Marketing Financial Operations Manager

We're transforming the grocery industry At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers. Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join our table. Instacart is a Flex First team There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events. Learn more about our flexible approach to where we work. Why this role is on the menu Join our Marketing Strategic Operations team as the Marketing Financial Operations Manager — the connective tissue between Marketing's ambitions and its financial reality. This role owns the full orchestration of Marketing's spend across the total portfolio — from software and production expenses to media — giving leadership a unified, real-time view into how dollars are moving, where risk lives, and where opportunity exists. This isn't a reporting role. It's a judgment role — one that requires you to synthesize inputs from Finance, Accounting, Procurement, and Marketing leads into a single version of the truth, and to hold that standard even when the inputs are messy or late. About the Team Marketing Strategic Operations enables the entire Marketing function by connecting strategy to execution. We own the operating rhythms, investment management infrastructure, and analytical frameworks that allow Marketing leadership to make faster, more confident decisions. This role sits at the center of that work.   What you'll cook up in your first year Own the full Marketing spend operating model across the total portfolio — including templates, spend cadences, actuals integration, and leadership reporting. Serve as the primary liaison between Marketing and Finance, Accounting, and Procurement — managing the monthly close process, accrual accuracy, and spend-to-plan reconciliation with rigor and speed. Maintain a unified, real-time view of spend health across all Marketing leads — surfacing risks, flagging execution gaps, and identifying reallocation opportunities before they become leadership problems. Engage directly with budget owners to validate assumptions, pressure-test spend commitments, and ensure line items reflect what teams are actually going to do — not just what they've planned. Build and maintain AI-assisted workflows that reduce manual effort in recurring spend processes — actuals tagging, variance reporting, spend updates — and continuously identify new automation opportunities. Produce decision-ready outputs for Marketing leadership and cross-functional partners — not just accurate data, but synthesized narratives that make tradeoffs clear. Partner with Finance and Procurement to streamline purchasing and approval processes, improve spend governance, and ensure portfolio integrity across all categories.   The secret ingredients we're looking for Must-have pantry staples (Minimum Qualifications) 5+ years of experience in FP&A, marketing operations, or a related strategic operations function. Demonstrated experience owning a full spend portfolio end-to-end — not just contributing to one. Strong command of financial modeling, variance analysis, and spend accuracy improvement. Track record of building or automating recurring financial workflows — with spec