Operations Strategy Lead

The RealReal•Washington, DC

About The Position

We are seeking a highly analytical and strategically oriented Operations Strategy Lead to drive data-informed decisions across Inbound Operations. This role is focused on turning data into action—identifying opportunities, testing ideas, and helping teams improve performance at scale. In this role, you will define hypothesis-driven analysis, design and scale structured experimentation, and translate complex datasets into clear business cases, financial models, and strategic recommendations. You will play a key role in defining and evolving executive-level KPIs, conducting post-mortem analyses, and identifying high-impact opportunities that may not yet be visible to the broader organization. You’ll work closely with Operations, Finance, Product, and Business Intelligence to uncover insights, design and evaluate experiments, and support both day-to-day optimization and longer-term planning. This is a high-impact role for someone who enjoys solving complex problems, working with data, and seeing their ideas translate into real operational improvements. This position is ideal for a strategy-minded operator (e.g., consulting, strategy, or advanced analytics background) who excels at structuring ambiguous problems, extracting insight from imperfect data, and translating strategy into action within a complex, high-volume environment.

Requirements

3–5 years of experience in management consulting, strategy, or analytics roles
Demonstrated ability to structure ambiguous problems and translate data into strategic recommendations and business cases
Strong analytical capabilities with experience using Excel/Google Sheets and Business Intelligence tools to work with large datasets, ideally through a financial, capacity, or multi-scenario lens
Experience designing and evaluating experiments or pilots, including defining success metrics and interpreting results
Strong executive communication skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders at multiple levels
Proven ability to manage multiple complex workstreams and drive outcomes in a fast-paced environment
Experience working cross-functionally across operations, merchandising, product, and analytics teams
Proficiency in Google Suite (ex. Gmail, Google Slides, Google Sheets)
Ability to travel up to 15%

Nice To Haves

Professional experience ideally includes 2+ years in management consulting or strategy
Experience with Visio or similar process mapping tools
Experience in ecommerce, marketplace, logistics, supply chain, or high-volume operational environments
Familiarity with KPI design, experimentation frameworks (A/B testing, pilot structures), and performance measurement systems
Experience contributing to long-term planning, network strategy, or capacity planning initiatives
Exposure to process design, automation, or technology-enabled operational improvements and SOP development

Responsibilities

Drive Operational Insights & Experimentation: Analyze operational performance to identify trends, inefficiencies, and opportunities for improvement. Design and support small-scale pilots and experiments to test new processes, tools, or ways of working. Define success metrics and evaluate results to inform recommendations and next steps. Help teams translate test results into practical changes and scaled solutions.
Translate Data into Business Decisions: Build clear, structured analyses to support decision-making across operations. Develop business cases, financial models, and capacity analyses to evaluate tradeoffs and investments. Partner with Business Intelligence to improve visibility into key metrics and performance drivers. Turn complex or messy data into simple, actionable insights.
Support KPI Tracking & Performance Management: Contribute to KPI tracking and reporting by analyzing performance trends and identifying drivers of change. Support post-launch and post-mortem analyses to measure impact and capture learnings. Highlight high-impact opportunities to improve throughput, service levels, and cost efficiency.
Contribute to Strategic Planning: Support longer-term planning efforts by building analyses and frameworks that inform operational strategy. Conduct benchmarking and research to bring new ideas and perspectives to the team. Help connect day-to-day performance insights to broader business priorities.
Collaborate Across Teams: Work cross-functionally with Operations, Product, Finance, and Systems to move initiatives forward. Manage multiple projects across analysis, testing, and implementation phases. Communicate insights and recommendations clearly to a range of stakeholders.