Director, Strategic Initiatives

ZappiStore

Boston (MA)

On-site

USD 135,000 - 150,000

Full time

2 days ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Mental health days

Generous PTO

Remote work options

Home office support

Wellbeing benefits

Job summary

Zappi is seeking a Director of Strategic Initiatives in Boston, MA to lead cross-functional programs across Product, Sales, Customer Success, and Operations. You will work with senior leadership to ensure initiatives land and become routine, with a focus on AI-enabled transformations and a balanced 60/40 split between product and GTM efforts.

As execution partner to the Chief of Staff & Head of Strategic Initiatives, you will manage recurring leadership forums, align cross-functional agendas and

Qualifications

10+ years of experience in program management or cross-functional roles.
Proven track record driving cross-functional initiatives to completion.
Ability to embed new processes so they stick and become business as usual.
Credibility with senior leaders; clear executive communication.
Solid understanding of how go-to-market teams operate.
Experience with product development teams and the product lifecycle.

Responsibilities

Run and refine the recurring forums where Product and go-to-market leaders review progress, make decisions and track follow-through.
Own agendas, preparation and actions so every session runs with a clear purpose and real accountability.
Spot risks and blockers before they affect delivery, and raise them early with a recommended way forward.
Embed a shared stakeholder mapping standard across account teams.
Support GTM AI enablement programs, helping drive adoption across commercial teams.
Build the plans, timelines and reporting that give senior leaders a clear view of progress.
Communicate effectively with senior leadership and functional teams, adapting the message to each audience.

Job description

Director, Strategic Initiatives

Application Deadline: 26 November 2026

Department: Exec

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Boston, MA

Reporting To: Manjula Kandasamy

Compensation: $135K - $150K base per annum + 10% bonus per annum

Description

The Strategic Initiatives team turns Zappi's company priorities into programs that deliver. We work across Product, Sales, Customer Success, Operations and Engineering on the work that crosses functional lines and needs a dedicated owner to land, including AI transformation across the business.

We're a small team with direct reach across the company and close partnership with senior leadership. We measure ourselves on outcomes, not activity: a program counts as done when it has become part of how the business runs, not when it launches.

This is a high-visibility role working directly with senior leadership to execute Zappi's strategic initiatives and drive them forward. As the execution partner to our Chief of Staff & Head of Strategic Initiatives, you'll make sure the programs on the strategic agenda run reliably, stay on track, and become part of how Zappi works day to day.

You'll run recurring leadership forums, own cross-functional programs, and act as a connective layer across functions where work needs coordination beyond any single leader's remit.

Your time will be split roughly 60/40 between supporting Product and go-to-market initiatives, with a focus on establishing the processes and operating rhythms that drive progress across both.

What you'll do

Run and refine the recurring forums where Product and go-to-market leaders review progress, make decisions and track follow-through.

Own agendas, preparation and actions so every session runs with a clear purpose and real accountability.

Spot risks and blockers before they affect delivery, and raise them early with a recommended way forward.

Embed a shared stakeholder mapping standard across account teams

Drive adoption of a shared standard for how customer-facing teams map stakeholders, so every account follows one structure and cadence and anyone can pick up a map quickly.

Give leadership a clear view of where customer relationships are strong and where teams need to build more.

Partner with Revenue Operations and account leaders on the systems requirements that keep maps current, then hand the standard over to its long-term owner.

Support AI enablement across go-to-market teams

Support GTM AI enablement programs, helping drive adoption across commercial teams.

Coordinate rollout, feedback and follow-up with the teams using new AI workflows.

Across every program

Build the plans, timelines and reporting that give senior leaders a clear view of progress.

Communicate effectively with senior leadership and functional teams, adapting the message to each audience.

Who we're hiring

10+ years of experience, with significant time as a program manager or in a similar cross-functional role.

A track record of driving cross-functional initiatives to completion, not just coordinating them.

Proven ability to embed new processes so they stick. The programs you've launched have become business as usual, not one-off efforts.

Credibility with senior leaders. You communicate clearly with executives and functional teams alike, and can hold stakeholders to their commitments, tactfully but firmly, without formal authority.

A solid understanding of how go-to-market teams operate, including how sales, customer success and operations work together to plan, sell and grow accounts.

Experience working with or alongside product development teams, with a solid understanding of the product lifecycle. You understand how products move from concept through development to launch, and can apply that knowledge to help drive alignment between product and commercial teams.

Ownership and foresight (Ownership). You anticipate risks before they happen and drive issues to resolution without waiting for direction.

Execution rigor (Ownership, Truth). You're detail-oriented: plans, actions and follow-through are tracked, visible and current.

Stakeholder influence (Trust, Humility). You build trust with senior leaders and functional teams, listen first, and push back credibly when it matters.

Clear communication (Truth). You give senior leaders the headline and working teams the detail, and you're candid about what's off track.

Self-direction (Ambition). You're a self-starter who spots opportunities to improve how we work and raises them proactively.

Build relationships with senior leadership and the key stakeholders behind each program.

Take over day-to-day running of our product-to-commercial forums, which launched recently.

Assess current stakeholder mapping practices and agree an approach with the Chief of Staff.

Have the forums you lead running on a steady, recurring cadence with clear agendas, preparation and tracked actions.

Have helped the working team launch stakeholder mapping with the first account teams, with systems requirements defined.

Be contributing actively to AI enablement programs across go-to-market teams.

Lead meetings that run seamlessly as a regular part of how the business operates.

Have embedded the programs you launched as business-as-usual processes and handed them over to long-term owners.

Be seen as a trusted colleague by senior leadership, brought into decisions early, not just for execution.

Benefits

Three company-paid mental health days of rest per year (these are pre-scheduled, so the entire company can take the same days off regularly to reset)

Generous PTO - Minimum of 20 days of paid time off per year, plus national holidays. Leave over 30 days requires manager and People team approval.

Flexible working arrangements, including remote (unless otherwise specified)

Thoughtfully designed offices to support both individual work and collaboration without interrupting others

Support setting up your home office, if appropriate

Wellbeing benefits and access to trained therapists / counsellors

Company paid Life, AD&D, Short term & Long term disability

Immediate access to Zappi's Health, Dental and Vision Insurance Plan

Option to enter Zappi's 401k program after 90 days of employment, matched up to 4%

Tailored personal development through training allowances, coaching, mentorship and career frameworks

We've been recognized as one of the hottest martech companies in 2022 by Business Insider and named Best Place to Work by Quirk's Media for our engaging and inclusive workplace culture. We're committed to both people and the planet.

Our belief in inclusion means we're building an organisation of diverse individuals and helping brands eliminate cultural presumptions in their research. Read our Diversity Manifesto here.

We are a values and behaviours driven business and believe that Trust, Truth, Ownership, Ambition and Humility describe Zappi employees on our best day. This is how we strive to show up for our customers, for each other and for our communities.

Earning B Corp certification assures us we're on the right track and have structures in place to become the business we want to be.

Our commitment to minimise our impact on the environment means being honest with ourselves and transparent with you, about everything from carbon emissions to tree-planting initiatives. We achieved our goal of becoming Net Zero in 2021!