Head of Strategic Ops, Application

Hi πŸ‘‹

Hi, Team Lovable,

My name is Amanda Schwartz Ramirez. For 15 years I've been doing one job under many titles: standing up new functions and business units inside growing companies, and solving problems cross-functionally. It's a perfect intersection of my favorite things: team-building, 0 to 1 operations, and strategy. I have wins and lessons from every stage to pull from.

I've been happily self-employed for the last 4 years (and have applied to exactly zero jobs), but this role stopped me in my tracks. I love Lovable: your product, your velocity, the caliber of your team. And if I could draft a role description that fits within my immediate skillset and lets me add value on Day 1: it would be this one.

Below is a snapshot of me and the work I've done. Two caveats: I'm certain I'll need to throw out 80% of what I know (and I'm excited to do so), and I expect this role will change drastically within 90 days. I'd jump at the chance to meet you and discuss how we might do the best work of our lives together.

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⏱ Β· Career chapters Β· today β†’ age 8

The making of a super-generalist leader.

Click white boxes for more.

  1. 2023 β†’
  2. 2022
  3. 2021
  4. 2020
  5. 2019
  6. 2016
  7. 2015
  8. 2013
  9. 2011
  10. 2010
  11. 2008
  12. 2000s
  13. 1990s
Who you're hiring

A bit about how I work and what I bring.

I pair exceptionally well with technical founders who have a strong product vision and need to scale systems and organization around it, ideally with heart. I'm fueled by ambition and grounded by genuine care for people. My best days are spent on fast-paced problem-solving and coaching. It's why the last four years have felt like hobby work, and what I want more of in my next chapter, behind a bigger mission.

Here's what that looks like as a hire: five traits, one combo.

  • 01
    Reps in the unsexy work

    Hiring at scale, restructuring, building plans the team can actually run, and repeatedly working myself out of a job.

  • 02
    An AI-native operating mind

    Three years deep on what AI is doing to org design and function-building. Comfortable redrawing org charts, cadences, ratios, and the seams between humans and agents from scratch.

  • 03
    No-ego learner

    Willing to revisit and discard past assumptions. I bring strong standards and judgment, not strict playbooks. Knowledge and wisdom travel; the 2018 deck doesn't have to.

  • 04
    Collaboration as a superpower

    Aligning a room of smart people around a complex opportunity under pressure: that's the work that lights me up. Low-ego, big-thinking cultures are where I do my best.

  • 05
    Entrepreneurial super-generalist

    Pattern recognition across functions, business models, and stages. Exceptionally autonomous, yet highly attuned to seeking alignment across a team: the most informed generalist in a room of specialists, and the calmest specialist in a room of generalists.

03 Β· Garden Labs Β· 2022 β†’ present

Recent projects as a self-employed strategy & ops lead.

Founders / CEOs / COOs pull Garden Labs in when complexity is outpacing their operating model and they want experienced perspective to reset. A look at recent work:

Financial infrastructure company
120 FTE Β· 10.3M unique users
  • Function-building: supported 0β†’1 and 1β†’10 for a new Enterprise unit, standing up market development, growth operations, and forward-deployed engineering.
  • E2E enterprise sales & solution process: facilitated cross-functional process development across BD, Eng, Product, and Enterprise for a new partner segment.
Fortune 500 fintech
Global Payment Network
  • E2E strategy and operations for all ecosystem efforts surrounding stablecoin, including planning and day-to-day management of builder-focused partnerships, campaigns, and programs.
  • Special projects on-demand for the BU; each started with a problem statement and concluded with a validated, fully operational solution (some staffed, others outsourced).
Data infrastructure / ZK platform
40 FTE Β· $140M raised
  • Direct advisory and consulting with CEO, COO, and CPO on market research, customer development, and partner development.
  • Embedded with the cross-functional team to manage the OKR process.
  • Advisory support to hire a CFO and clean up finance.
Payments startup
8 FTE Β· $5M raised
  • Hands-on support to secure a bank partnership.
  • Hands-on support to rebuild financial models.
Private equity firm
Mid-market
  • Developed custom Generative AI training and delivered it to a room of 40 portfolio-co CEOs and management teams.
Publicly traded food delivery marketplace
$10B market cap
  • Developed and facilitated the annual offsite for the Research Lab leadership team.
  • Follow-on 1:1 coaching for key team members.
Mobile point-of-sale startup
12 FTE Β· Series A
  • Direct advisory to CEO and management team on strategic ops, including support to hire and onboard a COO.
  • Advisory Board member.
✺ · The thing I'm known for

Building and coaching teams of super-generalists.

I have a track record of cultivating small teams of high-judgment generalists: people who can context-switch across strategy, ops, and execution without losing the plot. Hiring them is one skill. Coaching them, sequencing their work, and keeping them sharp is the other. It's the thing I'm known for, and it's how my teams have punched several weight classes above their headcount.

Some of my prior super-generalists are below ↓

"Her network is unmatched. Amanda attracts swiss-army-knives β€” people who want to do more and learn quickly."
Reference quote
Startup COO
Seed Stage
Caleb Boise
Former direct report Β· Dapper Labs
Nathan Horner
Former direct report Β· PayPal People Team
Amy Timmins
Former direct report Β· PayPal People Team
06 Β· The ask

Let's talk?

✈ · In San Francisco

I'll be in SF April 28 – 30 and May 26 – 29. Happy to meet in person: coffee, a walk, or your office.

The fastest way to reach me:

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