Manager, Partner Operations

About the Commercial Strategy Team

The Commercial Strategy team sits within the Business Development & Commercial Programs org and is responsible for helping take ideas from 0 to 1 by leading strategic initiatives and bets, and partnering cross functionally with other teams to test, experiment, and implement new strategies. The Partner Operations sub-team is the engine behind Thumbtack's partnerships business. We build the scalable systems, processes, and infrastructure that turn partner opportunities into operational reality. Beyond running the day-to-day, we lead high-priority strategic initiatives and early-stage pilots that don't fit neatly into existing lanes, coordinate cross-functionally to align workflows and ownership for new capabilities, and drive the transition from pilot to scalable operations. When we do our job well, partners grow, capabilities expand, and revenue grows.

About the Role

As the Manager, Partner Operations, you will lead a portfolio of strategic programs that help grow and scale Thumbtack’s partnerships business. Reporting to the Senior Manager of Partnership Operations, you’ll manage a globally distributed team of three to four people across the U.S. and the Philippines while working across the organization to turn high-potential opportunities into durable business capabilities.

You will operate at the intersection of strategy, program leadership, and operations. Your work may include building and scaling new growth programs, developing go-to-market strategies, improving business performance and economics, strengthening partner-facing capabilities, and evolving the systems and processes that support our partnerships.

This is a high-impact player-coach role for a versatile operator who can set direction, lead complex execution, and deliver measurable outcomes. You will bring structure to ambiguous opportunities, move fluidly between strategy and execution, and align teams across functions to take programs from concept through launch and scale.

What you’ll do

• Lead a portfolio of strategic programs: Lead and own high-impact initiatives that accelerate the growth and scalability of Thumbtack’s partnerships business.
• Build and scale new business capabilities: Take emerging opportunities from concept through launch and scale, establishing the operating processes, systems, and cross-functional model required for reliable execution.
• Own measurable business outcomes: Define success measures, monitor performance, identify limiting factors, and make clear recommendations that improve growth, efficiency, operational performance, and program economics.
• Lead complex programs end to end: Serve as the central hub across Product, Engineering, Data Science, Marketing, Commercial Operations, Commercial Strategy, Legal, and external partners to translate strategy into coordinated execution.
• Shape strategy through analytical insight: Use data, customer and partner insights, and structured problem-solving to evaluate opportunities, make tradeoffs, and influence investment decisions.
• Strengthen the Partner Operations foundation: Improve the tools, systems, processes, and operating models that enable partnerships to launch and scale reliably.
• Lead a globally distributed team: Set a clear vision and priorities while managing and developing a team of three to four people across the U.S. and the Philippines to become increasingly independent owners.

In order to be successful, you must bring

• 5+ years of experience in strategy and operations, business operations, program management, general management, management consulting, or a related field.
• 2+ years of people-management experience, with a demonstrated ability to set direction, develop talent, and lead a team of operators.
• Experience translating ambiguous business opportunities into clear strategies, operating plans, and measurable results.
• A track record of leading complex initiatives from concept through execution, including stepping toward problems and taking accountability when results fall short.
• Strong business judgment and analytical rigor, with the ability to assess performance, understand economics, evaluate tradeoffs, and determine where to invest.
• Clear, influential communication skills, with the ability to create a compelling vision, distill complexity, align diverse stakeholders, and influence without authority.
• An owner mentality, strong learning agility, a bias for action, and a low-ego approach to leadership and collaboration.

Expected salary ranges

• For candidates living in Ontario and British Columbia, total cash compensation (base salary + variable pay, if applicable) range for the role is currently $120,700.00 - $156,200.00.