Single Grain is hiring a Senior Director of Operations to lead operational transformation across the company.
We are evolving from a traditional digital marketing agency into a lean, AI-enabled services and product organization designed for scale, efficiency, and measurable business impact. This role exists to architect that transition.
You will be responsible for strengthening operational infrastructure, improving profitability, increasing revenue efficiency, and leading company-wide AI integration. This is a mission-critical leadership position with direct accountability for financial performance, operational rigor, and AI-driven leverage across the organization.
If you are looking for a comfortable executive seat, this is not it. If you want to build the operating system behind a high-performance, AI-enabled agency - read on.
Measurable financial improvement is expected within the first two quarters.
Single Grain is a fast-moving, award-winning, AI-driven digital marketing agency. We’ve been helping top brands like Amazon, Uber, and Salesforce grow since 2009. We specialize in Paid Media, SEO, Content Marketing, CRO, and more - powered by a lean, high-performing team focused on smart, impactful work.
We don’t just use AI, we build it. We’ve created proprietary AI tools including Karrot.ai, an AI-powered performance marketing system that generates ads, landing pages, and campaign assets in seconds, and, ClickFlow, an AI-driven SEO experimentation platform that helps teams identify content opportunities, optimize pages, and increase organic traffic through systematic testing and workflow automation.
These tools aren’t side projects, they’re embedded into how we operate and how we serve clients.
We practice what we preach: our podcast has 150+ million downloads, and more than 193,000 marketers subscribe to our YouTube channel.
We move quickly, push hard, and expect a lot from ourselves and each other. AI isn’t just a tool we use, it’s core to how we operate, from creative to strategy to execution. Our long-term vision is to build a small but elite team that stays lean, scrappy, and relentlessly focused on tech-enabled innovation and measurable business impact.
We don’t micromanage. We don’t hire people who need their hands held. But we do collaborate deeply, give honest feedback, and leave space for mistakes, growth, and iteration. No egos, no fluff, just people who care about doing great work and supporting each other.
Improve revenue efficiency across the organization
Expand net margin through structural improvements
Install financial visibility and reporting systems
Drive utilization, pricing discipline, and service-line profitability
Build and enforce accountability metrics across leadership
Implement AI-driven automation across operations and delivery
Increase company-wide AI fluency
Redesign org structure where necessary to align with profitability
Address underperformance quickly and directly
Build operational systems that scale without unnecessary headcount growth
Remove the CEO from day-to-day operational firefighting
Put “AI is cool” as the first line of your cover letter or subject line, or your application will not be reviewed.
Digital marketing agency experience
Prior ownership of agency P&L
Demonstrated improvement of contribution margin by client or service line
Proven track record scaling or stabilizing a services business
Advanced AI fluency (Power User level)
AI experience is not optional.
You must demonstrate hands-on capability in:
AI-driven financial modeling
Operational automation systems
Prompt workflow design
AI process innovation
AI tool implementation across teams
Strategic AI thinking at the executive level
If you are “AI-curious” but have not personally built or implemented systems, this role is not a fit.
Ideal Profile
You are:
A systems thinker, not a task manager
Financially rigorous and margin-obsessed
Comfortable confronting underperformance immediately
Biased toward action - you ship fast
Calm under pressure
Capable of upgrading talent and building bench strength
Viewed as both a stabilizer and an enforcer
Strategically sharp with operational depth
Pure project managers
Operators without agency experience
Corporate bureaucrats without hands-on scaling experience
Politically cautious leaders who avoid direct confrontation
AI novices or surface-level users
We will aggressively screen for:
Quantified margin improvement stories
Revenue efficiency improvements (before/after metrics)
AI systems personally built or led
Handling of underperformance and accountability enforcement
Organizational redesign under pressure
Finalists will complete:
Strategic working session
Live AI capability demonstration
Financial modeling walkthrough
Reports to: CEO
Team Size: ~30 FTE
Location: Los Angeles (Hybrid - M/T/W in office)
Base Salary: $175,000–$200,000
Performance Incentives: Tied directly to:
Revenue efficiency growth
Net margin expansion
AI-driven efficiency gains
Upside directly correlates to measurable financial impact.