Business Operations Manager, Marketing and Communications

Perplexity
San Francisco +1 more
HybridCareer-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

Geared toward candidates with systems-thinking experience in fast-growing tech companies, comfortable with managing tool stacks and cross-functional coordination.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with systems-building experience in fast-growing tech environments
    — “scaling at a pace few companies experience”
  • Candidates who have managed vendor and agency relationships in marketing roles
    — “Experience managing agency, contractor, or vendor relationships”
  • Candidates who thrive in ambiguous environments and think strategically about scale
    — “Comfortable in ambiguity and thinks in scale”

Things to consider

  • This role requires managing legal and finance processes directly
    — “Keep contracts and procurement moving with Legal and Finance”
  • The role involves maintaining and building internal tools for a growing team
    — “Build and maintain internal tools such as calendars, intake forms, dashboards, trackers, and automations”

How to stand out

  • Showcase your ability to manage vendor relationships and coordinate cross-functional teams
    — “Manage agencies, contractors, and vendors from selection and onboarding through scopes, invoices, renewals, and performance”
  • Demonstrate your ability to align teams and avoid unnecessary meetings
    — “Be the connective tissue across the team: know who's working on what, spot dependencies early, and keep people aligned without adding meetings”
  • Emphasize your experience operating in high-growth environments with complex workflows
    — “operated marketing or comms systems in a high-growth environment”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • successful tool stack implementation
  • smooth operating rhythm
  • high team alignment
Typical background
4-7 years in marketing operations or similar roles

Skills & requirements

Required

Marketing OperationsBusiness OperationsTool Stack ManagementAgency ManagementContract ManagementCross-functional Collaboration

Preferred

Analytical SkillsProcess ImprovementProject Management

About the role

Original posting from Perplexity via Ashby

Perplexity is scaling at a pace few companies experience, and the Communications and Marketing team is growing with it. We're hiring a Business Operations Manager to build and run the operating system underneath, so an incredibly busy team can move fast and stay in lockstep.

That means keeping the wheels turning: the tool stack, agencies and vendors, budgets, contracts, and the dashboards leadership relies on. It also means building what doesn't exist yet, and making sure everyone knows what's happening and nothing gets dropped. Half builder, half connective tissue. If you like turning ideas into things people use every day, this role is for you.

What you'll do

  • Own the marketing and comms tool stack: evaluate, procure, onboard, provision access, train the team, and retire what we've outgrown
  • Build and maintain internal tools such as calendars, intake forms, dashboards, trackers, and automations, and keep them reliable as more people depend on them
  • Run the team's operating rhythm: priorities, launch and campaign calendars, planning cycles, and the cross-functional handoffs that carry work from idea to launch without dropped threads
  • Manage agencies, contractors, and vendors from selection and onboarding through scopes, invoices, renewals, and performance
  • Keep contracts and procurement moving with Legal and Finance so agreements never become the bottleneck
  • Be the connective tissue across the team: know who's working on what, spot dependencies early, and keep people aligned without adding meetings
  • Act as a thought partner and triage point to leadership: keep them informed, spot problems early, know when to escalate, propose solutions, and see them through
  • Add rigor without slowing anyone down, knowing the difference between process that helps and process that's overhead

What you bring

  • 4-7 years in marketing operations, business operations, or a similar systems-and-process role, ideally in a fast-growing technology company
  • You build things. You've stood up tools, automations, or dashboards yourself, and AI tools are already part of how you work
  • Strong analytical instincts, able to turn messy inputs into numbers leadership can trust
  • Experience managing agency, contractor, or vendor relationships and working with Legal and Finance on contracts and procurement
  • Exceptionally organized and genuinely relational. People like working with you, tell you things early, and trust you with what's really going on
  • A clear, direct communicator who can brief an executive, run a cross-functional meeting, and write a process doc people actually follow
  • Demonstrated experience working closely with and as a trusted partner to senior executives
  • Comfortable in ambiguity and thinks in scale, building things that hold up when the team, budget, or number of launches doubles
  • No specific tool stack required. You've operated marketing or comms systems in a high-growth environment and can pick ours up fast

Source: Perplexity careers (Ashby)

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