VP, Marketing Strategy & Operational Excellence

Smartly
New York, NY
On-site

Who this role is best for

Candidates with operational leadership experience and a background in data-driven marketing will find this strategic and cross-functional role in New York.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with experience in scaling marketing pipelines and optimizing budgets for lead acquisition
    — “Enable the team to scale from the current 430–440 Sales Accepted Leads (SALs) to 600 weighted SALs within 18 months.”
  • Candidates with a track record in deploying AI automation and managing technical teams for workflow orchestration
    — “Lead AI Agent Deployment: Direct the roadmap to build and deploy custom AI agents.”

Things to consider

  • This role demands a high level of collaboration with RevOps and external agencies for operational governance
    — “Partner closely with the Revenue Operations (RevOps) team... Lead Strategic Agency Partnerships.”
  • There is a clear expectation to manage internal and external teams with strict SLA enforcement
    — “Implement a zero-tolerance policy for partner marketing requests arriving without a fully documented brief.”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience in bridging marketing and sales funnels with unified reporting systems
    — “Partner closely with the Revenue Operations (RevOps) team—specifically collaborating with our newly transitioned Revenue Operations Lead—to bridge marketing and sales funnels.”
  • Emphasize leadership in AI automation and workflow orchestration within marketing tech stacks
    — “Own the Marketing Tech Stack: Transition the department from manual, repetitive execution to high-efficiency automated workflows.”
  • Showcase a history of standardizing processes and enforcing governance across cross-functional teams
    — “Rebuild Cross-Functional Handoffs: Standardize and enforce the operating model between Product/Product Marketing, Partnerships, and Brand Marketing.”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Company

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

What success looks like

  • successful execution of marketing strategies
  • positive impact on company growth
Typical background
marketing strategyoperational excellence

Skills & requirements

Required

Marketing StrategyOperational ExcellenceCross-functional CollaborationData-driven Decision Making

Preferred

Brand ManagementEvent Marketing

Stack & domain

Marketing StrategyOperational ExcellenceCross-functional GovernanceData-driven CapabilitiesAutomation FrameworksLeadershipCommunicationProblem-solvingTeamworkStrategic ThinkingMarketingData Analytics

About the role

Original posting from Smartly via Greenhouse

Vice President, Marketing Strategy & Operational Excellence

Role Overview

Smartly is seeking a visionary and execution-focused Vice President (VP) of Marketing Strategy & Operational Excellence. In this key leadership role, you will connect company strategy to marketing strategy and build the underlying systems, cross-functional operating models, data-driven capabilities, and automation frameworks required to scale our global marketing organization.

Reporting directly to the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), the VP of Marketing Strategy & Operational Excellence will run the operational machinery of the marketing department, overseeing the systems, processes, AI automation, and digital infrastructure that power marketing performance. This leader will be tasked with transforming Smartly’s marketing function into a highly automated, data-literate, and operationally rigorous unit capable of delivering on ambitious commercial objectives while building a healthy, sustainable, and high-performing team.

This strategic leader will help determine marketing priorities, align departmental focus, build scalable operating models, and drive execution excellence across all global marketing teams.

Core Mandate & Key Objectives

This leader will own the operational strategy, planning process, and enablement pipelines to achieve the following core objectives:

Pipeline & Demand Scaling: Build scalable frameworks and programs to drive revenue growth and expand qualified sales pipeline globally.

Acquisition & Budget Optimization: Continuously optimize marketing spend efficiency and customer acquisition metrics across channels.

Event & Commercial Impact: Elevate commercial event strategy, standardized execution models, and pipeline attribution to maximize ROI and retention.

Funnel Performance & Conversion: Optimize lead qualification processes and end-to-end funnel conversion rates.

Brand Health & Market Validation: Expand third-party validations, industry analyst coverage, and customer reviews.

Organizational Alignment: Foster alignment around company mission and vision, elevating employee advocacy and operational clarity across teams.

Digital Discovery & Web Pipeline: Scale website conversion performance and maintain #1 AEO search engine visibility, turning owned digital touchpoints into automated engines for SALs.

Key Responsibilities

Marketing Strategy & Integrated Planning

Partner with the CMO and marketing leadership team to translate company goals, growth priorities, and market opportunities into actionable marketing objectives and OKRs.

Lead annual and quarterly integrated marketing planning across all sub-functions, turning priorities into a unified roadmap.

Standardize the upstream marketing briefing process for global initiatives and major campaigns.

Cross-Functional Governance & Operating Models

Standardize and govern cross-functional handoffs between Product Marketing, Brand, Strategic Partnerships, and Sales teams to solve reactive work cycles and optimize resource planning.

Author and enforce clear Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and mandatory lead-time guidelines for co-marketing and platform partnership campaigns.

Oversee agency partner governance, managing relationships with external creative, strategic, and execution agencies to ensure performance, accountability, and budget efficiency.

Systems Integration, Data Operations & Enablement

Partner closely with Revenue Operations (RevOps) to bridge marketing and sales funnels, ensuring single-source-of-truth reporting and attribution.

Champion data literacy across the department through structured onboarding, self-service protocols, and ongoing training.

Drive tech stack optimization and data hygiene across primary systems (CRM, Marketing Automation, ABM tools) to maintain executive-level reporting confidence.

AI Automation & Workflow Orchestration

Modernize the marketing technology stack by transitioning manual execution into automated, highly efficient workflows.

Lead the strategy and deployment of custom AI tools, automation pipelines, and knowledge bases to accelerate content repurposing and campaign intelligence.

Direct technical implementation resources in building robust API integrations, automated metrics pipelines, and real-time executive dashboards.

Commercial Strategy & Event Operations

Align global event, communications, and field strategy with commercial revenue generation.

Streamline administrative processes and post-event analytics, replacing manual reporting with automated dashboards that track registrations, spend, and multi-touch pipeline impact.

Core Competencies & Qualifications

Operational Governance: Exceptional capability in process design, structured operating models, and change management, with strong discipline in project management and SLAs.

Data & Technology Architecture: Deep expertise in marketing technology architecture (Salesforce, Marketo, Demandbase, RevOps platforms) and multi-touch attribution reporting.

AI & Automation Fluency: Strong operational experience leveraging AI automation, API integrations, and workflow tools to scale marketing efficiency.

Web Infrastructure & CMS Mastery: Proven experience directing enterprise website operations, web development lifecycles, CMS platforms, and conversion rate optimization in a B2B SaaS environment.

People & Strategic Leadership: Proven ability to lead through business transformation with an employee-first mindset, strong capacity planning, and collaborative leadership.

Financial & Vendor Management: Strong fiscal acumen and experience managing large agency retainers, contract execution, and outsourced operations.

Preferred Experience

10+ years of progressive leadership experience in Marketing Operations, Revenue Operations, GTM Strategy, or Business Transformation in B2B SaaS or digital media organizations.

Track record of scaling marketing operations in growth-stage technology environments (500–2,000+ employees).

Success in modernizing operational workflows, optimizing agency structures, and unifying revenue tech stacks.

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Engineering, or an analytical field; MBA or Agile/Six Sigma certifications preferred.

About Smartly

Smartly is the AI-powered advertising technology company transforming ad experiences for brands and their consumers. Our comprehensive advertising platform seamlessly integrates the capabilities of media, creative, and intelligence to power more than 800 billion impressions and generate more than 300 billion creatives annually, delivering tangible business outcomes for brands and advertisers.

Smartly is the only company in the industry recognized as a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Creative Advertising Technologies with PwC validating the results it delivers for brands. We manage creative and media for 700+ brands worldwide and $6B in ad spend across the largest media platforms, including Facebook, Google, Instagram, Pinterest, Snap, and TikTok. Our end-to-end technology, unmatched access to media platforms and exceptional customer service help Fortune 500 brands to reach and engage consumers and learn what performs best.Smartly is a multinational and diverse team of 750+ Smartlies from 60+ nationalities, working in 13 countries. Together, we want to create and maintain an inclusive environment where everyone feels respected and heard. Our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion approach is at the heart of it.

Visit Smartly to learn more.

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Source: Smartly careers (Greenhouse)

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