Senior Lead, Strategy & Operations

Operations at Shopify designs and operates the systems, architecture, and conditions that drive alignment, speed, and execution across the company. We don't run processes for process's sake. We build the operating system that lets product, revenue, and talent move at the pace Shopify needs.
We're hiring a Senior Lead, Strategy & Operations — a generalist operator who can be deployed against whichever problem matters most right now. A new product surface that needs an operating rhythm. A mission that's slipping. A cross-functional bet that's stuck. You'll own the outcome end to end.
This is an individual contributor role. You won't manage people. You'll set the bar.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Build the architecture that makes a whole area move well. Operating rhythm, planning, prioritization, dependency tracking, decision velocity. Design the conditions, don't just run the meetings.
- Subtract things that make us slow. Kill processes. Automate workflows. Rewire bad incentives. Less is more.
- Use AI as a force multiplier. Not as a productivity layer — as the way the work gets done. Design workflows that eliminate manual work at scale, where what used to take a team a week now takes a day.
- Parachute into ambiguity and ramp in days. Solve multiple high-value problems concurrently. Take ownership. Escalation ends with you.
- Work horizontally. Flow to where complexity needs solving. Pull work out of local maxima. Connect the dots across product, revenue, finance, and talent.
- Hold the bar. Define what operational excellence looks like for your area and teach the craft by example.
WHAT THIS ISN'T
- Not a program manager role. We aren't hiring someone to run JIRA tickets or chase RAID logs.
- Not a chief-of-staff role. You aren't an extension of one leader — you're deployed against the company's problems.
- Not a strategy or consulting role. You build and run the system; you don't write the deck.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
- You have an entrepreneurial mindset paired with expertise in business, finance, or operations. You think in systems and from first principles because you know what it takes for product and results to ship successfully
- You've been the most senior person in the room while also doing the work. You’re used to being in the weeds and working in deep ambiguity.
- Inside-the-business operator, not an advisor. You've carried outcomes, not slide decks.
- Genuine domain expertise. You bring opinions and advocate for the right path because you understand your stakeholders' pain points deeply.
- Extreme accountability, low ego. Self-reliant. Resourceful. Solve it yourself first. Do what you said, when you said it.
- Comfortable with the cost of being wrong in public. You make calls, surface the signal, take the heat, and adjust.
BONUS
- Prior experience as a merchant, founder, GM, or P&L owner — you see problems through the customer lens, not just the org chart
- Track record of being "parachuted in" successfully: turnarounds, integration leads, ops for a new bet Background in payments, retail, logistics, or marketplace operations