The BizOps and Strategy career path

The internal consulting seat, with the advantage that you stay to see whether it worked.

By Surojit Chakraverti ex-Citi and Rothschild M&A, now a hedge fund CIO

Business operations is the function technology companies invented because they wanted consultants who would live with the consequences. The work is analysis, planning and the projects nobody else owns, and it varies more between companies than almost any other role here.

It is a strong seat for people who like breadth and a poor one for people who want deep expertise, because the subject changes every quarter by design.

The ladder

What changes at each level, rather than what the title is.

  1. 01

    BizOps Analyst or Associate

    Years 0 to 3

    Analysis on someone else's question: the model, the dashboard, the readout. Usually entered from consulting or banking, and the adjustment is that recommendations now become your workload.

  2. 02

    Manager or Senior Associate

    Years 3 to 6

    Owning a problem area and the relationship with the team you serve. You choose which questions are worth answering, which is where the job starts to differ from consulting.

  3. 03

    Director of Strategy or BizOps

    Years 6 to 10

    Planning cycles, resource allocation and the decisions that set what other teams do. Proximity to executives becomes the substance of the role.

  4. 04

    VP or Head of Strategy

    Year 10 onward

    Owning the company's planning and often corporate development beside it. From here the common next step is a general management or chief of staff seat.

The hours

Fifty to sixty, spiking around planning cycles and board meetings. Considerably better than consulting, largely because there is no travel and no client to bill.

The load is uneven rather than heavy: quiet weeks between the quarters, and a hard fortnight when the plan is due.

What it pays, by level

Base and bonus at every rung, aggregated from published surveys rather than from anecdote.

BizOps and Strategy compensation, level by level

Where people go next

  • Product management

    The most common internal move. The analysis is adjacent and the ownership is more concrete.

  • General management

    Running a business line, which is what the strategy seat is often a rehearsal for.

  • Venture or growth investing

    Operating experience at a company investors know is a recognised route in.

  • Founding or joining early

    Common, and the breadth is directly useful at a company with nobody to delegate to.

Open bizops and strategy roles now

Every tracked programme, updated daily.

Common questions

What is the difference between BizOps and consulting?

The recommendation and the execution sit with the same person. A consultant presents and leaves; a BizOps manager presents and is then in the meetings where it either happens or does not.

Do you need consulting experience to get into BizOps?

It is the most common entry and not a requirement. Banking, an analytics background and internal moves from finance or product all work, and the test in interview is structured problem-solving rather than a logo.

Is BizOps a dead end?

Only if you stay in it for its own sake. It is one of the better positioned seats in a technology company precisely because it is temporary: the point is the general management or product role it argues you into.

Deciding is one thing. Getting in is another.

This page is the map. The prep track is the route: what the interviews test, what firms look for, and the questions you will actually be asked.