Strategy & Operations Manager 6
Job Summary
Overview & Mandate
The Senior Strategic Execution Lead is a senior individual contributor within the Commercial, Partners & Ecosystems (CPE) organization, which drives NetApp's holistic partner ecosystem and commercial strategy to scale business globally. As a member of the Business Operations team, this role catalyzes and stewards the success of CPE and the Chief CPE Officer by leading high-priority initiatives, from confidential workstreams and strategic projects to executive reputation and influence. The Sr. Strategic Execution Lead translates leadership priorities into structured plans, decision-ready materials, risk mitigation actions, and impactful communications that drive measurable outcomes.
Strategic Scope and Operating Model
Operating across CPE leadership, partner and field teams, corporate strategy, finance, legal, HR, operations, and communications, this individual contributor creates the execution structure required to move complex initiatives from intent to completion. The Sr. Strategic Execution Lead is accountable for delivering milestones on time, identifying risks early, documenting decisions, and escalating unresolved blockers across business operations and communications imperatives. Success requires disciplined execution, sound judgment, executive-quality communication, and the ability to drive progress through influence rather than direct authority.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Execution
- Lead high-priority strategic initiatives, confidential workstreams, and urgent escalations from definition through execution, stabilization, and closeout.
- Translate leadership priorities into structured plans with clear outcomes, milestones, owners, dependencies, decision points, risks, and executive inspection moments.
- Coordinate cross-functional execution across partner, field, finance, legal, HR, operations, strategy, and communications teams; drive alignment and accountability without direct authority.
- Create executive-ready briefs, decision memos, issue narratives, escalation summaries, and status updates that clarify options, implications, tradeoffs, and recommended actions.
- Maintain dependency maps, issue logs, action plans, and follow-up trackers so commitments, owners, timelines, and blockers remain visible and actively managed.
- Support escalation operating rooms by organizing severity assessments, daily action plans, decision needs, communications inputs, stakeholder updates, and closure criteria.
- Protect confidentiality, identify risks early, recommend intervention plans, and escalate blockers before they become missed commitments.
Communications Strategy and Execution
- Develop and execute the CPE communications strategy in close partnership with the NetApp Corporate Communications team, focused on activating the CPE narrative through the executive platform of the Chief CPE Officer.
- Translate CPE strategy and business outcomes into an integrated communications plan and deliverables inclusive of message architectures, speaking engagements, executive talking points, presentations, announcements, and social media.
- Run the review and approval process for CPE communications - including partner, analyst, press, event, employee-facing, and social content - to ensure necessary signoffs and protect against leaks and exposures.
- Maintain message consistency across CPE leadership and stakeholder channels; partner with the Head of CPE Business Operations, Business Manager, PMO Lead,and Corporate Communications to integrate execution updates, leadership moments, and communications into the RoB.
Job Requirements
- 10+ years of experience spanning strategic execution, business operations, program management, corporate strategy, partner operations, executive operations, corporate communications, or related enterprise roles.
- Demonstrated ability to lead complex, cross-functional initiatives through influence in highly matrixed organizations.
- Strong execution discipline across milestone management, dependency tracking, risk management, governance, decision documentation, and executive status reporting.
- Experience managing confidential or executive-sensitive work with sound judgment, discretion, and appropriate access controls.
- Proven experience developing communications strategies, message frameworks, executive narratives, and integrated plans for internal and external audiences.
- Demonstrated ability to partner effectively with a Corporate Communications function and operate within established brand, messaging, review, approval, and communications protocols.
- Exceptional writing, editing, and presentation development skills, with the ability to create concise executive materials that frame issues, options, risks, tradeoffs, recommendations, and next actions.
- Strong business acumen and ability to connect strategic priorities to practical operating plans, governance forums, measurable outcomes, and audience-relevant messaging.
- Comfort operating in ambiguity, resolving blockers, aligning stakeholders, and engaging senior leaders without relying on formal reporting authority.
Education and Experience
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Communications, Marketing, Strategy, or a related discipline preferred.
- Advanced degree, program management certification, or equivalent enterprise execution experience preferred.
Additional Information
- Extensive collaboration is required across CPE leadership, partner and field teams, corporate strategy, finance, legal, HR, operations, executive business management, and the NetApp Corporate Communications team.
- The role must balance rapid execution with disciplined communications governance, particularly for confidential, reputationally sensitive, or externally visible initiatives.
- Travel requirements will vary based on business needs, executive engagements, strategic projects, escalation support, partner moments, and key communications events.
Success Measures
- Strategic execution outcomes
- On-time delivery of strategic milestones and executive-sensitive commitments, with clear ownership, governance, and measurable business outcomes.
- Reduced escalation cycle time, earlier risk identification, and faster resolution of urgent blockers.
- Consistent executive-quality decision documentation, issue framing, status reporting, and follow-through.
- Stronger cross-functional accountability through visible owners, actions, dependencies, decisions, and deadlines.
- Communications outcomes
- Elevated reputation and influence for Chief CPE Officer externally and internally.
- Clear, consistent, audience-relevant communications aligned with approved NetApp Corporate Communications priorities, messaging, brand standards, process, and governance.
- Timely and error-free delivery of communications plans and content with defined audiences, channels, sequencing, owners, approvals, and effectiveness measures.
- Improved stakeholder understanding, message consistency, and engagement, informed by qualitative feedback and agreed communications metrics.
Equal Opportunity Employer:
NetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, protected veteran status, and any other protected classification.
Did you know...
Statistics show women apply to jobs only when they're 100% qualified. But no one is 100% qualified. We encourage you to shift the trend and apply anyway! We look forward to hearing from you.
Why NetApp?
Why You'll Thrive at NetApp
At NetApp, you won't wait for the perfect moment—you'll make it. The early planning, the extra thought, the bold idea that turns good into great: That's how our people operate and how we continue to push the boundaries of data infrastructure.
NetApp is the trusted partner for organizations transforming data into opportunity. As the only enterprise-grade storage service natively embedded in Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure, we empower customers to run everything from traditional workloads to enterprise AI with unmatched performance, resilience, and security.
Our culture
We celebrate mold breakers, bold thinkers, and problem solvers. We reward initiative, impact, and ownership. We provide flexibility so you can balance professional ambition with your personal life. Here, differences are not just welcomed—they drive everything we do.
If you're ready to innovate, rise to the challenge, and own every moment - make your next move your best one. Apply now.
Apply nowRelated content
Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging
We are a collection of diverse people from around the world with our own individual stories. We share the drive to create innovative, world-class products. We're One NetApp, and we find strength in celebrating our individuality.
Learn more
NetApp Early in Career Program
The NetApp Early in Career Program is designed to help you grow your career, sharpen your skills, and foster meaningful relationships. When you join the Program, you join a diverse, global community where innovative ideas flourish.
Learn more
Find your ideal job
In a world consistently defined by new expectations, can you quickly adapt for the success of our customers? We reward innovation and problem-solving.
Learn moreNetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, protected veteran status, and any other protected classification. We pledge to take every reasonable step to ensure that our applicants and employees are respected, treated fairly, and with dignity. See the EEO poster. NetApp makes reasonable accommodations, consistent with applicable laws, for religious purposes and for the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified applicant or employee with a disability, who can perform the essential job functions unless undue hardship would result.
Reasonable accommodation
If you are an applicant with a physical or mental disability that requires reasonable accommodation for any part of our application process, please email accessibility@netapp.com. Each request for reasonable accommodation will be considered on a case-by-case basis, consistent with applicable laws and regulations. Please note, this email address is only for accommodation requests; we do not accept unsolicited resumes.
Data privacy
We care about your privacy and therefore ask that you read our Applicant Privacy Policy before you submit any personal information to us.
Note to agencies
We’re sorry, but we cannot accept unsolicited resumes that are sent to NetApp employees or contractors. We will not compensate for a referral without a current contract on file with our Talent Acquisition team. If you’re interested in helping us with a particular role, please call your partner in Talent Acquisition to discuss.