Principal, Commercial Readiness & Launch | Copperleaf

Principal, Commercial Readiness & Launch | Copperleaf

Enterprise software succeeds or fails at the moment it meets the market. We are hiring a Principal, Commercial Readiness & Launch to own that moment — the discipline, orchestration, and stakeholder alignment that turn a finished release into a commercially successful launch.

This is a senior, high-visibility program leadership role at the intersection of Product, R&D, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Customer Success, and Cloud Operations. You will build and run the commercial readiness framework for our product portfolio: defining what "ready to launch" means, driving every function to that bar, and managing the executive stakeholders who depend on it. You will be the person who ensures that when a product ships, the field can sell it, customers can adopt it, support can stand behind it, and the business can measure it.

The ideal candidate is a seasoned technical program manager who has lived inside enterprise software delivery — someone who combines deep technical fluency with the strategic clarity to align cross-functional stakeholders and keep large-scale, multi-workstream programs on scope, on budget, and on time.

What You Will Do

Commercial Readiness

• Own the end-to-end commercial readiness framework: define launch readiness criteria across Product, Sales, Marketing, Pricing, Legal, Support, and Delivery, and drive each function to meet them on schedule.
• Run structured gate/stage reviews for launches — readiness scorecards, go/no-go checkpoints, and executive sign-off — adapting stage-gate discipline to both major releases and fast-cycle maintenance and patch launches.
• Identify readiness gaps early (enablement, packaging, pricing, deployment tooling, documentation) and mobilize owners to close them before they become launch-day escalations.
• Build standardized templates, playbooks, and processes for launch readiness that scale across the portfolio and become the organizational standard.

Launch Activities & Execution

• Plan and execute product launches end-to-end: launch plans, cross-functional workstream tracking, dependency management, risk and issue management, and release packaging coordination with R&D.
• Orchestrate launch execution across globally distributed teams and time zones, using agile artifacts (Jira boards, plans, burndown tracking) and ceremonies to keep delivery visible and on track.
• Coordinate field and customer-facing readiness: sales enablement handoffs, early-adopter and reference programs, customer communications, and UAT/beta feedback loops into the launch plan.
• Manage the full launch calendar across concurrent products and releases, balancing resources and sequencing so multiple launches land successfully in parallel.

Stakeholder Management for Commercial Success

• Serve as the single point of accountability and communication hub for launch programs — running weekly, monthly, and quarterly status rhythms with stakeholders from working teams up to executive leadership.
• Align Product Management, R&D, Finance, Customer Experience, Cloud Operations, and go-to-market leaders around one launch plan, negotiating scope, resources, and timelines across competing priorities.
• Deliver monthly executive reporting on launch program health: budget actuals vs. forecast, milestone status, risks, and commercial readiness posture.
• Own launch program budgets and resource plans — forecasting, validating actuals, and ensuring the right mix of skills is in place to deliver.
• Manage expectations with strategic customers and partners during launch windows, drawing on credibility built from direct customer-facing delivery experience.
• Lead post-launch reviews and retrospectives; track adoption and commercial KPIs in the first 90 days and feed lessons back into the readiness framework.

Success in the First 12 Months Looks Like

• A commercial readiness framework and launch playbook adopted as the standard across the product portfolio.
• Every major launch in the year executed on time, with all readiness gates passed and no launch-day surprises for Sales, Support, or customers.
• Executives, product leaders, and go-to-market teams citing one trusted source of truth for launch…