Director - Strategy and Operations

At F5, we strive to bring a better digital world to life. Our teams empower organizations across the globe to create, secure, and run applications that enhance how we experience our evolving digital world. We are passionate about cybersecurity, from protecting consumers from fraud to enabling companies to focus on innovation.

Everything we do centers around people. That means we obsess over how to make the lives of our customers, and their customers, better. And it means we prioritize a diverse F5 community where each individual can thrive.

Role Summary

The Director of Strategy Planning and Business Operations is responsible for translating operational strategy into integrated planning, organizational alignment, executive visibility, and cross-functional execution.

The function leads the Product and Engineering management system and serves as the strategic planning, business operations, communications, and organizational management partner across Product Operations and Engineering Operations. It connects long-range strategy, annual and quarterly plans, Opex and workforce assumptions, portfolio investments, performance evidence, decisions, risks, and actions so strategic priorities, product direction, operational progress, and business outcomes are consistently understood, adopted, and acted upon throughout the organization. The role connects executive strategy with organizational execution through clear operating mechanisms and actionable communications that improve alignment, accelerate adoption, and strengthen cross-functional execution across the enterprise.

The Director partners closely with Product Lifecycle Program Managers, Technical Program Managers, Product Management, Engineering Leadership, Strategic Analytics and Insights, Finance, Business Process and Value Delivery, Sales, Channels, Customer Success, and Executive Leadership to connect planning, portfolio and investment choices, roadmap priorities, NPI readiness, organizational transformation, operational health, and business performance through one consistent management system and operating narrative.

Partner Boundaries

This role complements existing Investor Relations, Executive Communications, Product Marketing, Finance, Product Chief of Staff, and functional operations organizations rather than duplicating their responsibilities. Investor Relations retains shareholder, financial, and investor communications. Product Marketing owns external product positioning, messaging, launch campaigns, and go-to-market communications. Finance retains financial records, controls, and enterprise financial methodology. Product Chiefs of Staff continue supporting executive agendas, leader voice, office coordination, and leadership execution. Product, Engineering, and other functional leaders retain product strategy, roadmap, technical delivery, financial, commercial, people, and business outcome decisions. The Director owns the integrated planning and operating mechanisms, portfolio decision readiness, decision records and action closure, and the operational narrative connecting strategy, investment, execution, product delivery, business performance, and organizational transformation.

Core Capabilities

- Strategy, integrated planning, and operational communications: develop and continuously evolve the integrated planning discipline and operational narrative that connect long-range strategy, annual and quarterly plans, Opex and workforce assumptions, portfolio priorities, business objectives, transformation initiatives, and organizational progress across Product Operations and Engineering Operations

- Executive communications and Business Operations leadership: lead the integrated operating calendar, QBR design, review readiness, executive decision support, decision records, escalation, and action closure. Develop strategic planning updates, executive scorecards, executive operating reviews, selected Board-level operational readouts, organizational announcements, and transformation communications that support informed tradeoffs and timely decision-making.

- Product and Engineering operational communications: partner with PLPMs and TPMs to communicate product roadmap evolution, NPI readiness, program milestones, delivery progress, product lifecycle decisions, cross-functional dependencies, operational risks, and executive decisions.

- Sales and Channel engagement: partner with Product Operations, Product Management, Sales, Channel organizations, Customer Success, and Product Marketing to ensure strategic product investments, roadmap direction, NPI planning, and launch readiness are communicated early and consistently across commercial organizations.

- Organizational change and adoption: lead communications supporting new operating processes, governance changes, AI adoption, workflow modernization, organizational transformation, new operating rhythms, and cross-functional initiatives.

- Operational performance storytelling: partner with Strategic Analytics and Insights to translate governed operational metrics, executive scorecards, business performance, transformation progress, and organizational outcomes into meaningful executive narratives. Strategic Analytics and Insights owns metric definitions, data quality, analysis, dashboards, and scorecard evidence; this role owns the management questions, interpretation, decision linkage, narrative, and follow-through.

Portfolio and Investment Governance

Set intake, evidence, business-case, tradeoff, and decision-traceability standards for portfolio and investment reviews. Accountable executives retain investment approval and functional outcome ownership.

Team Leadership and Management System Improvement

Lead and develop a team with capabilities in operating rhythm, integrated planning and performance, portfolio and investment governance, executive communications, and change adoption. Continuously improve the management system, standardize repeatable work, and use data and automation to reduce manual coordination after processes and evidence requirements are clear.

Role Vision

The Director serves as the strategy, planning, business operations, and organizational storytelling leader for Product and Engineering Operations. Rather than owning product strategy, engineering execution, functional metrics, financial records, or corporate communications, the leader connects strategy with investment, execution, performance, and realized value by ensuring the organization understands where it is going, why it matters, which decisions and actions are required, how progress is measured, and what success looks like.

The role strengthens organizational alignment, improves decision readiness and accountability, accelerates change adoption, improves executive visibility, and builds confidence across Product, Engineering, Finance, Sales, Channels, Customer Success, and Executive Leadership through an integrated management system and consistent operational narrative.

Benefits and Success Outcomes

- Create one integrated management cadence and consistent operational narrative across Product Operations, Engineering Operations, Finance, Sales, Channels, and Executive Leadership, ensuring strategic priorities, investment choices, decisions, and actions are understood and traceable.

- Accelerate organizational alignment by translating strategy, operational priorities, and business decisions into clear communications that enable faster execution and reduce organizational ambiguity.

- Improve Sales and Channel readiness through earlier visibility into roadmap direction, NPI planning, product lifecycle decisions, and launch readiness.

- Strengthen executive decision-making by combining validated operational metrics, program health, portfolio and investment evidence, and business performance into concise executive narratives highlighting impact, risks, tradeoffs, recommendations, accountable owners, and required actions.

- Increase adoption of new operating models, governance processes, AI capabilities, and workflow improvements by integrating structured communications, training, stakeholder engagement, and reinforcement into transformation initiatives.

- Improve cross-functional coordination by ensuring Product Management, Engineering, Business Operations, Finance, Customer Success, Marketing, Sales, and Channels operate from the same priorities, timelines, and commitments.

- Elevate organizational transparency by regularly communicating progress against operational objectives, strategic initiatives, executive priorities, and transformation milestones.

- Reinforce accountability by celebrating measurable successes, communicating lessons learned, highlighting operational improvements, and recognizing teams demonstrating the behaviors required to build a high-performing Product and Engineering organization.

Risks and Mitigations

- Role boundaries become blurred. Clearly define ownership between Investor Relations, Executive Communications, Product Marketing, Product Chiefs of Staff, Human Resources, Finance, functional operations teams, and this role. This organization owns Product and Engineering planning and management mechanisms, portfolio decision readiness, and operational communications; it does not own corporate, marketing, shareholder, financial-control, product-strategy, or technical-delivery decisions.

- Overlap with Product Marketing. Product Marketing owns market messaging and customer communications; this function owns internal operational readiness, organizational alignment, executive storytelling, and cross-functional communications supporting execution.

- Becoming an administrative support function. Measure success through planning integrity and lead time, decision readiness and velocity, action closure, portfolio traceability, risk timeliness, reporting efficiency, organizational adoption, executive alignment, Sales and Channel readiness, and measurable operational outcomes, not presentation volume or meeting support.

- Executive sponsorship is inconsistent. Establish an integrated planning, operating review, and executive communications cadence with Executive Leadership that provides one consistent narrative across strategy, portfolio investments, operational reviews, transformation initiatives, and organizational priorities.

- Planning and communications become reactive. Embed the role in long-range, annual, and quarterly planning, portfolio and investment governance, roadmap reviews, NPI governance, performance reviews, and operational decision-making so planning, decision support, and communications occur together.

Experience and Qualifications

Demonstrated leadership in strategy execution, integrated business planning, portfolio or investment governance, executive decision support, organizational communications, and complex cross-functional change in a Product and Engineering environment.

Ability to convert ambiguous strategic questions into structured plans, evidence requirements, decision-ready choices, executive narratives, accountable actions, and measurable outcomes.

Strong people leadership, executive presence, facilitation, written communication, and stakeholder influence across Product, Engineering, Finance, Sales, Channels, and other enterprise partners.

Experience establishing operating cadences, QBRs, scorecards, portfolio reviews, decision records, action-closure mechanisms, and continuous improvement practices.

First 90 Days

- Establish the Strategy, Planning and Business Operations charter, operating boundaries, stakeholder engagement model, and partnership framework with Product Operations, Engineering Operations, Product Management, Finance, Business Process and Value Delivery, Strategic Analytics and Insights, Sales, Channels, Product Marketing, Investor Relations, and Executive Leadership.

- Publish one integrated operating calendar and decision map connecting long-range, annual, quarterly, Opex, resource, and workforce planning with QBRs, roadmap planning, NPI milestones, launch readiness reviews, executive operating reviews, lifecycle reviews, portfolio decisions, and transformation initiatives.

- Create standardized readiness, evidence, decision-record, action-closure, and executive communications frameworks for QBRs, portfolio and investment reviews, operating scorecards, AI adoption updates, roadmap reviews, and organizational performance reporting.

- Partner with Product Lifecycle Program Managers and Technical Program Managers to develop repeatable communication templates supporting roadmap updates, NPI planning, executive decision reviews, launch readiness, lifecycle transitions, and operational status communications.

- Establish a recurring communications cadence with Sales Leadership, Channel organizations, Customer Success, and Product Management to improve visibility into roadmap direction, strategic priorities, NPI planning, and upcoming product launches.

- Develop an organizational change-management framework supporting governance changes, workflow modernization, AI adoption, process improvements, and new operating rhythms through structured communications, stakeholder engagement, training, and adoption measurement.

- Partner with Strategic Analytics and Insights to establish baseline measures and develop executive-ready operational narratives that communicate business performance, transformation progress, operational health, and progress against organizational objectives through one integrated executive scorecard, while preserving Analytics ownership of definitions, data quality, analysis, and dashboards.

- Define measurable success metrics and baselines for planning lead time and integrity, decision readiness and velocity, action closure, risk timeliness, reporting efficiency, portfolio traceability, governance efficiency, communication effectiveness, executive alignment, Sales and Channel readiness, organizational adoption, change effectiveness, operating-rhythm participation, and awareness of strategic priorities.

#LI-JB1

The Job Description is intended to be a general representation of the responsibilities and requirements of the job. However, the description may not be all-inclusive, and responsibilities and requirements are subject to change.

The annual base pay for this position is: $183,000.00 - $274,600.00

F5 maintains broad salary ranges for its roles in order to account for variations in knowledge, skills, experience, geographic locations, and market conditions, as well as to reflect F5’s differing products, industries, and lines of business. The pay range referenced is as of the time of the job posting and is subject to change.

You may also be offered incentive compensation, bonus, restricted stock units, and benefits. More details about F5’s benefits can be found at the following link:  https://www.f5.com/company/careers/benefits . F5 reserves the right to change or terminate any benefit plan without notice.

Please note that F5 only contacts candidates through F5 email address (ending with @f5.com) or auto email notification from Workday (ending with f5.com or @myworkday.com ) .

Equal Employment Opportunity

It is the policy of F5 to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants without regard to unlawful considerations of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, sensory, physical, or mental disability, marital status, veteran or military status, genetic information, or any other classification protected by applicable local, state, or federal laws. This policy applies to all aspects of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, discipline, and termination.  F5 offers a variety of reasonable accommodations for candidates . Requesting an accommodation is completely voluntary. F5 will assess the need for accommodations in the application process separately from those that may be needed to perform the job. Request by contacting [email protected] .