Strategic Operations Lead, Marketing

About the role

You will architect and run the core operating system for OpenAI's Marketing organization, translating high-level strategy into a repeatable, scalable execution model. This role requires you to design the end-to-end planning lifecycle, from annual and half-yearly cycles through QBRs and executive decision forums, ensuring alignment across all workstreams. You will act as a strategic chief of staff, building the structure and cadence that allows a high-growth team to operate with clarity and speed in the absence of existing process. You will own the governance of people, budget, and resourcing, making the implicit tradeoffs explicit so that leadership can make fast, informed decisions. You will partner closely with cross-functional leaders and external agencies to ensure that marketing operations remain rigorous, transparent, and aligned with business outcomes. This position demands comfort with ambiguity and the ability to create clarity by designing operating models that turn complex priorities into simple, actionable plans. You will be responsible for documenting and disseminating decision logic, ensuring that the rationale behind major marketing investments and shifts is clear to all stakeholders.

Key facts

What you'll do

Design and run the core Marketing planning system, including annual and half-year planning, QBRs, roadmap inputs, operating reviews, and executive-ready decision forums.

Own the leadership decision process for Marketing's headcount, PID, and resourcing asks, partnering with Finance, Recruiting, People, finance-ops owners, and functional leaders to make asks explicit, track decisions, and surface tradeoffs.

Set the leadership-level budget governance rhythm and use the full Marketing budget tracker as a decision tool, partnering with the finance-ops owner on forecasting, spend execution, variance analysis, and reporting.

Design and operate the Marketing leadership operating system, including staff agendas, follow-through, internal communications, decision logs, and cross-functional alignment mechanisms.

Lead strategic projects that help the Marketing organization scale from 0-1, including operating-model design, role clarity, launch operations, planning architecture, and executive communication.

Create crisp written narratives, recommendations, and operating materials that help senior leaders make decisions quickly and stay aligned across fast-moving workstreams.

Anticipate resource needs in collaboration with Resource Managers, maintaining accurate allocations and identifying gaps early enough to address them before they become delivery risks.

Establish and refine the end-to-end operating model for Marketing, defining how work moves from strategy through creative development, production, launch readiness, and closeout.

Partner with strategy and operations managers to build budget forecasting, spend execution, variance analysis, and reporting processes that are robust and actionable.

Champion the use of data and operating artifacts to reveal tradeoffs, unblock decisions, and improve the quality and speed of execution across the marketing organization.

Own the design of leadership cadences, ensuring that meetings, reviews, and forums are structured to drive alignment and accountability without adding unnecessary process.

Act as the central point for agency and vendor management workflows, standardizing RFP processes and ensuring that external partners are aligned with internal priorities and constraints.

Translate ambiguous strategic direction into clear operating plans, defining owners, timelines, success metrics, and dependencies so that execution is resilient and predictable.

Build and maintain the Marketing leadership decision log, ensuring that key choices, assumptions, and outcomes are recorded for future learning and accountability.

Champion cross-functional alignment by creating mechanisms for Marketing, Product, Growth, Creative, Media, and Finance to operate with shared context and clear escalation paths.

Drive continuous improvement in the Marketing operating system by measuring cycle times, decision quality, and stakeholder satisfaction, then iterating based on evidence.

Requirements

Have 14+ years of relevant experience across strategy and operations, business operations, Chief of Staff, marketing operations, or related leadership roles in a 0-1 or high-growth environments.

Bring top-tier management consulting experience or equivalent strategic operating experience, with strong structured problem solving and executive communication skills.

Demonstrate deep experience with planning cycles, QBRs, budget governance, headcount planning, operating cadences, agency/RFP workflows, and cross-functional program leadership.

Show clear judgment about when to own a system versus partner with specialist operators, balancing control with leverage.

Be comfortable working with senior leaders, Finance, Recruiting, People, Communications, Product Marketing, Growth, Creative, Media, and external agency partners.

Write clearly and operate with high judgment, especially when distilling complex inputs into concise updates, decision memos, and leadership communications.

Have strong analytical fluency and the ability to use data, trackers, and operating artifacts to reveal tradeoffs, unblock decisions, and improve execution quality.

Commit to operating with transparency, integrity, and discretion when handling sensitive information and executive-level decisions.

Practical notes

We use a hybrid work model with in-office collaboration Monday through Wednesday and offer relocation assistance to new employees. This role is based in San Francisco, CA.