Customer Discovery and Commercial Strategy Lead

We're seeking a hands-on Customer Discovery and Commercial Strategy Lead to uncover customer needs, shape market-winning strategies, and transform how our organization responds to markets. This isn't a traditional product management role. You'll lead continuous customer discovery, translate insights into commercial strategies (pricing, packaging, GTM), and build internal capability so teams can sustain customer-centric practices without you.

Job Responsibilities: Customer Discovery & Continuous Research

• Lead ongoing customer discovery initiatives to deeply understand client needs, pain points, decision drivers, and jobs-to-be-done across target segments
• Apply continuous discovery methods to shape offerings and strategy
• Design and execute qualitative and quantitative research efforts including customer interviews, win/loss analysis, surveys, and observational studies
• Develop rich customer personas, journey maps, and ideal customer profiles (ICPs) that inform everything from product roadmap to sales enablement
• Build repeatable frameworks and processes for customer research and market validation that internal teams can adopt, scale, and sustain

Commercial Strategy Development & Execution

• Translate discovery insights into clear, actionable commercial strategy-informing product direction, pricing, packaging, and go-to-market motions
• Develop data-driven business cases for strategic initiatives including market sizing, competitive analysis, and financial projections
• Define and test go-to-market strategies that align customer insights with business objectives and competitive realities
• Design pricing strategies and value-based packaging frameworks informed by customer willingness to pay and buying patterns
• Identify and evaluate new market segments, channels, and revenue streams based on discovery findings
• Contribute to business transformation efforts by blending product and services perspectives into a unified commercial narrative

Market Intelligence & Competitive Positioning

• Monitor market trends, competitive movements, and emerging technologies that impact customer behavior and commercial opportunities
• Conduct systematic win/loss analysis to understand customer decision-making processes and refine commercial approaches
• Partner with product, marketing, and sales teams to refine positioning, messaging, and demand generation strategies rooted in customer understanding
• Develop clear point of view on market positioning that differentiates the company from competitors

Capability Building & Change Leadership

• Act as a coach and catalyst, upskilling internal teams in customer-centric thinking, discovery practices, and experimentation
• Enable cross-functional teams with customer insights, competitive intelligence, and frameworks that improve decision-making
• Work within existing organizational structures, earning trust while driving transformation through influence, structure, and results
• Champion a culture of continuous learning and customer obsession across product, engineering, marketing, and sales
• Present findings and strategic recommendations to executive leadership, making complex insights accessible and actionable

Education and experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Economics, Engineering, or related field; MBA or relevant graduate degree preferred
• 12+ years of experience in product strategy, commercial innovation, go-to-market leadership, strategy consulting, or related strategic roles
• Proven track record leading structured customer discovery initiatives and translating insights into measurable commercial impact
• Strong commercial acumen with experience in market sizing, financial modeling, pricing strategy, and data-driven decision making
• Demonstrated ability to build repeatable frameworks and processes that scale across organizations
• Exceptional communication, storytelling, and facilitation skills-comfortable engaging both executives and technical teams
• Experience working cross-functionally and influencing without direct authority in complex organizational environments
• Hybrid experience at the intersection of product strategy and services, ideally in [B2B SaaS, cloud infrastructure, platform businesses, or relevant domain]
• Familiarity with continuous discovery methodologies and modern product practices (e.g., Jobs-to-be-Done, Lean Startup, Design Thinking)
• Domain knowledge in [relevant technical area: cloud infrastructure, AI platforms, enterprise software, etc.]
• Background in management consulting, corporate strategy, or high-growth startup environments
• Track record of successfully driving organizational change or transformation initiatives
• Experience working in or with legacy organizations navigating market disruption
• Proficiency with research and analytics tools (e.g., user testing platforms, survey tools, CRM analytics, data visualization)
• Experience with product-led growth or platform business models
• Understanding of customer research methodologies including ethnographic research, quantitative analysis, and behavioral science

Travel:

• As per business requirements

Sponsorship

• This role is not sponsorship eligible
• Candidates need to be legally allowed to work in the US

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. The base pay for this position ranges from $ 128,300 /year in our lowest geographic market up to $ 213,900 /year in our highest geographic market. Pay is based on a number of factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process. The compensation package may also include incentive compensation opportunities in the form of annual bonus or incentives, equity awards and an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). Learn more about benefits at Rackspace ."

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We are the multicloud solutions experts. We combine our expertise with the world's leading technologies - across applications, data and security - to deliver end-to-end solutions. We have a proven record of advising customers based on their business challenges, designing solutions that scale, building and managing those solutions, and optimizing returns into the future. Named a best place to work, year after year according to Fortune, Forbes and Glassdoor, we attract and develop world-class talent. Join us on our mission to embrace technology, empower customers and deliver the future.

Though we're all different, Rackers thrive through our connection to a central goal: to be a valued member of a winning team on an inspiring mission. We bring our whole selves to work every day. And we embrace the notion that unique perspectives fuel innovation and enable us to best serve our customers and communities around the globe. We welcome you to apply today and want you to know that we are committed to offering equal employment opportunity without regard to age, color, disability, gender reassignment or identity or expression, genetic information, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity status, military or veteran status, nationality, ethnic or national origin, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or any legally protected characteristic. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.