Crown Interactive delivers innovative, cost-effective, service aggregation solutions to the Telecom, Media and Technology-based sectors. Starting in 2005, this London-based business has gained ground-breaking expertise integrating business systems with evolving information technology. Based on the local demands of emerging markets, a new operation has been launched with its head office in Lagos, Nigeria. We also have a base in Washington DC. Our uniquely qualified and highly skilled team includes a diverse make-up of international technology professionals.
The company is guided by our operating principles of professionalism, integrity, efficiency, innovation, and unsurpassed customer service. Crown Interactive is launching a world-class Service Aggregator platform in Nigeria using cutting-edge Business Support Systems (BSS) platform. The service offering includes comprehensive order-to-cash services for local and international service providers who are seeking to outsource their business support systems with a minimum of capital expenditure. Additionally, Crown Interactive has established a Nigerian-based products operation with exclusive distribution rights to provide highly innovative 3G data and voice Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) for individual consumers and small-to-medium businesses.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: Chief Commercial Officer
Location: Lagos
Job Type: Full time
About the Role
- The CCO is Crown Interactive's principal revenue-growth executive and owns the commercial system across 1Gov, CuBOSS, CICOD and the Academy, and leads the four business units that report to the role.
- The role is accountable for turning market opportunity and marketing-generated demand into qualified pipeline, contracted revenue, commercially sound customer relationships, expansion and cash-generating business.
- Today much of the Group's senior commercial relationship-building rests with the CEO; this appointment exists to institutionalise that capability so that revenue growth is repeatable, forecastable and led by a professional commercial organisation.
- The CCO is particularly important to Crown's 2027 strategy. In an election-year environment, and against Board concern about public-sector payment capacity, commercial success cannot be measured only by signed value.
- The CCO must deliberately prioritise customers with demonstrable ability to pay, or structures through which Crown can secure its revenue.
- These include central or ring-fenced funding, advance payments, milestone mechanisms, escrow, transaction- or settlement-linked models where lawful, prepaid subscriptions, channel and revenue-share arrangements with creditworthy partners, and DFI-funded or other externally funded programmes.
Role Mandate
- Build a disciplined commercial engine that grows profitable, collectible revenue across Crown's businesses while protecting contract quality, payment certainty and long-term customer value.
- In practice, the CCO is expected to deliver five outcomes:
- Revenue that is real: recognised revenue that meets the approved plan across all divisions, not merely signed contract value.
- Pipeline that is credible: opportunities that are qualified, funded and classified by payment certainty, so that the Board can rely on the forecast.
- Contracts that protect Crown: pricing, terms and structures that protect margin, cash and Crown's intellectual property and are approved by the right functions before commitment.
- Accounts that grow: strategic customers who renew, expand and refer, supported by a partner and channel ecosystem that extends reach beyond Crown's own sales force.
- A commercial organisation that endures: one accountable commercial team with common methodology, strong leaders and succession, so that growth no longer depends on the CEO.
Key Responsibilities
Revenue & Commercial Strategy:
- Own the consolidated revenue-growth plan across 1Gov, CuBOSS, CICOD and Academy commercial opportunities, and its reconciliation to the annual budget and operating plan.
- Translate strategy into segment priorities (for example federal, state, agency, utility, financial-services and enterprise), account plans, sales coverage models and quarterly commercial milestones.
- Define the commercial model for each business, including licensing, subscription, revenue-share, managed-service and white-label models, in agreement with the CFO and the divisional leaders.
- Maintain sufficient qualified and payment-secure pipeline coverage to support the annual revenue plan, and take early corrective action when coverage falls short.
- Provide commercial input to market-entry and expansion decisions, including Kenya and other African markets, with a clear view of buyer funding, procurement route and payment risk.
Sales Pipeline & Forecasting:
- Own CRM discipline, pipeline stages, qualification criteria, probability weighting and forecast cadence across all divisions.
- Ensure opportunities progress only when the economic buyer, funding source, payment route, procurement pathway and decision process are understood and evidenced.
- Provide the CEO and Board with transparent gross, weighted and payment-secure pipeline views, with a monthly forecast call and a quarterly pipeline review.
- Track forecast against actual by division and segment, and use the variance to improve qualification and stage definitions.
Strategic Accounts & Business Development:
- Lead commercial strategy for Crown's most important government, utility and enterprise accounts, with a named executive sponsor and a written account plan for each.
- Own executive commercial relationships, renewals, cross-sell across the 1Gov, CuBOSS and CICOD portfolio, expansion and commercial recovery plans for at-risk or slow-paying accounts.
- Build and sustain senior relationships with ministries, departments and agencies, state governments, regulators, utilities, banks and development institutions, and represent Crown credibly at that level.
- Coordinate sector commercial leads and business-development teams so that customers see one Crown, and so that no account is approached by more than one Crown team without coordination.
Bids, Pricing & Contract Quality:
- Own bid/no-bid discipline, proposals, tenders and commercial negotiation, including the competitiveness and compliance of public-sector submissions.
- Ensure pricing reflects value, delivery cost, risk, cash exposure and required margin, and maintain a standard pricing and discount-approval framework.
- Coordinate COO delivery validation, CFO economics and CLCO legal terms before commitment, through a single deal desk and approval path.
Payment Security & Commercial Collections:
- Classify every material opportunity by ability to pay and security of Crown's revenue route (for example Tier A: funded and payment-secured; Tier B: budgeted but not secured; Tier C: unfunded or uncertain), and report on that basis.
- Prefer advance, prepaid, escrow, milestone, settlement/transaction-linked or ring-fenced funded mechanisms where lawful and appropriate, and set minimum payment-security conditions for contract signature.
- Own customer-facing commercial collection action, including executive engagement on overdue balances, payment plans and renegotiation. The CFO retains receivables accounting, cash application and credit control.
- Where payment risk cannot be mitigated, recommend to the CEO and CFO whether to defer, restructure or decline the opportunity.
Partnerships, Channels & African Growth:
- Own commercial partnerships, channels and route-to-market relationships, including prime-contractor, channel and technology-partner arrangements, with a clear partner policy covering selection, terms, performance and exit.
- Work with Regional Operations in Kenya and East Africa to convert priority regional opportunities, and assess new-market propositions against funding certainty and delivery readiness.
- Work with the Academy to develop partner-enabled implementation capacity and market reach, and to link certification and training to commercial pull-through.
Commercial Excellence:
- Build common sales methodology, account planning, win/loss analysis, proposal standards and commercial governance across the Group.
- Develop sales capability, incentive plans tied to collected and margin-compliant revenue, and performance management for the whole commercial team.
- Create clear handoffs from CMO demand generation to commercial conversion, and from CCO contracting to COO delivery, with agreed definitions and service levels for each.
- Provide the sales operations, CRM, analytics and reporting that the Board and executive team rely on for commercial decisions.
Business Unit Leadership:
- Lead the Business Leaders of 1Gov, CuBOSS and CICOD and the Academy Director, setting performance objectives, reviewing divisional P&L performance and developing their succession.
- Hold each business unit to its revenue, margin and collection targets, and align product and platform priorities with the CTIO and CTO so that what is sold reflects the product roadmap.
- Run a regular business-unit performance review and resolve cross-unit conflicts over accounts, pricing and resources.
Leadership, Governance & Integrity:
- Contribute as a member of the Executive Committee to Group strategy, budgeting, risk management and Board reporting.
Candidate Profile
Essential:
- Relevant first degree
- 15+ years in senior commercial, sales, business-development or general-management leadership in enterprise technology, infrastructure, utilities, telecoms or complex B2B/B2G markets.
- Demonstrated ownership of substantial revenue targets, enterprise and government sales, strategic accounts and multi-disciplinary commercial teams, with a record of delivering against plan.
- Strong record structuring complex contracts and payment mechanisms, protecting margin and converting opportunities into cash.
- Proven ability to build disciplined sales processes: CRM, qualification, forecasting, bid governance and win/loss analysis.
- Unimpeachable integrity and a record of operating within anti-corruption and procurement rules in public-sector markets.