Vice President, Marketing Strategy & Operational Excellence
Role OverviewSmartly 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 ObjectivesThis 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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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Skills Required
- 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in Marketing Operations, Revenue Operations, GTM Strategy, or Business Transformation
- Experience scaling marketing departments in mid-sized B2B SaaS or digital media organizations with 500–2,000 employees
- Proven success dismantling manual operational workflows, managing agency retainers, and driving department-wide technology stack transformations
- Experience with Salesforce, Marketo, HubSpot, or comparable marketing technology platforms
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Engineering, or a highly analytical field
- MBA or advanced certifications in Agile or Six Sigma
What the Team is Saying
Smartly Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Job postings and company materials indicate five weeks of paid vacation, company-paid holidays, and flexible or unlimited sick leave, with additional company-wide “recharge” days in some markets. Feedback suggests the vacation policy is generous, though how consistently time off is taken can vary by team and location.
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Healthcare Strength — Benefits commonly include medical, dental, and vision coverage (with immediate start in some regions) alongside global mental-health support and wellness stipends. Feedback suggests healthcare offerings are a strong point of the package, particularly in the U.S.
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Parental & Family Support — Multiple sources and role listings note paid parental leave and family-related leave benefits across locations. Feedback suggests these policies are a meaningful part of the total rewards.
Smartly Insights
What We Do
We solve for advertising campaign and creative complexities - both key elements to the time/money savings and performance that brands, agencies and businesses seek. Our unified platform combines media, creative, and intelligence, offering end-to-end workflows powered by AI across the open and closed web. With over 700 brands and advertisers, we've proven that dynamic and personalized creative makes advertising impactful. We are on a mission to transform the advertising experience for brands and their consumers. ⚡️
Why Work With Us
As a fast-paced growth company, we offer opportunities to maximize learning and amplify impact. Our culture and values have always been the secret sauce of our growth. They define how we aspire to build our adtech product, whom we hire and reward, and how we work towards a shared vision. Join us in moving advertising forward.
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Smartly Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
We are a hybrid workplace where Smartlies have the flexibility of hybrid work combining office and work from home. We also offer programs for short-term remote work globally.
