customer interactions, and account management.
  • Continuously evaluate and refine AI-driven processes to improve efficiency, conversion rates, and customer satisfaction.
  • Leverage AI analytics to track engagement, optimize automation workflows, and enhance decision-making in revenue operations.

Qualifications & Experience

  • Proven track record as a senior revenue leader (CRO, VP Sales, VP Revenue, or equivalent) in a high-growth company.
  • Deep understanding of sales, marketing, and customer success alignment.
  • Experience leading and scaling sales organizations and revenue operations.
  • Strong data-driven decision-making skills with expertise in revenue forecasting and analytics.
  • Excellent leadership and communication skills, with the ability to inspire and align cross-functional teams.
  • Experience with SaaS, subscription models, or B2B revenue growth strategies is preferred.
  • Deep experience with HubSpot is preferred. 
  • Advanced prompting abilities with standard LLMs and reasoning models. 
  • Extensive experience with OpenAI ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini and / or Microsoft Copilot.

Compensation & Benefits

  • Competitive base salary with performance-based incentives.
  • Profit-sharing and long-term incentive opportunities.
  • Eligible for the company’s Phantom Stock Program, allowing participation in future company growth.
  • Comprehensive benefits package (health, dental, vision, Simple IRA, etc.).
  • Flexible work environment with a strong team culture.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should submit their resume and a cover letter outlining their experience and vision for AI-driven learning at SmarterX. Apply here!