operator and systems thinker

Stripe is looking for a senior operator and systems thinker to join the Central Strategy and Operations (S&O) team. This is a senior individual contributor role for someone who is obsessed with how organizations actually work and who builds the infrastructure that makes Stripe faster, clearer, and more coordinated as it scales.

Central S&O sits at the center of how Stripe runs as a company. This role specifically owns the machinery of company operations-the planning processes, operating rhythms, information architecture, and cross-functional systems that let the leadership team at Stripe make better decisions, faster. If you're the kind of person who looks at a broken process and immediately starts designing the system that replaces it-and who reaches for automation before asking for headcount-this role is for you.

You'll work across the most senior leaders at Stripe and partner teams to design, run, and continuously improve the operational systems that connect strategy to execution. This is not a coordination or program management role. It's a build role. You'll own outcomes end-to-end and raise the operational ceiling of the company.

What you'll do

• Run planning for Stripe. You'll own and execute how Stripe does annual planning including multiple offshoot workstreams, and the frameworks leadership uses to make decisions. Continuous improvement of existing processes, automating manual workflows and helping us redesign lighter ways to do the work in the future.
• Build, automate, and scale central operations infrastructure. You'll identify where manual, repetitive, or fragmented processes are creating drag and replace them with scalable systems-whether that's working with others on structured data pipelines, AI-augmented workflows, or new tooling. Your first instinct is to build, not to coordinate.
• Translate strategy into operational reality. Help teams drive strategic discussions in leadership forums with your thinking and architecture. Prepare and run leadership-level operating forums, bring your own point of view into the room, and own the follow-through.
• Drive continuous operational improvement. You'll have direct working relationships with the most senior leaders at Stripe and challenge assumptions, not just execute against them. You'll maintain a running view of where the operational systems of the company are breaking down-where decisions are slow, handoffs are unclear, or accountability is diffuse-and work across teams to address root causes., Office-assigned Stripes in most of our locations are currently expected to spend at least 50% of the time in a given month in their local office or with users. This expectation may vary depending on role, team and location. For example, Stripes in Stripe Delivery Center roles in Mexico City, Mexico, Bengaluru, India, and Dublin, Ireland work 100% from the office. Also, some teams have greater in-office attendance requirements, to appropriately support our users and workflows, which the hiring manager will discuss. This approach helps strike a balance between bringing people together for in-person collaboration and learning from each other, while supporting flexibility when possible.

• 15+ years of work experience, with a significant portion in operational roles at high-growth tech companies-product operations, strategy and operations, business operations, or company or corporate planning
• A track record of building and owning operational systems. You have measurably improved how a company or large team operates, not just managed existing processes.
• Deep experience either with company or functional planning-annual planning, OKR and SOKR-style goal-setting, resource allocation, and operating cadence design
• A systems thinker who is automation-first-you instinctively reach for tools, data pipelines, and AI-augmented workflows to reduce manual overhead and increase leverage
• Strong analytical rigor-you're comfortable owning data and metrics directly, running your own analyses, and pressure-testing assumptions without relying on a dedicated analytics partner
• Experience working directly with and presenting to C-suite and senior executive stakeholders. You're comfortable owning the room and bringing a sharp, independent perspective.
• High comfort with ambiguity-you take an undefined operational problem, scope it, design a solution, and drive it to completion with minimal oversight
• Technical proficiency in AI tools in order to automate workflows as needed
• Experience applying automation-thinking and scaled approaches to operational workflows-from analysis and synthesis to systems and decision support
• Prior experience at a technology company is required., * Background in fintech, management consulting, or investment banking is a plus, but not required.
• Experience with the product and infrastructure ecosystem at Stripe or similar complex platform businesses
• Familiarity with modern planning tools, workflow automation platforms, and operational data infrastructure

The annual US base salary range for this role is $191,500 - $287,300. For sales roles, the range provided is the role's On Target Earnings ("OTE") range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonuses target and annual base salary for the role. This salary range may be inclusive of several career levels at Stripe and will be narrowed during the interview process based on a number of factors, including the candidate's experience, qualifications, and location. Applicants interested in this role and who are not located in the US may request the annual salary range for their location during the interview process.

Additional benefits for this role may include: equity, company bonus or sales commissions/bonuses; 401(k) plan; medical, dental, and vision benefits; and wellness stipends.

About Stripe Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies-from the world's largest enterprises to the most ambitious startups-use Stripe to accept payments, grow their revenue, and accelerate new business opportunities. Our mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, and we have a staggering amount of work ahead. That means you have an unprecedented opportunity to put the global economy within everyone's reach while doing the most important work of your career.