Your mission About the RoleWe are looking for an experienced Upwork Channel Manager to take full ownership of our Upwork operation — from bidding and profile management to analytics, team leadership, and channel development. You will run one of our most important lead generation channels end-to-end, managing bids across multiple profiles and leading a team of lead generators across shifts. This is a senior operator role. You will set the strategy, execute the day-to-day, and be held accountable for real numbers — replies, qualified calls, SQLs, and closed deals. What You Will OwnBidding & Proposal Strategy<ul style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Run the bidding operation end-to-end: bids per month across multiple profiles, with clear quality standards and no drops in view rates. Manage Connect spending: keep cost per SQL in healthy ranges and reconcile refunds from lost/closed jobs.</li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Own scanner configuration: weekly optimization of underperforming scanners, applying small iterative changes — cover letter variants, profile selection, smart boosting — and scaling what works.</li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Write and test cover letters: continuous A/B testing of length, opening lines, trust signals, portfolio anchors, and niche framing. </li></ul>Profile & Channel Development<ul style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Optimize profiles for visibility and conversion: titles, descriptions, portfolios, keywords, and positioning. Align every profile with our current propositions, including AI-assisted development.</li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Launch and onboard new profiles: when the channel can absorb them, plan, launch, and season new profiles to keep the operation scaling.</li></ul>Analytics & Reporting<ul style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Track the full funnel weekly: bids → views → replies → calls → SQLs → deals, by profile, by scanner, by day-of-week, by bidder.</li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Investigate bottlenecks: the reply-to-call conversion is the current priority. Pull the conversation data, find the patterns, test fixes, report on results.</li></ul>Team Leadership<ul style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Manage the lead generation team (currently 2–3 people across shifts): set KPIs, run 1:1s, review performance, hire, onboard, and — when needed — make the hard calls on underperformers.</li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Build processes that scale: standardize how bids are recorded, how SQLs are qualified, how data is logged. The team needs to be measurable, not dependent on any one heroic performer.</li></ul>Cross-functional Collaboration<ul style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Work with Sales: hand off SQLs cleanly to the team running qualification calls. </li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Work with Analytics: partner on dashboards, data exports, and attribution.</li></ul> Your profile What You BringMust-Haves<ul style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">3+ years of hands-on Upwork experience, ideally running a bidding operation for an agency or service business of $10m and more.</li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Proven track record of improving funnel conversion — not just running volume. You can point to specific numbers you moved.</li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Strong analytical skills: fluent in spreadsheets, comfortable modeling unit economics (cost per SQL, LTV, CAC), able to read funnel data and form real hypotheses.</li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Experience managing a lead gen or BDR-style team: hiring, onboarding, performance management, compensation design.</li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Deep familiarity with Upwork's mechanics: Connects, boosting, algorithm changes, profile optimization, client filtering, scanner/automation tools</li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Experience bidding across multiple verticals — software development, full-stack, healthcare, logistics, CRM, fintech, or similar.</li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Excellent written English. You will be writing and editing cover letters, proposals, and profile copy.</li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Process discipline. You document what you do, you record data consistently, and you expect the same from your team.</li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Judgment. You know when to enforce process and when to let a high performer operate their own way.</li></ul> Nice-to-Haves<ul style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;"><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Experience with AI-assisted proposal generation </li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Familiarity with LinkedIn / Email outbound</li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Background in positioning software development agencies or AI-assisted development services.</li><li style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;">Experience working with distributed teams across Eastern Europe and other time zones.</li></ul>

Upwork Channel Manager @ Index Soft

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