Director, Strategy & Operations

NorthMark Strategies • Dallas, TX

19h

About The Position

NorthMark Compute & Cloud (NMC²) is backed by dedicated leadership and investment and aims to scale and enhance high-performance computing (HPC) and cloud infrastructure supporting clients’ research, production, and delivery. Its engineers build critical infrastructure to reduce friction in scientific research, simulations, analysis, and decision-making, accelerating discovery and innovation.

The Director of Strategy & Operations reports to the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and drives core planning and executive governance rhythms, connecting long-range strategy with day-to-day accountability. The role builds and runs the company’s 3-Year Plan and Annual Operating Plan processes, leads preparation and synthesis for Monthly Business Reviews, and prepares board and investor materials in partnership with the COO. The COO retains final decisions and direct relationships with the board and investors.

The position translates company strategy into team-level accountability by cascading OKRs into operating metrics, and helps design and steward weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual business rhythms. It has regular exposure to the COO, CEO, CFO, and executive leadership, and direct people-leadership responsibility for experienced Strategy & Operations individual contributors. The role also partners with Finance/FP&A and the Centre of Excellence (CoE), supports business-model and value-driver initiatives, establishes a centralized process repository, and contributes to company culture initiatives.

The role requires legal authorization to work in the United States without employer sponsorship now or at any time in the future. The Company may adjust or add responsibilities as business needs change.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Engineering, or a related field.
• 8–12+ years of experience in corporate strategy, FP&A, investment banking, management consulting, or a comparable strategy and operations function.
• Direct experience building 3-year plans and annual operating plans.
• Demonstrated experience preparing materials for and presenting to boards of directors and/or investors, with strong command of board- or investor-level narratives.
• Experience managing experienced individual contributors, including delegating meaningful ownership, coaching without micromanaging, and earning credibility with direct reports who have deep functional expertise.
• Excellent executive presence and synthesis skills, including the ability to turn ambiguous cross-functional data into a clear, defensible narrative under time pressure.
• Experience designing or running OKR frameworks and translating company-level goals into team-level metrics.
• Ability to operate with significant autonomy and regular exposure to C-level executives and the board.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future.

Nice To Haves

• MBA.
• Prior experience in a high-growth infrastructure, cloud, or HPC business.
• Experience establishing planning or governance processes from scratch at a scaling company.

Responsibilities

• Assist the COO in developing and refreshing the company’s 3-Year Plan, driving analysis and translating long-range strategy discussions into a coherent, resourced roadmap.
• Drive the Annual Operating Plan process on the COO’s behalf, including setting the calendar, securing and challenging functional targets, and reconciling commitments with the 3-Year Plan and available budget.
• Own the design and mechanics of Monthly Business Reviews, synthesizing cross-functional performance data into a clear, decision-ready narrative for the COO to deliver to leadership.
• Assist the COO with investor meeting preparation, coordinating with Finance/IR on materials, anticipated questions, and consistency of the company’s narrative and numbers.
• Assist the COO with board meeting preparation by building board decks, pre-reads, and briefing materials and stress-testing them for gaps.
• Drive the cascade of company-level OKRs into function- and team-level operating metrics, keeping metrics aligned as priorities shift.
• Help design and maintain weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual business rhythms and the governance calendar, with appropriate forums, owners, and follow-through.
• Manage Strategy & Operations personnel by setting workstream priorities, providing escalation support, and coaching them on executive-ready synthesis.
• Own hiring, performance management, and career development for the team, including calibrating readiness for greater scope.
• Partner with Finance/FP&A on financial models and assumptions underlying the 3-Year Plan, AOP, and MBR processes.
• Serve as a trusted advisor and thought partner to the COO and, as needed, the broader executive leadership team on strategic priorities, tradeoffs, and organizational implications.
• Identify friction or gaps in planning and governance processes and lead redesign of frameworks, templates, and tools.
• Represent Strategy & Operations in cross-functional leadership forums and ensure consistency between company-wide planning artifacts and function-specific execution plans.
• Partner with senior management and the Centre of Excellence (CoE) to build, maintain, and enhance the company’s stochastic business model and keep its outputs robust, current, and decision-ready.
• Design and build a centralized process repository covering core business processes as a single source of truth for how the business operates.
• Contribute to the design and delivery of company culture initiatives, supporting employee engagement and embedding company values.
• Support value-driver initiatives by helping identify, track, and report key levers of business performance.
• Act as a connector across teams, championing collaboration and continuous improvement.

Benefits

• Company-paid lunch stipend; lunch provided via GrubHub.
• 100% employer-paid medical coverage in the High Deductible Health Plan, plus dental and vision benefits for employees and their families.
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave.
• Employee Assistance Program.
• Life insurance.
• Short-term disability and long-term disability coverage.
• 401(k) with a 100% company match on employee contributions up to 6%.
• Optional employee-paid PPO medical plan and other benefits, including Health Savings Accounts with a company contribution, Flexible Spending Accounts, supplemental life insurance, and Wellhub.
• 25 days of paid time off plus 12 company holidays.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director