Head of Strategy
Head of Strategy is the executive who shapes the growth strategy of a high-risk business: chooses markets and business lines, sets priorities, and is accountable for delivery through measurable metrics.
What a Head of Strategy does
The Head of Strategy decides where and how the company will grow in high-risk verticals. In crypto projects, this means choosing jurisdictions and products, assessing regulatory pressure, deciding whether to launch or shut down lines of business, and allocating budget and teams across them. Without this role, decisions tend to be made by whoever is loudest rather than on the basis of data and clear priorities.
In companies working in gambling, crypto, fintech, and nutra, strategy goes stale quickly. Payment provider rules, regulatory requirements, traffic availability, and market conditions all change. The role exists to continually test assumptions, separate sustainable growth from risky experiments, and connect the financial model with the product and marketing plan.
The Head of Strategy typically reports to the CEO or COO and sits on the senior management team. Direct reports often include analysts, business analysts, and project managers running strategic initiatives. The role works closely with business owners: marketing, product, risk and compliance, finance, legal, and partnerships.
Responsibilities
- Developing a 1–3 year strategy and reviewing it annually together with the owner or CEO
- Assessing markets and verticals: audience size, competition, regulatory constraints, and time to market
- Preparing decisions to launch, scale, freeze, or close business lines, backed by economic justification
- Translating strategy into quarterly goals and OKRs for product, marketing, finance, and operations
- Coordinating cross-functional initiatives and monitoring their timelines and resources
- Analyzing competitors, partners, and suppliers (liquidity, providers, partner banks, payment solutions)
- Managing the project portfolio: prioritization, budget and team allocation
- Supporting M&A, partnerships, and entry into new jurisdictions together with legal and finance
- Regularly reporting progress against the strategy and deviations from plan to the board or owner
Skills
- Strategic thinking and the ability to build scenarios under uncertainty
- Financial modeling: unit economics, P&L, and payback assessment for business lines
- Understanding of high-risk verticals, their payment infrastructure, and constraints
- Prioritization under limited resources
- Working with data and drawing conclusions from analytics without getting lost in detail
- Negotiating with partners, investors, and internal budget owners
- Change management and the ability to drive decisions through to execution
- Presenting decisions to leadership and the board of directors
- General understanding of the regulatory context and the judgment to involve legal and compliance early
Tools
- Excel and Google Sheets for financial models
- Presentation tools for board materials
- Jira or Asana for tracking initiatives
- Notion or Confluence for strategy documents and a decision log
- Power BI, Looker, or Tableau for portfolio dashboards
- SQL for pulling data independently when testing hypotheses
How performance is measured
- Strategic initiatives delivered on time and within budget
- Share of business lines launched under the strategy that reach target unit economics
- Growth rate of key financial indicators (revenue, margin, EBITDA) against plan
- Number of closed hypotheses with a clear decision to continue or stop
- Forecast accuracy for key business lines per quarter
By vertical
Crypto
In crypto projects, the Head of Strategy works especially closely with regulation, jurisdiction selection, licensing, and partner banks. Market volatility and payment restrictions make strategy more sensitive to external events, so the role often owns scenario planning and contingency actions for sudden changes in conditions.
Levels
Head of / Director
At the Head of / Director level, the role carries full responsibility for the strategy of the whole company or a major business line. It approves priorities, is accountable for results to the owner or board, manages budgets, and leads the strategy and analytics team.
How to get there
People usually move into strategy from consulting, investment banking, financial analysis, product or business analysis, or operational roles where they owned a budget and planning. In high-risk verticals, experience with affiliate networks, payments, traffic, or regulatory constraints matters, because without it it is hard to judge whether plans are realistic.
To prepare, learn financial modeling, basic SQL, and dashboard tools, practice building unit economics for a business line, and formulate hypotheses with success criteria. It helps to understand at a high level how payment systems, KYC, and AML processes work, and to follow industry news on crypto and high-risk product regulation.
Career growth typically goes from analyst or project manager to senior strategy analyst, then to business line lead or head of business development. Moving up to Head of Strategy requires a proven record of decisions that moved the business, the ability to communicate with senior management, and confirmed results from launching or scaling business lines.
Next steps: Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), Chief Operating Officer (COO), Chief Business Officer (CBO), Director of Business Development, Business line or vertical head
FAQ
How is a Head of Strategy different from a Business Development Director?
Business development is responsible for finding and managing partnerships, deals, and new revenue channels. The Head of Strategy determines which business lines the company should operate in and on what terms, and checks that deals and projects fit the overall strategy. In many companies these roles are closely linked, but their focus differs.
Do I need to understand gambling or crypto to become a Head of Strategy?
Yes. In high-risk verticals it is nearly impossible to judge whether plans are realistic without understanding the specifics. You need to know the revenue model, key payment constraints, and the regulatory framework well enough to ask the right questions of legal and finance. Deeper expertise is usually built on the job.
What experience do employers look for?
Employers usually expect experience in strategic planning, financial analysis, portfolio decision-making, and working with senior leadership. Confirmed results matter: launched or closed business lines, and an impact on revenue and margin. In high-risk verticals, experience with payments, traffic, and regulation is highly valued.
What determines a Head of Strategy's pay?
Compensation usually depends on company size, the scale of the portfolio being managed, the jurisdictions where the company operates, and the complexity of the regulatory environment. Equity or a bonus tied to financial results is also important and often makes up a significant part of the package. Specific ranges depend on the market and the company.
Can I move into a Head of Strategy role from an operational position?
Yes, if in your operational role you owned the budget, planning, and results of a business line. It is important to show that you can see the whole picture, work with data, and frame decisions at the business level rather than only at the task level. Such moves are often supported through strategic initiative projects.
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