Strategy & Operations Manager

Black & White Zebra

1d•$120,000 - $160,000•Hybrid

About The Position

BWZ is growing rapidly and diversifying into new business segments and revenue streams, with a focus on operationalizing processes using AI. This role is for a Strategy & Operations Manager who will bring structure to the operational middle ground. The position reports to the COO and collaborates with the VP Finance and VP Tech/AI to implement project discipline, manage zero-to-one initiatives from inception to completion, and provide analysis and business cases for leadership decision-making.

Requirements

Experience in program management, product management, business operations, or strategy-and-ops roles, preferably in a smaller or scale-stage business.
A background in project/program discipline, with the ability to run a structured delivery cadence and align peers without direct authority.
Solid business modeling skills, including revenue, cost, and margin analysis in Excel or Sheets.
Comfort diagnosing complex cross-functional problems and proposing solutions.
Working fluency with AI tools, using them daily and understanding their application.
Sufficient technical curiosity to ask informed questions of engineers and automation platforms.
Data analytics skills (SQL, dashboarding, or similar), particularly for content scorecard work.

Nice To Haves

MBA or equivalent cross-functional breadth.
Prior founder experience.
Background in media, content, or adjacent businesses.
Direct FP&A or finance experience.

Responsibilities

Owning the end-to-end build of zero-to-one initiatives, taking new product pilots and iterations from idea to launch, including costing, lead time, pricing, and go-to-market strategy.
Installing project discipline across leadership initiatives, ensuring business cases are developed before product shipment, decisions are documented, owners are assigned, and cross-functional partners adhere to processes.
Acting as the business-case clearinghouse, pressure-testing new product, program, or team ideas from department heads and developing them into proposals for leadership review.
Supporting the VP Finance with Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) for new products, including revenue projections, cost structures, break-even analysis, and sensitivity analysis.
Designing and implementing scorecards and dashboards, starting with content performance and expanding to other areas.
Serving as the architect for new team or department setups, defining responsibilities, conducting light internal organizational design, and transitioning to the incoming lead.
Unblocking the COO to prevent them from becoming a bottleneck on cross-functional projects.