Director of Business Operations at Clutch

About the Role: Director of Business Operations at Clutch

Clutch, a rapidly scaling SaaS/fintech company backed by Andreessen Horowitz, is seeking its first dedicated Director of Business Operations. While other departments like Sales, Marketing, Product, Engineering, and Finance effectively execute their functions, this role provides the strategic oversight and operational framework to ensure alignment, track progress, and proactively identify potential issues. As the company grows and stakes increase, effective business operations are crucial for sustained success and efficient resource allocation. This position is about creating a shared vision for success, defining what a "good landing" looks like for company initiatives, and ensuring conflicts are identified and resolved early.

You would be the first dedicated Business Operations hire at Clutch, reporting to the VP of Finance. Your ownership will span two key areas: establishing the company's operating cadence and defining the metrics used to measure its effectiveness. This involves implementing Clutch's annual planning and quarterly OKR rhythm to set goals, prioritize efforts, and surface problems early. You will also build the underlying metrics layer, from client-level margin and cost-to-serve analysis up through company unit economics.

Success in this role will mean leaders can set ambitious goals and be trusted to achieve them, or to honestly explain deviations. Operational drift will become visible in weeks, and investment decisions will be based on numbers the executive team already agrees on, enabling faster, larger bets with reduced execution risk. The company will spend less time re-litigating plans. Much of the scope, design of the cadence, and measurement methodologies will be yours to define and defend. As demand grows, this function is designed to expand into embedded business partners across various functions, and you would be responsible for building that future team.

About the Team

This role is situated within the Finance department, reporting to the VP of Finance. This deliberate placement ensures objectivity and neutrality, providing executive sponsorship for cross-functional work. Clutch's Finance team is lean and closely integrated with the business. You will collaborate as a peer with leaders across Sales, Marketing, Product, Engineering, and Customer Success, with regular access to the executive team. The team values early detection of issues, preferring to identify problems in week three rather than at quarter close. If you are comfortable challenging forecasts with data-driven insights, you will thrive here.

What You'll Do

Within 3 months, you will:

• Own Clutch's annual planning cycle end to end, including the operating plan, resulting goals, and trade-offs surfaced.
• Run Clutch's first full OKR cycle, providing hands-on coaching to functional leaders on effective goal setting. The success of this initial cycle will determine its long term adoption.
• Deliver comprehensive client margin and cost-to-serve analysis, determining the cost to serve credit unions, variations by client and segment, and areas for margin improvement. This analysis will provide data-driven insights for pricing and investment decisions.
• Establish the operating cadence, defining review structures, ownership, and pre-meeting materials to ensure meeting time is focused on decisions.

Within 6 months, you will:

• Land an agreed-upon, documented set of company metric definitions with named owners, ensuring OKR progress is measured against consistent, undisputed numbers. The margin analysis will likely highlight existing discrepancies.
• Transform the margin and cost-to-serve analysis into a repeatable process, ensuring continuous insights as clients and segments evolve.
• Shorten reporting cycles to quickly identify deviations from goals within weeks, implementing mid-quarter checks to catch and correct problems proactively.
• Execute the second OKR cycle with significantly less direct support, clearly demonstrating which goals were achieved, which were not, and why.

Within 9 months, you will:

• Take ownership of cross-functional strategic questions without a clear home, such as pricing, capacity planning, build-versus-buy decisions, and future headcount allocation.
• Establish a single source of truth for business analytics, encompassing unit economics, cost-to-serve, and cohort performance, to be utilized by the executive team.
• Rigorously pressure-test plans, forecasts, and business cases before they are presented to the executive team or the board.
• Develop a compelling case for the next phase of growth for the business operations function, based on the demand generated for its services.

What You'll Bring

• 8+ years of experience in business operations, strategy and operations, or FP&A, including time within a fast growing SaaS or fintech company.
• Proven experience in establishing and sustaining an operating cadence (such as OKRs, business reviews, and annual planning) within an organization that previously lacked one.
• Strong hands-on analytical depth, demonstrated by building and maintaining reporting, not just consuming it. Proficiency in Excel and Sheets, SQL, and business intelligence (BI) tools like Looker, Tableau, or Sigma, with comfort in troubleshooting data issues.
• A working command of SaaS and unit economics, including gross margin, cost-to-serve, CAC/LTV, and NRR, with the ability to construct defensible models from complex inputs.
• A track record of simultaneously managing annual planning and margin or cost efficiency analyses under time pressure without sacrificing quality.
• Credibility with senior stakeholders you do not directly manage, capable of providing constructive challenge to their numbers in a useful, non-adversarial manner.
• Willingness to act as the sole function for an initial period, performing analysis, running meetings, and writing documentation independently.
• Strong written communication skills, as much of the role's influence will be conveyed through pre-meeting documents.
• Practical fluency with AI tools to enhance personal productivity and impact as a single team member.
• Nice to have: A background in strategy consulting, growth equity, or investment banking; exposure to financial services, lending, or credit unions.

What's In It For You?

• Remote Flexibility: Enjoy the freedom of remote work from anywhere, balancing life and career seamlessly.
• Unforgettable Off-Sites: Twice a year, connect with colleagues in exciting destinations, fostering teamwork and fresh ideas.
• Paid Time Off: Benefit from flexible PTO days yearly for relaxation and rejuvenation.
• Stock Options: As a stakeholder in our success, you will receive stock options as part of your compensation package.
• Home Office Setup: Create your ideal workspace with a dedicated budget for home office essentials.
• Work Trip Budget: Grow personally and professionally with a budget for work related trips and co-working spaces.
• Health Coverage: Prioritize your well being with comprehensive health and dental insurance plans.

About Us

Clutch is a revolutionary vertical SaaS company, proudly backed by Andreessen Horowitz (A16z). We are dedicated to transforming how Credit Unions engage with their members and improve financial well being. We address the urgent demand for affordable lending solutions in an era where the average American manages over $155,000 in household debt.

Unlike traditional financial institutions, Clutch develops software that empowers Credit Unions to become FinTech lenders, leveraging their balance sheets to responsibly lend to over 130 million Americans. Our mission goes beyond transactions; we aim to fundamentally enhance credit union member interactions. By integrating cutting edge technologies and user-centric designs, we enable credit unions to provide seamless digital experiences comparable to leading tech companies. This approach preserves and revitalizes the longstanding tradition of community and member focused service inherent to credit unions.

Clutch is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status. Our organization participates in E-Verify. Click here to learn about E-Verify.

A Note About AI at Clutch

We embrace AI and encourage our team to creatively and effectively leverage AI tools in their work. If you join Clutch, we hope you'll bring the same enthusiasm for exploring how AI can amplify impact, productivity, and innovation. That said, during the interview process, we want to hear your thoughts. Please approach interviews without the use of AI tools - our goal is to get to know how you think, solve problems, and communicate. Once you're in the seat, bring on the prompts!