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.