Director - Strategy & Operations

Zeta; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 7,000,000 - 13,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Zeta is a globally recognized banking technology company seeking a hands-on Chief Business Officer (proxy) to lead strategy, planning, and cross-functional execution across GTM, partnerships, marketing, and operations. This role reports to the CBO, owning the operating rhythm and driving 0-to-1 business motions, with a focus on investor updates, partner engagements, and enterprise programs.

High impact, leadership-level IC role based in Bengaluru.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience spanning strategy, operations, or product leadership focused on high-tech sectors.
• Prior experience in payments, banking, or fintech partnerships is required.
• Strong programming or top-tier management consulting background with cross-functional delivery experience.
• Proven track record of building new business lines or partnerships from zero to running motions.
• Engineering degree and MBA from a top-tier institution is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Own strategic planning cadence and operating rhythm for the CBO's remit.
• Run flagship cross-functional programs spanning GTM, delivery, and tech functions.
• Stand up 0-to-1 business motions with clear plans and owners.
• Support BD, partnerships, and deal maturation with structured follow-through.
• Shape marketing narratives and external/internal communications tied to CBO initiatives.
• Build models, market maps, and analyses to inform executive decisions.
• Represent the CBO in cross-functional rooms and partner meetings.

Skills

Strategic planning

Cross-functional

Program management

0-to-1 building

Analytical rigor

Influence without authority

Written communication

Discretion

AI-Native

Job description

About Zeta

Zeta is a globally recognized next-gen banking technology company. Our modern platforms enable financial institutions and fintechs to launch extensible and compliant banking asset and liability products spanning cards, loans, and deposits. Our cloud-native and fully API-enabled stack supports processing, issuing, lending, core banking, fraud, loyalty, digital banking, and agentic AI solutions amongst many other capabilities.

Zeta has 1700+ employees with over 70% in technology roles across locations in the US, Middle East, and Asia, representing one of the largest and most capable teams ever assembled in banking tech. Globally, customers have issued 30M+ cards on Zeta's platform expected to grow to 60M+ in the coming years. Most recently valued at $2B, Zeta counts Softbank, Mastercard, and Optum amongst its investors.

About the Role

Zeta is currently laying the foundations for and incubating multiple new business lines in the US across multiple areas that include prospective customers such as fintechs, sponsor banks, banking solutions for non-banks and more. This effort is being led by Zeta’s Chief Business Officer who is looking to bring on board an enterprising individual to assist with all aspects of these GTM motions.

This is a hands-on individual contributor role reporting to the CBO, withstrongownership of the operating rhythm across the CBO's full remit: strategy and planning,hiring & training,cross-functionalprogram management, Sales &BD support,sales engineering & enablement,and marketing narrative.

Responsibilities

Strategic planning and operating cadence

• Own the CBO's planning calendar: quarterly OKRs, board and leadership-team materials, and the narrative that ties disparate initiatives into one story

• Turn a strategic direction into a written plan with owners, milestones, and a decision log, and chase it to completion rather than to a slide

• Prepare the CBO for every high-stakes room, investor updates, executive reviews, by sharpening arguments & perspectives

Cross-functional program management

• Run point on flagship, cross-functional programs spanning various GTM, delivery, and tech functions, where no single function owns the outcome end to end

• Unblock stalled work by finding the actual decision-maker and getting a decision, not a status update

• Build the reporting rhythm, dashboards, weekly reviews, escalation paths, that lets the CBO manage by exception rather than by memory

0-to-1 business building

• Assist with standing up new business lines, partnerships, or markets from a one-paragraph thesis: market sizing, business case, initial plan, and the first few actions

• Operate without a playbook or precedent, and write the playbook as you go so the next 0-to-1 motion starts faster

• Know when to kill a 0-to-1 bet early rather than let it drift on inertia

BD and partnerships support

• Support deal structuring, diligence, and negotiation prep for new partnerships and strategic relationships

• Own the follow-through after a deal signs: the handoff to the functions that will run it, and the check that it delivers what was promised

Marketing, research, and narrative

• Shape the external and internal narrative for major announcements, positioning shifts, and thought leadership tied to the CBO's initiatives

• Partner with Marketing to convert field and partner evidence into content and messaging: what a partner program needs next, what a bank objected to, what changed a deal

• Produce research, reports, analysis, commentary, and PoV to support the above

Analysis and decision support

• Build the models, market maps, and competitive analyses that back executive decisions, at a rigor that survives a board's questions

• Turn ambiguous, half-formed asks into a structured problem with a recommendation and clear narrative

Acting as the CBO's proxy

• Represent the CBO's office in cross-functional rooms, partner meetings, and internal reviews the CBO cannot attend, with standing authority to speak for the office's position

• Know which decisions must go back to the CBO and which can be made and reported

Key Performance Metrics

Success in the initial 18 months is measured in two parts. The first is what you build, and it is yours alone. The second is what you contribute to, alongside the functions the CBO's office touches.

What you build and own:

• An operating cadence, OKRs, program reviews, a decision log, that runs without the CBO chasing it, covering at least three concurrent cross-functional programs

• At least one 0-to-1 business motion carried from a one-paragraph thesis to a running initiative with its own plan and owner

• A reporting and escalation system that surfaces a stalled cross-functional decision before it slips a quarter, not after

• A written playbook for standing up a new business line, partnership motion, or program, reusable by the next person who has to do it

What you contribute to:

• Faster time-to-decision on cross-functional bets currently gated by the CBO's calendar

• At least one strategic partnership or program taken from thesis to signed terms

• Board and leadership materials that ship on schedule and hold up under questioning, across at least two board or investor cycles

• Narrative and marketing work that changes how a partner or the market describes the company's position, traced to a named announcement or campaign

Skills

• Translation: convert an ambiguous strategic direction into a plan with owners, milestones, and a decision log

• Payments and banking fluency: enough command of how card issuing, processing, and lending businesses make money to build the case without asking someone else to check the math

• Program discipline: run several cross-functional workstreams at once without dropping the one that isn't on fire yet

• 0-to-1 judgment: build a business line from a one-paragraph thesis, and know when to kill it instead of defending it

• Analytical rigor: build models and analyses that survive a board's questions, not just a first read

• Influence without authority: move work across functions you do not manage, on the strength of the argument and the relationship, not the org chart

• Written communication: memos and decks that make the CBO's argument for them, not just record it

• Discretion: handle information that touches deal terms, board discussions, and partner relationships before either is public

• AI-Native: significant understanding of and established personal workflows and harnesses across writing, research, programming, management, and more

Experience and Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience spanning more than one of strategy consulting, investment banking, programming, product management, and business operations focused on high-tech

• Prior experience in payments or banking is required: card issuing, processing, lending, or core banking, with enough fluency in how these businesses make money to build a credible business case unassisted

• Strong programming and/or top-tier management consulting experience, with a demonstrated record of running multiple cross-functional workstreams to completion against a tight deadline

• A track record of building something from zero, a business line, a partnership, an internal function, with nothing but a mandate to start from

• An engineering degree plus an MBA from a top-tier institution is preferred

Zeta is an equal opportunity employer

At Zeta, we are committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of job history, disability, gender identity, religion, race, marital/parental status, or another special status. We are proud to be an equitable workplace that welcomes individuals from all walks of life if they fit the roles and responsibilities.