CRM Specialist - Salesforce

Position overview

The CRM Specialist is responsible for managing, optimising, and governing Salesforce to support complex commercial workflows, strengthen governance, and enable strategic reporting. The role applies strong technical capability to ensure Salesforce remains reliable, scalable, compliant, and aligned with ACER’s enterprise needs.

Position context

Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) is an independent, not-for-profit education research organisation operating across Australia, India, Malaysia, the UAE and the United Kingdom, with programs delivered in more than 150 countries.

ACER is implementing a major commercial and business development transformation program. A cornerstone of this change is establishing Salesforce as the enterprise commercial CRM. This role plays a critical function in optimising, governing, and maturing Salesforce across global operations. 

Job responsibilities

Salesforce Administration 

• Oversee and maintain Salesforce configuration, ensuring scalable technical design.
• Lead optimisation and performance of the Salesforce platform.
• Maintain complex workflows, automation, validation rules and approval processes.
• Manage user roles, profiles, permissions, and data security at an advanced level. 

Commercial Pipeline Governance 

• Oversee opportunity management processes across regions.
• Maintain consistent stage definitions, weightings, and governance standards.
• Ensure all commercial opportunities are recorded in Salesforce.
• Monitor data quality and ensure compliance, supporting governance forums. 

 
Data Integrity & Compliance 

• Conduct advanced data audits, cleansing, and governance checks.
• Maintain account hierarchy, opportunity structures, and forecasting integrity.
• Support future integrations and data architecture improvements. 
   

Reporting & Analytics 

• Design and build advanced dashboards for Executive, Divisional and Board reporting.
• Analyse pipeline trends, conversion metrics, forecasting accuracy, and margin insights. 
• Provide data‑driven insights supporting strategic decision‑making. 

Business Process Optimisation 

• Lead identification and implementation of platform enhancements.
• Partner with senior stakeholders to translate business requirements.
• Support Salesforce roadmap development and continuous improvement. 

User Adoption & Support 

• Provide expert guidance and capability uplift to users globally.
• Develop training, onboarding programs, workflow documentation and playbooks.
• Ensure consistent adoption and disciplined CRM usage.

Organisational accountabilities

• Proactively work towards achieving individual, team and organisational objectives while demonstrating ACER’s leadership behaviours:
  • Developing Self – involves self-management, self-reflection and self-improvement
  • Embracing Change – being open to change and leading change when appropriate
  • Pursuing Excellence – ongoing search for new and better ways of working
  • Setting Directions – strategic thinking and planning for the future
  • Supporting Colleagues – supporting and contributing to the development of others
  • Working Collaboratively – building highly effective internal and external relationships
• Actively work to create an equitable, fair and harmonious work environment which is free from harassment, bullying and discrimination by demonstrating respectful and courteous behaviour towards others
• Proactively foster an inclusive and diverse work environment which encourages and respects different experiences and perspectives, and values diversity of thought
• Comply with all occupational health and safety requirements, including following safe work practices for self and others and identifying, assessing, and mitigating psychosocial risks
• Comply with all information security requirements, including completing regular security training and abiding by the standards and procedures laid out in ACER’s Information Security Management System
• Work in accordance with ACER’s policies and procedures

Skills, knowledge and experience

• Salesforce Administrator Certification (ADM 201). 
• 5+ years Salesforce experience in a commercial environment.
• Salesforce Advanced Administrator, Sales Cloud Consultant will be highly regarded. 

Essential

• Strong expertise in opportunity management and pipeline governance. 
• Experience with complex commercial workflows (tenders, licensing, contracts). 
• Advanced dashboard development and reporting capability.
• Strong analytical skills, data governance mindset and attention to detail. 
• Ability to translate business needs into technical solutions. 
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication. 
• Disciplined approach to governance, process, and continuous improvement. 

Desirable

• Experience in professional services, education, research or not-for-profit environments.
• Exposure to PSA or bid management systems.

Education