Strategic Business Operations Manager

Job Summary This role operates at the enterprise level and reports to the Chief of Staff to the CEO. The position partners closely with senior leaders across the organization to strengthen how the company plans, decides, and executes. The focus is on translating strategy into effective operating mechanisms, improving decision quality and follow-through, and creating visibility across priorities, tradeoffs, and outcomes. This is not a people leadership, program management, or functional ownership role. Instead, the role enables leaders to operate more effectively at scale through influence, structure, and clarity. Key Responsibilities Translate annual and multi-year strategic priorities into clear operating plans, milestones, and review cadences that connect leadership intent to measurable outcomes. Structure executive and leadership discussions, including OKR and priority-setting forums, to surface tradeoffs, drive decisions, and ensure commitments are documented and followed through. Own and continuously improve the company’s enterprise operating rhythm, including executive planning sessions, leadership offsites, All Hands, and quarterly and annual business reviews. Maintain enterprise-level visibility into critical initiatives, dependencies, risks, and outcomes, surfacing issues early and aligning leaders on mitigation and course correction. Design and maintain KPI frameworks, dashboards, and reporting mechanisms that inform executive decision-making and reinforce accountability. Develop executive-ready insights, recommendations, and materials for senior leadership consumption. Contribute to competitive and market analyses in support of decision-making, partnering with relevant internal teams and Rakuten international as needed. Use Claude and similar AI tools to produce first-pass drafts of executive materials and rapid competitive scans; build simple, repeatable prompt/agent workflows to standardize outputs and reduce cycle time for exec cadence. Qualifications Proven ability to operate independently in highly ambiguous environments with limited precedent. Demonstrated experience partnering directly with senior executives and influencing outcomes without formal authority. Strong executive presence with the ability to adapt communication style and persuade diverse stakeholders. Experience shaping enterprise operating models, planning processes, or decision frameworks. Highly analytical, with the ability to synthesize complex information into clear, executive-ready insights. Motivated by improving how an organization runs rather than owning a single function or team. Experience utilizing generative AI tools (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT, Bard) for content creation and workflow automation in a professional setting. Minimum Requirement Bachelor’s Degree required; 5+ years of experience in Strategy & Operations, Business Operations, Consulting, Corporate Strategy, or a Chief of Staff‑adjacent role. Preferable Skills Regularly uses Claude for structured analysis and synthesis in executive-facing work (turning messy inputs into crisp narratives and recommendations). Has built reusable Claude prompt libraries/“skills” and lightweight agent workflows for recurring operating tasks (KPI commentary, risk register updates, meeting pre‑reads, decision/action logs). Demonstrates disciplined AI usage: no sensitive data leakage, validates key claims, and cites/links sources for anything externally derived. Compensation and Benefits At the time of posting, Rakuten expects the base compensation for this role to be within the range shown below. USD $72,090.00 – $123,876.00 annually. The successful applicant for this role will be eligible for discretionary bonus, health, vision, dental insurance, 401(k) matching, PTO, Volunteer Time Off (VTO), and other employee benefits as the company implements. Equal Employment Opportunity Statement Rakuten provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type. Rakuten considers applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, provincial or local laws. #J-18808-Ljbffr Rakuten Kobo Inc.