Director, Creative Operations - Global Brand & Commercial

JOB SUMMARY:

The Director, Creative Operations serves as a strategic operational partner to the head of Global Brand as part of the centralized Commercial Operations & Analytics organization. This role enables a modern creative operating model designed to scale global brand storytelling, high-volume content production, executive creative reviews, and cross-functional marketing delivery.

The role will work in close partnership with Creative leadership and key cross-functional partners to bring a strategic approach to creative operations, creating clearer workflows, stronger planning visibility, smoother approvals, and end-to-end alignment across the Brand Creative Studio. This role will help ensure Creative's needs are represented in broader platform, content supply chain, personalization, and transformation efforts, while preserving Creative leadership's ownership of strategy, brand standards, and creative quality. Instead, the role provides the operational structure, visibility, and coordination that allow creative teams to focus on bold ideas, brand stewardship, and business impact.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Operational Partnership with Creative Leadership

• Serve as a close operational partner to creative leadership, helping translate priorities into clear operating plans, decision paths, follow-through, and cross-functional alignment.

• Provide visibility into key Brand Creative Studio workstreams, workflow bottlenecks, approval status, operational risks, and dependencies requiring leadership attention.

• Help prepare for executive reviews, creative decision meetings, escalation discussions, and cross-functional leadership forums.

• Ensure issues requiring EVP or Creative leadership attention are surfaced with the right context, options, and recommended next steps.

• Brand & Creative Studio Workflow Governance

• Establish and maintain consistent operating rhythms, intake practices, workflow standards, review processes, and escalation paths across Brand & Creative Studio work.

• Partner with Platform Operations, Scrum Masters / Creative Delivery Leads, Program Managers, and Project Managers to optimize workflows across Workfront, DAM, proofing systems, and related workflow platforms.

• Identify process and technology gaps, workflow bottlenecks, duplicated efforts, unclear handoffs, and approval inefficiencies; lead improvements that increase visibility, consistency, and speed.

• Support documentation of roles, responsibilities, handoffs, decision rights, governance forums, and approval pathways.

• Planning, Demand & Capacity

• Partner with Portfolio Management, Agency Management, Program Management, Project Management, and Scrum Masters / Creative Delivery Leads to surface Brand Creative Studio demand, capacity constraints, sequencing risks, workflow dependencies, and operational needs into centralized planning processes.

• Provide Brand Creative Studio operational inputs into portfolio planning, annual planning, roadmap development, and initiative sequencing.

• Help ensure Brand Creative Studio teams are engaged early in planning cycles so creative strategy, production needs, review timing, and approval requirements are incorporated into realistic end-to-end plans.

• Support holistic resource and capacity planning by providing visibility into creative demand and operational constraints, while centralized planning and prioritization remain owned through the broader Commercial Operations model.

• Content Operations, Platform & Transformation Support

• Represent Brand Creative Studio needs in broader IT, workflow, platform, content supply chain, personalization, and transformation initiatives.

• Partner with platform, technology, and operations teams to ensure creative requirements are understood and incorporated into future-state tools, processes, and workflows.

• Support modernization of creative operations, including opportunities related to personalization, modular content, digital asset management, approval automation, and enterprise workflow transformation.

• Translate operational pain points into actionable process, platform, governance, and change management improvements.

• Executive Reviews, Approvals & Escalations

• Ensure executive review processes are well-structured, clearly sequenced, and supported with appropriate preparation, materials, timing, and stakeholder alignment.

• Partner with Program Managers and Project Managers to ensure creative approvals are integrated into end-to-end timelines and do not become late-stage blockers.

• Support escalation pathways to the EVP, Global Creative and Brand & Creative Studio leadership when decisions, tradeoffs, or priority calls are needed.

• Ensure Marketing Assurance workflows are coordinated effectively with creative routing, stakeholder review, legal/IP/compliance processes, and final approval readiness.

• Understand and actively participate in Environmental, Health & Safety responsibilities by following established UO policy, procedures, training, and team member involvement activities.

• Perform other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Strong understanding of creative operations, brand operations, content operations, production workflows, and enterprise marketing delivery.
• Experience partnering directly with senior creative, brand, marketing, or business executives, preferably in a large matrixed organization.
• Demonstrated ability to translate executive priorities into clear operating plans, workflows, decision paths, and follow-through.
• Experience supporting or improving creative workflows across intake, planning, production, review, approval, asset management, and delivery.
• Knowledge of content supply chain, personalization, modular content, digital asset management, workflow automation, and/or marketing transformation initiatives.
• Experience with workflow and collaboration platforms such as Workfront, DAM systems, proofing tools, creative workflow tools, or similar enterprise platforms.
• Strong understanding of portfolio, program, and project management practices, including how creative work connects to broader business priorities, timelines, budgets, and resource planning.
• Ability to identify workflow bottlenecks, unclear handoffs, duplicated efforts, approval gaps, and operational risks, and translate them into practical solutions.
• Strong executive communication skills, including the ability to prepare leaders for reviews, decision meetings, escalation discussions, and cross-functional forums.
• Proven ability to influence across creative, marketing, operations, technology, platform, production, and project delivery teams.
• Ability to bring structure, clarity, and operating discipline to complex environments without slowing down creativity or adding unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Strong facilitation, problem-solving, stakeholder management, and change management skills.
• Ability to operate with discretion, anticipate leadership needs, and surface issues with appropriate context, options, and recommended next steps.
• Collaborative leadership style with a focus on transparency, accountability, continuous improvement, and business impact.
• Familiarity with legal, IP, compliance, stakeholder review, and marketing assurance workflows preferred.
• Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• Consistent attendance is a job requirement.

EDUCATION:

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Business Administration, Creative Operations, Advertising, Media Production, Digital Marketing, Project Management, Operations Management, or a related field required.
• Master's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Communications, Organizational Leadership, or related field preferred.

EXPERIENCE:

• 8+ years of experience in creative operations, marketing operations, content operations, production operations, program management, project management, or related enterprise marketing functions.
• 3+ years of experience supporting or leading operational processes for creative, brand, production, digital, UX/UI, content, or marketing delivery teams.
• Experience partnering directly with senior creative, brand, marketing, operations, technology, or business leaders in a matrixed organization.
• Experience managing or improving creative workflows across intake, planning, production, stakeholder review, executive approval, asset management, delivery, and post-launch optimization.
• Experience working with portfolio, program, and project management teams to connect creative work to broader business priorities, timelines, budgets, dependencies, and capacity planning.
• Experience supporting executive review processes, leadership forums, creative approvals, escalation management, and cross-functional decision-making.
• Experience with workflow and collaboration platforms such as Workfront, DAM systems, proofing tools, creative workflow systems, project management tools, or similar enterprise platforms.
• Experience supporting content operations, content supply chain, personalization, modular content, digital asset management, workflow automation, or marketing transformation initiatives preferred.
• Experience identifying process gaps, workflow bottlenecks, unclear handoffs, approval inefficiencies, and operational risks, then translating them into practical process improvements.
• Experience leading through influence across cross-functional teams, including Creative, Brand, Marketing, Production, UX/UI, Legal/IP, Compliance, Technology, Platform Operations, Portfolio Management, Program Management, and Project Management.
• Supervisory, people leadership, or matrixed team leadership experience preferred.
• Experience in travel, hospitality, entertainment, media, theme parks, consumer brand, agency, or high-volume creative production environments preferred.
• ; or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Your talent, skills and experience will be rewarded with a competitive compensation package.

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