Fractional Chief Orchestration Officer

Executive Orchestration | San Francisco, United States | Remote, Remote | Fractional / Advisory Retainer |

Working at Atlassian

Atlassians can choose where they work, whether in an office, from home, or a combination of the two. That way, Atlassians have more control over supporting their family, personal goals, and other priorities. We can hire people in any country where we have a legal entity.

Atlassian is expanding the operating model behind modern teamwork. As agentic systems become part of how plans are made, work is delegated, and execution is coordinated across products and functions, operations increasingly becomes an orchestration discipline: defining how humans, agents, workflows, and governance artifacts move together with clarity.

Your future team

We’re hiring a Fractional Chief Orchestration Officer to work with the Office of the CEO as an embedded executive advisor and builder. This is a senior, cross-company role responsible for establishing the frameworks, rituals, and material prototypes that make multi-agent work legible, governable, and genuinely useful.

You’ll help Atlassian define how orchestration should work across centralized, hierarchical, and federated modes; how task assignment and handoffs should happen between people and agents; how context should move without unnecessary duplication; and how the implications of new orchestration patterns can become new internal capabilities, new service models, and new product opportunities.

This role is designed for a true generalist. You should be technically fluent, organizationally credible, and humanities-informed. You’ve worked across disciplines with real stakes, and you know how to turn abstract futures into decision-grade artifacts, operating models, and working prototypes.

What you'll do

Partner with the Office of the CEO, product, engineering, IT, AI, legal, and operations leaders to define Atlassian’s orchestration strategy for human-and-agent teamwork.
Design orchestration frameworks for task sequencing, escalation, routing, handoffs, and review across centralized, hierarchical, and federated operating conditions.
Create material prototypes, workflow artifacts, service concepts, and governance instruments that help teams understand how orchestration should function before it is broadly deployed.
Develop approaches for agent selection, task assignment, context sharing, dependency management, and fault tolerance across internal and customer-facing systems.
Surface second-order implications early and translate them into roadmap adjustments, operating recommendations, and new concepts for products and services.
Establish clear human oversight points, intervention paths, and accountability models so orchestration systems remain legible and auditable.
Work with senior leaders to operationalize orchestration as an enterprise capability rather than a narrow workflow optimization exercise.

Qualifications

Your background

12+ years of experience working across technical, organizational, and strategic domains with evidence of influence at executive level.
Demonstrated ability to think like an engineer while exercising strong judgment shaped by the humanities, STS, anthropology, design research, or adjacent fields.
Track record of building real artifacts, systems, or prototypes that changed how organizations made decisions.
Experience designing or operating complex workflows involving multiple teams, tools, or semi-autonomous systems.
Exceptional communication skills across writing, facilitation, synthesis, and executive briefings.
A history of multidisciplinary practice with genuine stakes; this role is not intended for narrow specialists or domain tourists.
Experience outside rigid corporate ladders, including entrepreneurship, independent practice, institution-building, field work, or community leadership, is a strong positive signal.

Bonus points if you have

Experience creating both software and hardware-adjacent prototypes, or leading teams that work across digital and physical systems.
A serious creative practice, including writing, publishing, speaking, making, teaching, or public-facing synthesis work.
Experience with agentic systems, automation governance, decision-support tooling, or multi-party workflow design.
Experience building small, senior, high-leverage teams that can move between research, prototyping, and implementation.
A demonstrated ability to convert implications into investable concepts, pilots, and operational wedges.

How this role works

This is a fractional executive engagement structured as an advisory retainer with substantial embedded operating time.
Reports directly to the Office of the CEO and works in close partnership with senior leaders across product, platform, AI, legal, and people teams.
Expected to help build the first version of a compact orchestration function, including operating cadence, artifact standards, and early hiring guidance.
Periodic travel is expected for executive reviews, working sessions, and cross-site orchestration workshops.

Compensation

At Atlassian, we strive to design equitable, explainable, and competitive compensation programs. For this role, our advisory compensation range is calibrated to senior executive-level impact and is ultimately determined by a candidate's skills, expertise, and experience.

In the United States, our current annualized cash retainer range for this engagement is:

Zone A: USD 420,000 - 620,000

Zone B: USD 380,000 - 560,000

Zone C: USD 340,000 - 505,000

This role may also be eligible for benefits, bonuses, equity, travel support, and prototyping infrastructure relevant to the scope of the engagement.

Please visit go.atlassian.com/payzones for more information on which locations are included in each of our geographic pay zones. However, please confirm the zone for your specific location with your recruiter.

Atlassian offers a wide range of perks and benefits designed to support you, your family, and to help you engage with your local community. Our offerings include health and wellbeing resources, paid volunteer days, and so much more. To learn more, visit go.atlassian.com/perksandbenefits.

Experience that helps

Advanced degree or equivalent experience in computer science, systems engineering, HCI, design, anthropology, STS, organizational studies, media arts, or a similarly hybrid discipline.
Equivalent non-traditional paths are welcome when supported by a strong body of shipped work and multidisciplinary authorship.
Portfolio or work samples should demonstrate both analytical rigor and evidence of making.

More about this role

This role exists to make orchestration concrete. The work is not limited to governance decks or workflow diagrams. The expectation is that you will create prototypes, briefs, models, and operating artifacts that help teams see what coordinated human-and-agent work actually requires before it becomes default infrastructure.

About Atlassian

At Atlassian, we're motivated by a common goal: to unleash the potential of every team. Our software products help teams all over the planet and our solutions are designed for all types of work. Team collaboration through our tools makes what may be impossible alone, possible together.

We believe that the unique contributions of all Atlassians create our success. To ensure that our products and culture continue to incorporate everyone’s perspectives and experience, we never discriminate based on race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

To provide you the best experience, we can support with accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process. Simply inform our Recruitment team during your conversation with them.

To learn more about our culture and hiring process, visit go.atlassian.com/crh.

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