Senior Commercial Strategy Manager

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

Thumbtack is looking for a Senior Commercial Strategy Manager (Partnership Operations) with strong delivery skills and proven experience managing complex, cross-functional programs. This role owns the operational orchestration of partnership launches and ongoing partner operations — coordinating across product, engineering, sales, finance, internal tools, and support to ensure partnerships grow and scale smoothly.

You will own the end-to-end operational success of partner programs — from launch through ongoing performance and growth. That means driving cross-functional alignment, working directly with external partners alongside internal teams, identifying where programs are constrained, recommending solutions that unlock scale, and ensuring leadership has clear visibility into status and risks.

This is a high-impact role on a fast-moving team. Success requires strong program management instincts, analytical capability, comfort operating in ambiguity, and the ability to push progress across many fronts without direct authority.

What you’ll do

• Lead cross-functional launches: Serve as the horizontal layer across product, engineering, ops, business tools, sales, and finance, ensuring seamless communication and alignment. Own standups, status reporting, risk escalation, and launch readiness across workstreams
• Partner directly with external counterparts: Build trusted relationships with partners, aligning on launch plans, troubleshooting operational issues, and ensuring a smooth experience from onboarding through scale
• Manage partner program performance: Track fulfillment, conversion, and operational KPIs, using analytics to drive continuous improvement and unlock growth across the portfolio
• Transition pilots into scalable operations: Take early-stage partnerships from pilot through productionization; identify what needs to be systematized, automated, or handed off, and build the operational foundation to scale
• Drive program growth: Develop strategies to address capacity constraints, supply gaps, and scaling bottlenecks; partner with teams to find new scaling levers
• Mitigate risks and build repeatable playbooks: Surface cross-functional disconnects before they become blockers; document and standardize playbooks to make future launches faster and less bespoke
• Communicate effectively with senior leadership: Deliver clear insights and recommendations on partner health, risks, and growth opportunities

In order to be successful, you must bring

• 5–7+ years in program/project management, business operations, or management consulting
• Proven track record of end-to-end program ownership across marketplace, partnerships, or similar fast-paced, cross-functional environments
• Strong analytical skills — comfortable using data and metrics to drive decisions
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent workstreams across diverse stakeholders
• Working familiarity with business applications (e.g., Salesforce) and how they support operations
• Clear communicator who can distill complexity for executives and influence without authority
• Owner mentality — rolls up sleeves, cares about impact, low ego operator

Expected salary ranges

• For candidates living in San Francisco / Bay Area, San Jose, New York City, or Seattle metros, the expected salary range for the role is currently $149,600 - $193,600
• For candidates living in Austin, TX or Washington DC metros or in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, or Washington states, the expected salary range for the role is currently $134,300 - $173,800
• For candidates living in all other US locations, the expected salary range for this role is currently $127,500 - $165,000