Strategy Lead

Thought Machine; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Highly competitive salary

Pension plan

Life insurance

Flexible working hours

Learning materials and courses

Two charity days a year

Weekly food pop-up

Job summary

Thought Machine, London, seeks an experienced Strategy Lead to partner with senior leadership, shaping corporate and investment strategy. You will drive market deep-dives and identify high-impact growth opportunities to guide global expansion.

You will own research for strategic investments, build ROI models, and translate insights into execution across Product, Commercial and Finance to influence capital allocation and future banking paradigms.

Qualifications

• Proven track record in corporate strategy or investment strategy.
• Ability to lead complex market analyses and strategic scenarios.
• Experience partnering with C-suite and cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead workstreams on high-priority strategic questions and present to senior leaders.
• Own research for strategic investments and sector deep-dives.
• Build ROI models and unit economics to guide capital allocation decisions.
• Translate strategic priorities into execution across Product, Commercial, and Finance.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Market analysis

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

MBA preferred

Tools

Excel

Job description

Thought Machine's mission is bold - to properly and permanently rid the world's banks of legacy technology. To achieve this, we have developed the foundations of modern banking through core and payments technology which run natively in the cloud. What we are attempting is hard and means we need great people working together to build great technology.

We have grown rapidly in the past few years - growing our team to more than 550 individuals across offices in London, New York, Singapore, Sydney and our newly established Engineering Hub in Lisbon. We have raised more than £500m in funding and our investors include Molten Ventures, Eurazeo, Intesa Sanpaolo, Temasek, Nyca Partners, JPMorgan Chase Strategic Investments, Standard Chartered Ventures, and more.

We have created a culture that enables our team to produce the best work in the industry while ensuring we have fun along the way. We're regularly cited as having a fantastic workplace culture and have been recognised by Sifted magazine as having one of the highest Glassdoor ratings for a UK fintech company and the industry's most generous employee share package. Named one of the world's most innovative fintechs by Global Finance Magazine, we were also recognised by the Financial Times as one of Europe's fastest-growing companies for two consecutive years-and a UK Best Employer for 2026.

At Thought Machine, we believe the next era of finance is predictive, personal, and powered by AI. Over the last decade, we engineered the cloud-native foundation making that vision a reality - bridging sophisticated architectural logic with the real-time data required for world-class customer experiences in finance. Our platform is globally recognised for its radical flexibility and resiliency, empowering the world's most ambitious banks and fintechs to build, launch, and scale the products and experiences of tomorrow, faster than ever before.

The opportunity

We are seeking an experienced, commercially-minded Strategy Lead to join our Strategy Team. In this role, you will act as a key partner to senior leadership, driving the initiatives that shape how Thought Machine grows and operates globally. You will be instrumental in defining our corporate and investment strategy, leading deep dives into new markets, and uncovering high-impact growth opportunities. If you thrive in a fast-paced environment, love taking ownership of end-to-end strategic initiatives, and have a passion for driving measurable business outcomes, this is the role for you.

Duties:

• Lead discrete workstreams on high-priority strategic questions, such as developing new products or entering new segments. Present your recommendations directly to C-suite and executive leaders.
• Own the research and analysis for strategic investments, conducting deep dives into new sectors to inform product and GTM priorities.
• Build comprehensive unit economics analyses and ROI models to evaluate major strategic bets and support capital allocation decisions.
• Serve as the connective tissue between Product, Commercial, and Finance to ensure key corporate strategic priorities translate seamlessly into execution across the business.
• Develop and champion Thought Machine's point of view on the future of Banking, macro financial technology trends, and AI-driven banking paradigms, authoring flagship research papers and executive whitepapers.
• Partner with the Marketing and Product teams to design, commission, and execute quantitative and qualitative market research studies, translating proprietary survey and customer data into compelling industry narratives.

Benefits

• Highly competitive salary
• Pension plan (match up to 5%)
• Life insurance - three times annual salary
• Competitive maternity (six months fully paid) and paternity leave (four weeks fully paid)
• Shared parental leave (matched to our maternity leave for the same point in time)
• 25 days holiday and bank holidays
• Flexible working hours
• Cycle-to-work scheme Electric car scheme
• Season ticket loan
• Access to outstanding learning materials and courses
• Sports and hobby clubs, subsidised by Thought Machine
• All the latest tech you need
• Start the day properly with fresh fruit and cereals
• Huge range of healthy (and not-so-healthy) snacks, smoothies and drinks
• A talented and experienced team as your colleagues
• An environment where we encourage learning and progress
• Two charity days a year
• Weekly food pop-up

We actively hire candidates who demonstrate technical excellence in their field and welcome people of all ages and backgrounds, providing everyone with equal access to professional development. You are encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn't accurately match the job description. We also encourage applications from those with different abilities, including candidates with ADHD, autism, dyslexia or dyspraxia.

We actively hire candidates who demonstrate technical excellence in their field and welcome people of all ages and backgrounds, providing everyone wit