Strategy & Ventures Lead

The Role

We're looking for a Strategy & Ventures Lead to bring operating and investment discipline to NewsBreak's core business, our two new AI initiatives, and NexBreak Ventures. The initiatives are NDot AI, an AI growth platform for publishers, short-drama producers and other content creators, and Nearby AI, a local-intent marketplace. NexBreak Ventures is our new corporate venture arm: it invests in startups and helps them grow with NewsBreak's distribution, data, AI and monetization expertise.

What You'll Do

Strategy, BizOps & Analytics

• Evaluate NDot AI and Nearby AI on strategy, product-market fit, progress, team, resourcing and unit economics
• Analyze growth, funnels, retention and monetization directly in our data systems (SQL / Hive / Spark) to guide strategy and operating decisions
• Build business cases and financial models that inform resource allocation and accelerate / continue / pivot / stop decisions
• Set KPIs, milestones and stage gates, and track performance against the original investment case
• Run regular business reviews with initiative leaders and help them find execution gaps and resourcing needs

NexBreak Ventures

• Help build an active corporate venture platform from the ground up
• Develop investment theses, source opportunities, lead diligence, model valuation and returns, and make investment recommendations
• Define how NewsBreak adds value beyond capital: distribution, AI/technology, monetization, data, operating expertise and partnerships
• Support and monitor portfolio companies after investment, including building a portfolio-support playbook

Corporate Development (Build / Partner / Buy)

• Assess build, partner, invest and acquire options, and strategic transactions as they come up

What You'll Bring

• 35 years in top-tier investment banking, management consulting, corporate development, or strategy/BizOps, with meaningful exposure to technology
• Strong financial modeling skills: business cases, market sizing, unit economics and valuation
• Hands-on data skills: comfortable writing SQL and working with large datasets to test assumptions yourself
• Structured problem solving and clear executive communication; you turn ambiguous questions into clear recommendations
• Commercial judgment and a willingness to challenge constructively, plus the ability to influence across functions
• Curious, proactive and low-ego; equally comfortable discussing strategy with leadership and digging into customer cohorts

Nice to Have

• Experience with Hive, Spark or Python; cohort analysis and experimentation
• Corporate venture, VC or growth equity experience, including sourcing and diligence
• M&A modeling or tech corporate development experience
• Background in marketplaces, consumer internet, media/adtech or AI
• Empathy for founders and a strong network for sourcing deals