Technology Track

BizOps & Strategy and Operations

The in-house consulting seat at a tech company: half analysis, half getting the thing actually done. Less structured than banking recruiting, and far less well documented — here is what the process looks like.

By Surojit Chakraverti, founder of L3VLUP and an investor running a long-short healthcare and technology equities strategy.

Technology company financial models: the workbooks this seat builds, with the labs and guides around them.

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What We Cover

Case interviews with a company’s own P&L rather than a textbook one

SQL and analytics screens: what level is actually expected

Unit economics, contribution margin and payback

Growth diagnosis: funnels, cohorts and retention curves

Market sizing and prioritisation under real constraints

Stakeholder scenarios, which is where the operations half is tested

Common BizOps / Strategy & Ops Interview Questions

Our contribution margin fell 300bp last quarter. Walk me through how you would find out why.

Should we launch in this city? What would you need to know?

Write a query that returns weekly retention by signup cohort.

A supply-constrained marketplace wants to grow. What do you do first?

How would you size the opportunity for a new product line?

Our biggest partner wants better terms. How do you frame the decision?

You have two weeks and no engineering support. How do you test the idea?

These are real questions asked in bizops / strategy & ops interviews. Our coaching covers how to structure and deliver winning answers.

What Top Firms Look For

Structured problem-solving that survives contact with messy real data

Genuine comfort with SQL and spreadsheets, not just a claim of it

Business judgement: knowing which 20% of the analysis decides the answer

Ownership — these roles are judged on outcomes shipped, not decks delivered

Communication that persuades an operator rather than a partner

Comfort working without a template, because there usually is not one

A Day in the Life: BizOps / Strategy & Ops

BizOps sits between strategy and execution. A week might contain a pricing analysis, a weekly business review with a regional lead, a model for a launch decision, and several hours negotiating with the teams who would have to deliver it. The analysis half looks like consulting; the operations half looks like an internal general manager. The distinguishing feature is that you usually have to implement your own recommendation, which changes what recommendations you make.

How to Break Into BizOps / Strategy & Ops

The two main feeders are management consulting and investment banking, so an analyst stint at either is the well-trodden route

Internal moves are common, particularly from analytics, finance and operations teams

Titles vary wildly: BizOps, Strategy & Operations, Business Strategy, Chief of Staff, Special Projects — search all of them

A SQL screen is now standard, so get to the level of joins, window functions and cohort queries before applying

Smaller companies hire earlier and give more scope; large ones pay more and are more structured

What it pays

On the bizops ladder, a analyst sits at a midpoint around £45k in cash and a director / head of near £180k. Titles are the problem on this track, not the money. BizOps, Strategy & Operations, Business Strategy, Chief of Staff and Special Projects are the same job at different companies and are benchmarked against different role families inside a salary survey, which is why the bands here are wider than the pay actually is at any one firm.

BizOps pay, level by level

Frequently Asked Questions

How is BizOps different from management consulting?

The analysis is similar; the accountability is not. A consultant recommends and leaves. In BizOps you recommend, then you are the one who has to make it happen with teams who do not report to you. That changes the work: less time on the perfect answer, more on the answer that will actually get implemented. It also means the interview tests stakeholder judgement alongside analytics.

How much SQL do I need?

Enough to be independent. In practice that means joins, aggregation, window functions and writing a cohort-retention query without help. You are not expected to optimise a query plan. Most screens are a take-home or a live exercise against a small schema, and the bar is whether you can answer a business question with data rather than whether your syntax is elegant.

Can I get into BizOps without consulting or banking?

Yes, and internal moves are the most common route of all. Analytics, finance, operations and customer-facing roles all lateral into BizOps regularly, because the team values someone who already knows how the business actually runs. From outside, a startup where you owned a number is worth more than a brand-name role where you owned a slide.

This week in your target role

Open NewsViz

“Tell me about something happening in this market” is coming in some form. Pick one story, read the source, and have a view on it.

Your Coach: Surojit Chakraverti

Citigroup · Rothschild & Co · Hedge Fund CIO

Surojit is a hedge fund CIO (Third Wave Capital, previously Redline) and former investment banker who worked at Citigroup and Rothschild — with his core deal experience in M&A at Citi and Rothschild. He has personally coached over 1,000 candidates into roles at Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, KKR, Google, McKinsey, and dozens of other top-tier firms.

Every bizops / strategy & ops coaching session is tailored to your specific targets, timeline, and experience level. No generic advice, just the insider knowledge that separates offers from rejections.

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Coached by Surojit Chakraverti — Citi, Rothschild, Third Wave Capital

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Tell me when BizOps / Strategy & Ops roles open

Most of these assess on a rolling basis, so the fortnight after applications open is worth more than the deadline printed at the end of it. We watch the boards daily and email you the day one goes live.

One email when applications open, plus a short weekly round-up in season. Free, and you can leave at any point.