Manager, Competitive Programs

Who we are About Stripe Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies - from the world’s largest enterprises to the most ambitious startups - use Stripe to accept payments, grow their revenue, and accelerate new business opportunities. Our mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, and we have a staggering amount of work ahead. That means you have an unprecedented opportunity to put the global economy within everyone's reach while doing the most important work of your career. About the team The Competitive Programs team, which is part of the Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategic Programs team, is a new team dedicated to establishing and scaling Stripe’s Competitive Programs capability. Stripe operates in a dynamic and evolving competitive landscape. This role will help Stripe understand market developments and translate competitive insights into actionable guidance for teams and users. In partnership with Market Intelligence, you will identify meaningful threats and opportunities early, mobilize cross-functional action, and turn market and deal signals into better Product, Marketing, and GTM decisions. You will own the competitive operating system: program design, cross-functional coordination, deal triage and routing, visibility, and accountability. Product, Sales, PMM, Pricing, and other functions retain ownership for decisions and delivery in their domains. This is a player-coach role: you will build the team, lead the most complex programs, and apply the same skills to other high-priority GTM programs as business needs evolve. What you’ll do You will lead and develop a team of program managers that helps Stripe compete more effectively in its highest-priority situations. You will turn an emerging capability into a durable operating model: set team goals and work plans, prioritize scarce capacity with Stripe leadership and Market Intelligence, and ensure centrally staffed competitor programs are measurable and connected to the functional teams that own decisions and delivery. This is a high-ambiguity management role. You will partner with senior leaders across Sales, Product, Product Operations, Marketing, Market Intelligence, Pricing, Finance & Strategy, and GTM Operations to turn unclear competitive problems into focused programs with clear objectives, owners, decision forums, operating cadences, and measures of success. Initially, you will: • Lead and develop the Competitive Programs team, setting objectives, allocating work, and maintaining a high bar for judgment, execution, and stakeholder management. • Establish the P0/P1 portfolio and operating model with Market Intelligence and GTM Strategic Programs leadership. • Personally lead the highest-complexity programs and build the playbooks, escalation paths, and operating mechanisms that enable faster, more coordinated responses without centralizing functional decisions. Responsibilities • Set the team’s SOKRs, portfolio priorities in partnership with Stripe leadership, work plans, and success measures; allocate program-management capacity across the highest-priority competitive needs. • Develop, coach and retain a high-performing team of program managers who can operate independently in ambiguous, high-stakes environments. • Directly lead—and coach program managers to lead—the design, launch, and lifecycle of centrally staffed P0 and P1 competitor programs, including recommendations to continue, adjust, graduate, or re-elevate programs as the market changes. • Build and continuously improve the program-management layer of Stripe’s competitive operating system, including playbooks, program standards, decision logs, operating reviews, escalation mechanisms, and executive reporting. • Partner with Market Intelligence to translate competitive, customer, and deal signals into prioritized actions; ensure Product, PMM, Sales, Pricing, Product S&O, and other functional partners have clear accountable owners. • Create decision-oriented updates for senior leadership on program health, competitive risks, outcomes, capacity needs, and recommendations. • Lead select cultural initiatives, surface systemic friction, and ensure the appropriate functional teams own durable solutions. • Apply the team’s program-design and execution capabilities to other strategic GTM priorities as business needs evolve. Who you are We’re looking for someone who meets the minimum requirements to be considered for the role. If you meet these requirements, you are encouraged to apply. The preferred qualifications are a bonus, not a requirement. You are a strategic, hands-on people leader who is energized by ambiguous, cross-functional business problems. You set direction without waiting for perfect information, move fluidly between executive strategy and program detail, and maintain the operational rigor needed to deliver durable results. You help senior leaders make trade-offs while ensuring programs have clear owners, milestones, decisions, and success measures. You build trust across functions, name risks directly, resolve ambiguity, and hold partners accountable to commitments. You are excited by the intersection of market dynamics, product and commercial strategy, GTM execution, and organizational change—and understand that Competitive Programs makes Stripe faster and more coordinated without replacing functional ownership. Minimum requirements 9+ years of experience in program management, business operations, GTM strategy, management consulting, or a related discipline, including experience in a commercial organization such as Sales, Marketing, Product, or GTM Operations. 2+ years of people-management experience, including setting objectives, allocating work, coaching experienced ICs, and managing performance. • Demonstrated success leading complex, global, cross-functional programs from problem definition through implementation, adoption, and durable operational handoff. • A player-coach mindset: high ownership, sound judgment, adaptability under pressure, and a collaborative, hands-on approach that sets a high bar for quality. • Experience establishing goals, work plans, operating cadences, decision forums, and success measures for initiatives spanning regions, segments, product lines, and multiple stakeholders. • Strong judgment in prioritizing competing demands and allocating limited team capacity to the highest-value work. • Ability to navigate senior stakeholders with differing incentives and decision rights; drive alignment while making trade-offs and escalation paths explicit. • Proven ability to structure qualitative and quantitative inputs into clear recommendations, assess program health and risk, and guide prioritization with data. • Strong executive communication skills, including facilitation of senior working sessions and decision-oriented reporting. Preferred qualifications • Experience managing competitive programs, strategic-account programs, product-launch programs, commercial transformation, or other high-stakes GTM initiatives. • Experience building a new operating model, program-management team, or repeatable playbook from the ground up. • Experience partnering closely with Product, Product Operations, PMM, Sales, Pricing, Finance & Strategy, Market Intelligence, and GTM Systems. • Familiarity with competitive intelligence, win/loss analysis, sales enablement, pricing, commercial strategy, product-feedback mechanisms, or executive account programs. • Experience at a B2B technology, enterprise software, fintech, payments, or platform company; comfort using SQL, BI tools, or similar methods to analyze pipeline, adoption, revenue, and operational data.