Designing Revenue Systems That Actually Work — with Joe Aurilia

RevOps Has Entered Its Execution Era

For years, revenue operations was a concept companies debated. Where does it sit? Who owns it? Is it sales ops with a new name—or something bigger?

That debate is largely over.

In this episode of the Revenue Architects Podcast, we spoke with Joe Aurilia, whose career spans enterprise engineering, Salesforce architecture, and hands-on revenue leadership. His perspective is clear: RevOps has moved past definition and into execution. The real challenge now is not what RevOps is, but how well organizations are prepared to run it.

From Definition to Maturity

Joe points out that RevOps is no longer an experimental function. Its scope is expanding as leadership teams begin to see the impact it can have on speed to market, forecasting confidence, and revenue predictability.

With that expansion comes complexity. Revenue systems are more interconnected than ever—CRM, billing, contracts, forecasting, and now AI-driven insights. RevOps leaders are being asked to operate at a much higher level of technical and strategic maturity, often without a clear management playbook for themselves.

This is where many teams struggle. RevOps is expected to enable everyone else, yet rarely given the structure, leadership focus, or operating rhythm needed to sustain its own performance.

Revenue Operations Is a Leadership Function

One of the most important themes in the conversation is the need to treat RevOps as a leadership discipline—not just an execution layer.

As Joe explains, RevOps teams spend their days breaking down silos between sales, marketing, finance, and systems. But when it comes to their own development, they’re often left working in isolation. That creates burnout, reactive decision-making, and short-term fixes instead of long-term architecture.

The future of RevOps depends on leaders who invest in:

Just as companies work to unify their data, RevOps professionals must avoid becoming siloed themselves.

The Technical Bar Is Rising

AI is accelerating the evolution of revenue systems, but Joe is careful to frame this as an opportunity—not a shortcut.

As more intelligence is layered into go-to-market platforms, RevOps leaders must understand not only how tools work, but how data flows, how systems connect, and where risks emerge. Technical fluency is becoming table stakes, not a specialization.

This doesn’t mean RevOps should turn into pure engineering. It means leaders must be capable of making informed decisions about architecture, governance, and scalability—especially as automation increases speed across the revenue lifecycle.

Community Is No Longer Optional

Joe emphasizes the importance of conversations, podcasts, conferences, and communities—not as “nice to have” extras, but as core inputs to better decision-making. The problems RevOps leaders face today are rarely unique. Others are navigating the same trade-offs, constraints, and growing pains.

Progress accelerates when ideas move freely.

RevOps has officially entered its execution phase. The organizations that succeed will be the ones that treat it as a strategic, technical, and leadership function—not a support team operating behind the scenes.

For CXOs, the message is clear: if revenue predictability matters, RevOps maturity matters just as much. And that maturity is built through leadership focus, strong foundations, and connected communities—not tools alone.