The Salesforce Development Manager is the principal architect of the commercial technology stack in a cannabis enterprise. This role orchestrates the design, development, and optimization of the Salesforce platform, which serves as the operational hub for all customer-facing activities. In an industry defined by fragmented state-by-state regulations, disconnected supply chains, and diverse customer segments (from B2B wholesale dispensaries to B2C medical patients), a unified CRM is essential for survival and growth. This manager leads a team of developers and administrators to build a system that achieves both operational efficiency and long-term scalability. The position requires a unique blend of technical mastery, strategic business acumen, and strong team leadership. The ultimate objective is to create a seamless, compliant, and data-driven customer journey in one of the most dynamic and challenging retail environments in the world. Success in this role directly enables the organization to expand into new markets, launch new products, and build lasting customer loyalty while navigating a labyrinth of legal requirements.
The day begins with a daily stand-up meeting, run according to the Agile framework. The team discusses progress on the current sprint, which is focused on a critical compliance feature. A new state law requires that the total monthly purchase amount for medical patients be tracked in real-time to prevent exceeding legal allotments. The manager guides a discussion between a senior developer and a business analyst on the best way to implement an Apex trigger on the Order object that queries a patient's purchase history before committing a new sale. This technical solution directly prevents a compliance violation that could jeopardize the company's license to operate in that state.
Later in the morning, the manager meets with one of the company's key Product Owners. The Product Owner is responsible for the B2B wholesale portal, which is built on Salesforce Experience Cloud. They review the product backlog and prioritize user stories for the next development cycle. A high-priority item is to build an integration that pulls Certificate of Analysis (COA) data from the company's lab information system directly into the portal. This will allow dispensary buyers to view detailed cannabinoid and terpene profiles for each product batch before placing an order, a key feature for building trust and streamlining the purchasing process. The manager provides guidance on the technical feasibility and estimates the effort required, ensuring the team's workload is balanced and achievable.
The afternoon is dedicated to team leadership and technical oversight. The manager conducts a one-on-one coaching session with a junior administrator, helping them build a complex Flow to automate the onboarding process for new wholesale accounts. This automation improves operational efficiency by reducing manual data entry and ensuring all required licensing documents are collected and verified. Following this, the manager leads a code review for a new feature in Marketing Cloud. The code creates highly segmented email journeys for customers in different states, ensuring that marketing messages for specific product types, like edibles, are only sent in jurisdictions where they are legal. This careful segmentation is crucial for avoiding marketing violations that carry stiff penalties.
The day concludes with a strategic planning meeting with the Director of E-commerce and the Head of Sales. They discuss the technology roadmap for the next quarter. A key topic is the plan to enter two new states. The Salesforce Development Manager presents a plan for cloning and configuring the existing Salesforce template to accommodate the new states' unique tax structures, product regulations, and compliance reporting requirements. This preparation is vital for ensuring the company can achieve speed-to-market and operational scalability as it expands its national footprint. The manager's input ensures that the business's growth ambitions are supported by a robust and adaptable technology foundation.
The Salesforce Development Manager's duties are centered on three critical pillars that support the entire commercial operation:
The Salesforce Development Manager creates significant value across the entire business. Their work directly influences key performance indicators by building the technological infrastructure for commercial success.
| Impact Area | Strategic Influence |
|---|---|
| Cash | Accelerates the quote-to-cash cycle by automating order processing, invoicing, and payment collection workflows, improving cash flow. |
| Profits | Increases profitability by boosting sales team efficiency through better lead management and reducing the operational costs associated with manual compliance checks. |
| Assets | Develops and protects the company's most critical intangible asset: its unified customer data. This creates a foundation for advanced analytics, customer retention, and long-term competitive advantage. |
| Growth | Enables rapid scalability into new states and markets by creating a replicable, compliant Salesforce template that dramatically reduces the time and cost of expansion. |
| People | Improves employee experience and retention by providing sales, service, and marketing teams with powerful tools that automate tedious tasks and allow them to focus on high-value activities. Strong team leadership fosters a positive engineering culture. |
| Products | Provides a critical feedback loop from customer service cases and sales data to Product Owners, enabling data-driven decisions about product development, inventory levels, and quality control. |
| Legal Exposure | Significantly mitigates legal risk by embedding complex, state-specific compliance rules directly into the sales process, creating a systematic and auditable record of all transactions. |
| Compliance | Automates adherence to a wide range of regulations, including customer purchase limits, marketing communication restrictions, and mandatory data reporting to state agencies. |
| Regulatory | Builds a flexible and adaptable platform that can be quickly reconfigured to respond to new legislation or changes in regulatory interpretation, which is a constant in the cannabis industry. |
Reports To: This role typically reports to the Director of Enterprise Systems, VP of Technology, or Chief Information Officer (CIO).
Similar Roles: Professionals with titles like CRM Platform Manager, Senior Manager of Business Systems, or Technical Architect (Salesforce) in other industries possess the core competencies for this role. The key differentiator in cannabis is the deep integration with state-mandated compliance systems and the need to manage extreme regulatory variance. While a traditional CRM manager focuses on sales efficiency, the cannabis counterpart must balance efficiency with existential compliance requirements, making the role a hybrid of technology leadership and risk management.
Works Closely With: This manager is a central hub, collaborating daily with Product Owners, the Head of Sales, the Director of Compliance, and the E-commerce Manager to ensure the technology roadmap aligns with business-wide strategic objectives.
Mastery of the Salesforce ecosystem and modern development practices is essential:
Top candidates often come from other highly regulated or complex industries where technology is used to manage compliance and scale:
Specific professional attributes are required to succeed in this unique environment:
The technical and regulatory boundaries of this role are shaped by these key external forces:
| Acronym/Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Agile | An iterative approach to project management and software development that helps teams deliver value to their customers faster. |
| API | Application Programming Interface. A set of rules and tools for building software applications, defining how different software components should interact. |
| B2B / B2C | Business-to-Business / Business-to-Consumer. Refers to the type of commercial transaction. |
| COA | Certificate of Analysis. A lab report that confirms a regulated product meets its specifications, crucial in the cannabis industry. |
| CRM | Customer Relationship Management. Technology for managing all your company's relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers. |
| ERP | Enterprise Resource Planning. Software used by a company to manage key parts of its business, including accounting and supply chain operations. |
| MSO | Multi-State Operator. A cannabis company that has operations in more than one U.S. state. |
| Product Owner | A role on an Agile team responsible for defining user stories and prioritizing the team backlog to streamline execution of program priorities. |
| S2S | Seed-to-Sale. Refers to the tracking of the cannabis product from the time the seed is planted to the point of sale to a consumer. |
| SFDC | Salesforce.com. An acronym commonly used to refer to the Salesforce platform or company. |
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