Business Planning & Operations Lead

Summary

Apple’s Strategic Data Solutions (SDS) team is seeking an analytical, organized, and proactive Business Planning & Operations Lead to help improve organizational effectiveness and support across SDS in executing against our priorities. This role will coordinate planning activities, manage business operations, and provide the insights, processes, and operational support that enable leaders to make informed decisions and execute effectively.

Description

SDS is purpose-driven, values-based, and committed to maintaining a culture of high performance. Our core mission at Apple is to build and deliver exceptional analytic solutions that help mitigate risk, optimize internal operations, and improve Apple's customer experience. As we continue to grow, we are looking for someone who enjoys bringing structure to complexity, coordinating work across teams, and continuously improving how the organization operates. The ideal candidate is a collaborative problem solver with strong analytical skills, excellent communication, and a passion for helping teams work more efficiently.

Responsibilities

• Drive SDS Strategy: Partner with leaders to translate long-term SDS vision into clear strategic plans, priorities, and measurable outcomes that align with Apple’s broader product, technology, and operations roadmap.
• Execution & Program Leadership: Convert strategy into execution by establishing operating cadences, tracking key initiatives, and coordinating complex cross-functional programs across engineering, data science, program, and infrastructure teams.
• Organizational Transformation: Identify opportunities to improve how the organization plans, prioritizes, and delivers work, and lead initiatives that drive operational efficiency, scalability, and improved collaboration across teams.
• Executive Communication & Decision Support: Develop clear strategic narratives, executive briefings, and decision frameworks that enable senior leadership to understand tradeoffs, align on priorities, and make informed decisions.
• Performance & Insight Generation: Establish metrics, dashboards, and reporting mechanisms to provide visibility into organizational health, initiative progress, and capacity utilization across SDS.
• Lead and CoordinateCross-functional Projects: Manage timelines, stakeholders, dependencies, risks, and communications to ensure successful delivery of organizational priorities.
• Organizational Budgeting & Finances: Manage forecasting, vendor relationships, procurement activities, and financial reporting to ensure responsible management of resources.
• Workforce Planning Activities: Manage headcount, hiring forecasts, organizational reporting, and resource planning in partnership with Finance, HR, and Recruiting.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Operations, Engineering, Management, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 7+ years of experience in Business Planning, Business Operations, Strategy & Operations, Finance, Program Management or a related function.
• High level of ethics and personal values
• 7+ years of experience in strategy & operations, change management, business planning, program management, finance, or business operations
• Strong business acumen, including experience supporting budgeting, forecasting, workforce planning, vendor management, or operational planning.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities, with experience translating data into actionable insights and recommendations for leaders.
• Demonstrated ability to build relationships and collaborate effectively across teams and functions.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex cross-functional programs and influencing stakeholders across multiple teams and functions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience preparing executive-ready documents and presentations.
• Self-motivated, adaptable, and comfortable working in a fast-paced, evolving environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting senior executives and leadership teams
• Experience with formal transformation and change management frameworks or best practices
• Familiarity with organizational planning, annual operating plans, headcount management, or portfolio management.
• Experience with data management and querying skills (e.g. Excel, SQL, ETL tools, and data warehousing)
• Experience with programming and scripting skills (e.g. Python)
• Experience with data visualization skills (e.g. Tableau, D3, Power BI)