Director, Strategy and Operations

Job description

Director, Strategy & Operations ABOUT THE POSITION Skimmer builds the software the powers the pool and spa industry. Thousands of pool professionals run their businesses on our platform. We’re a PE-backed vertical SaaS company in high-growth mode, scaling our operating maturity. This is a high-trust, high-leverage role for someone who moves fluidly between strategy and execution — and who keeps the company’s most important priorities moving. You’ll act as an extension of the CFO and CEO and a close partner to the full leadership team — working alongside leaders who own their functions. The work is weighted toward strategy, M&A, exit readiness, and operational rigor, with program management as the throughline. You’ll report to our CFO with a dotted line to our CEO, be involved with active strategic projects from day one, and take on more decision-making over time as context and trust build. ABOUT YOU: You're a strategic operator who makes complex, cross-functional work move. You've earned trust in high-stakes rooms and know how to get the right people aligned and decisions made. You may not be a finance person, you bring strong commercial and analytical instincts and are fluent with financial models. You’re the person who maps the workstream before anyone else has even named the problem. You build trust quickly, operate with discretion, and have a low tolerance for things falling through the cracks. You thrive in ambiguity, move fast without creating chaos, and bring the kind of calm, clear-headed coordination that makes executives breathe easier. You’re proactive, low-ego, and solutions-oriented. You hold the whole team to commitments — including the CFO and CEO — and reassess early when things slip, rather than letting missed deadlines pass quietly. WHAT YOU’LL DO: M&A & Integration - Project-manage active M&A end to end — diligence coordination, workstream tracking, and post-close integration — driving milestones and value capture alongside the CFO and relevant leaders - Serve as the connective tissue between deal teams and the broader organization across Legal, People, Finance, and Product — ensuring nothing gets lost in translation - Maintain centralized tracking of milestones and blockers; surface issues early and drive them to resolution Strategic Planning - Run the annual and quarterly planning cadence — structure the analysis, frame choices with the leadership team, and turn decisions into a tracked operating plan with clear owners and dates - Track progress against strategic initiatives; flag misalignment early and facilitate the right conversations to keep priorities on course - Help the leadership team think through sequencing, resourcing, and cross-functional dependencies on key initiatives Value Creation - Drive the company’s value-creation roadmap, keeping cross-functional readiness work moving toward long-term goals - Keep the value creation roadmap live and visible — ensuring progress is tracked and owners are held accountable across functions Evaluation of Strategic Initiatives - Pressure-test and prioritize proposed and in-flight initiatives with their owners - Build the business cases and analysis — including new-market assessments for the CEO — that inform where the company places its bets Cross-Functional Execution - Drive the company’s most important cross-functional initiatives to completion; maintain a single source of truth for top priorities with clear owners and tracked milestones - Run the leadership cadence as decision forums, not status meetings — log decisions and drive follow-through - Hold the team accountable to commitments and timelines — working alongside an empowered leadership team, not running their functions Operational Maturity - Build the reporting discipline, processes, and operating rigor that scale the business and strengthen long-term enterprise value - Tighten reporting cadence, improve KPI reliability, and catch variance-to-plan earlier WHAT YOU BRING: - Deep experience spanning a structured-thinking environment (consulting, banking, corporate development, or strategy) and an operating role — you’ve both built the plan and run the work - AI-forward in how you work — you actively leverage and build with AI tools to move faster, think sharper, and do more with less- you love a spreadsheet, but love the power of AI-enabled tools even more. - Exceptional program management: you impose structure on ambiguity, run multiple workstreams in parallel, and keep senior stakeholders moving and accountable through structure, trust, and follow-through - Strong commercial and financial fluency — SaaS metrics, unit economics, and the levers that drive enterprise value; comfortable building a business case and setting priorities - M&A or integration exposure: diligence, integration planning, or post-merger integration - Outstanding written and verbal communication — executive-grade materials and the presence to run a room - Highly discreet with sensitive financial and strategic information; calm under pressure and comfortable operating with incomplete information PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS: - PE-backed or high-growth SaaS experience - Exposure to a full M&A or transaction lifecycle - Vertical SaaS or field-service / SMB software background - Familiarity with the reporting, planning, and exit-readiness expectations that come with a PE sponsor BENEFITS - Competitive base pay + bonus potential - Generous medical, dental, and vision plans (we pay 100% of your premium and 50% of your dependents’) - Fantastic culture with a very strong eNPS- we work hard, celebrate wins, and learn as we go to always be improving to benefit our customers. - Immediate access to 401(k) with company match - Flexible PTO (MINIMUM of 10 days required every year) - 12 weeks paid parental leave for birthing parent, 6 weeks paid leave for supporting partner - Remote work friendly - Comprehensive learning and development budget - A manager dedicated to your development At Skimmer we are deeply committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace (it’s in our values). We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer, seeking to identify and onboard people from all walks of life. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, family status, marital status, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, neurodiversity, disability, age, or veteran status, or any other non-merit based or legally protected grounds. We also acknowledge that there is no “perfect” candidate - if you fulfill the majority of these requirements, believe this is a role you would be excited about on a daily basis, and resonate with our culture, we encourage you to apply. Skimmer has downtown office spaces in Austin, TX and Toronto, ON, and remote-first employees around the US. Right now we can hire hybrid employees in Austin and Toronto, or remote employees in the following states: Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.