Strategy & Operations Manager

About the Role BWZ is growing, fast. We are actively diversifying into new business segments and revenue streams and are looking to operationalize our processes more effectively with AI. We are hiring a Strategy & Operations Manager to bring order to the messy middle. The role reports to the COO and works closely with the VP Finance and VP Tech/AI to install real project discipline across the business, own the end‑to‑end build of zero‑to‑one initiatives, and produce analysis and business cases that enable leadership to make good decisions quickly.

Who You Are You are someone who likes to build things. You have worn many hats — you may have started a business, worked across a wide variety of roles and disciplines, or taken a different route entirely. You have experience across operations, marketing, and product. You have a clear point of view on how work should get done and you are comfortable driving cross‑functional partners toward a structured process without appearing bureaucratic. You like ambiguity because it lets you build the answer. You are analytical enough to model a business case but practical enough to know when a napkin math estimate will do. You have used AI to improve efficiency and you understand enough about modern software to ask the right questions of the tech team. You are broadly competent across functions and impatient with meetings that do not move toward a decision.

What You'll Be Doing

Own the end‑to‑end build of zero‑to‑one initiatives — taking new product pilots and iterations from idea to launch, running the costing, lead time, pricing, and go‑to‑market work yourself.

Install project discipline across leadership initiatives — ensuring business cases are built before shipment, decisions are documented, owners are clear, and cross‑functional partners follow through.

Act as the business‑case clearinghouse — when a department head has a half‑baked idea, you pressure‑test it and turn it into something leadership can say yes or no to.

Support the VP Finance on FP&A for new products — revenue projections, cost structures, break‑even and sensitivity analysis (you will not own FP&A, but you will be the analyst on new‑product models).

Design and set up scorecards and dashboards — starting with content performance and expanding from there.

Architect when we spin up a new team or department — scoping responsibilities, doing light internal org design, and handing off to the incoming lead.

Unblock the COO so they are not the bottleneck on every cross‑functional project.

How Your Success Will Be Measured

Value Delivery Rate (primary) — % of key thrust initiatives hitting defined success criteria each quarter (revenue, efficiency, or engagement).

Execution Coverage — % of key initiatives with defined scope, owner, timeline, success criteria, and active tracking + reporting in place.

Efficiency Impact — measured improvement in unit economics or operational efficiency from the initiatives you support each quarter (margin %, cost per output, time saved per workflow).

Supporting indicators — number of business cases delivered per quarter, forecast accuracy on initiatives (revenue, cost, timeline variance vs. plan), 2‑3 key initiatives supported per quarter, leadership confidence in initiative readiness, and post‑launch review completion rate.

Your Skillset Includes

Experience in program management, product management, business operations, or strategy‑and‑ops roles — ideally in a smaller or scale‑stage business rather than a big corporate.

A project/program discipline background — you know how to run a structured delivery cadence and keep peers aligned and on‑track without relying on direct authority.

Solid business modeling skills — revenue, cost, and margin work in Excel or Sheets.

Comfort diagnosing messy cross‑functional problems and proposing a path forward.

High degree of AI fluency: you have shipped automations or agent workflows yourself (n8n, Make, custom scripts), structured prompts beyond the chat window, and can articulate model trade‑offs and failure modes.

Able to engage with technical systems as a peer. You can comfortably read JSON, basic SQL, and webhook/API docs. You will not ship production code, but you will not be a black‑box client to the tech team either.

Strong data analytics and business intelligence chops (SQL, dashboarding, and comfort with BI tools such as Looker, Power BI, etc.).

Nice to Haves

MBA or equivalent cross‑functional breadth.

Prior founder experience (successful or otherwise).

Background in media, content, or adjacent businesses.

Direct FP&A or finance experience.

Salary Statement This full‑time position is available as either a remote or hybrid position (depending on location), with an annual salary in the range of 120,000 to 160,000 CAD. The range is a guide for the expected skills, knowledge and experience for new hires based in Canada only. Seniority level and salary ranges are determined through interviews and a review of education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, equity with other team members, and alignment with market data. This means ranges will vary for candidates based outside of Canada and/or at different seniority levels. In addition to annual salary, full‑time employees are eligible for a discretionary bonus and a comprehensive benefits package.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Black and White Zebra is an equal opportunity employer and considers all candidates for employment regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, marital status, military or veteran’s status (including protected veterans), sexual orientation or any other category protected by law. We celebrate all backgrounds and attributes that continue to help make our team impactful, iterative, adaptable, and fun.

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