Pricing Career Ladder

Article written by Ryan Walter of Jennings Executive Search https://www.jenningsexec.com/ The Pricing Career Ladder — From Analyst to VP and Beyond Common career trajectories, how responsibilities evolve, and where pricing leaders go next

Most pricing professionals didn’t grow up dreaming of pricing. They started in finance, ops, sales, product — or, in some cases, outside the business world entirely.

I came from a classical music background. While playing in the Dallas Opera Orchestra, I went back to school for my MBA. My first corporate role was on an analytics team at 7-Eleven, where I picked up a pricing project — and that project changed everything. From there, I moved through a number of pricing roles and companies, eventually leading pricing teams in manufacturing and distribution with a stop in consulting.

That kind of path isn’t uncommon. Pricing often starts as a side project — a quick win, a spreadsheet fix, an urgent sales problem — and ends up becoming the thread that ties together revenue, cost, and customer value.

This variability makes the function interesting. It also makes the career path hard to define.

What We See at the Top

We’ve worked with pricing leaders across company sizes, industries, and ownership models. The pattern is clear:

They’ve built the team. They’ve led the transformation. They’ve been pulled into board decks, M&A modeling, and GTM strategy.

But many still wonder:

• Is there another level within pricing?

• What do people like me go do next?

• And what gets people stuck here?
  

This article is built to answer those questions.

The Typical Path to VP

Most VPs we work with got there through some version of this arc:

• Start: FP&A, sales ops, engineering, product, or consulting

• Build: Take on pricing projects, own deal desks, push policy

• Scale: Formalize process, launch tools, manage cross-functional friction

• Lead: Define pricing strategy, build the org, present to execs

• 
  

But the step from VP to “what’s next” is less defined.

Where People Get Stuck

We’ve seen talented pricing leaders hit a ceiling for a few common reasons:

• They stay too close to tools or policy and never step into commercial strategy

• They focus more on control than influence

• They haven’t built visibility outside pricing

• They’re seen as functional specialists, not cross-functional leaders

• 
  

If your CEO doesn’t see you as a commercial partner, pricing becomes your ceiling.

What It Looks Like to Break Out

Pricing leaders who grow beyond the function tend to:

• Lead cross-functional transformations, not just price moves

• Partner deeply with product, finance, and sales

• Translate margin strategy into go-to-market execution

• Operate with a business owner mindset, not a policy mindset

• 
  

They’ve stopped managing prices and started managing value.

VP → Beyond

This is the point where the ladder turns into a platform.

Pricing leaders who succeed at the VP level gain a unique view across the business — and that opens doors. They’ve seen how product is priced, how sales is incentivized, how finance thinks about tradeoffs, and how systems scale.

We’ve seen former VPs of Pricing go on to:

• GM or P&L Owner — Running a business unit with pricing as a foundation

• COO or Chief Commercial Officer — Leading broader commercial functions after proving they can drive alignment

• Strategic Finance Leader — Stepping into FP&A or M&A with pricing-driven insight on value creation

• Operating Partner (PE) — Helping drive value across multiple portfolio companies

• Monetization Lead (SaaS) — Overseeing packaging, pricing, and customer lifetime value

• Advisory or Consulting — Scaling the lessons they’ve learned to help others do the same

  
  

I Made This Transition Myself before joining Jennings Executive Search, I was a VP of Pricing in the building products manufacturing and distribution space. Moving into executive search wasn’t a step back — it was a shift outward. Now I work with clients not just to run searches, but to help them define what “good” looks like.

We take a consultative approach to every engagement — helping companies scope the pricing function, benchmark talent, and pressure-test whether the structure will actually work. The domain expertise we bring makes those conversations different — and more useful.

The signal that someone’s ready for what’s next:

• They influence across departments

• They speak in margin, mix, and customer value

• They’re not just excellent at pricing — they’re trusted operators

  
  

What Enables the Climb

The climb isn’t about time served or titles earned. In our work, the people who move fastest tend to have:

• Analytical depth → Excel and SQL are table stakes. Elasticity modeling, forecasting, and commercial scenario planning move the needle.

• Strategic clarity → Pricing is positioning. Can you connect it to the business model and market strategy?

• Cross-functional fluency → Can you translate across sales, product, finance, and still hold the thread?

• Tooling and process thinking → Builders scale. Maintainers stall.

• Executive presence → If you can’t defend your strategy to the CFO, you won’t get the mandate.

• Change management muscle → Price is emotional. Influence matters as much as logic.

  
  

Final Thought

There’s no single pricing ladder — but there are clear signals for what growth looks like.

The best pricing professionals don’t just capture value. They shape how the business defines it.

If you’re thinking about what’s next — or you’re evaluating someone who is — the goal isn’t just to move up. It’s to step into roles where pricing is part of something even bigger.