Creative Operations Manager

The Hillman Group, Inc.•Cincinnati, OH

About The Position

The Creative Operations Manager brings structure, clarity, and operational excellence to an in-house marketing and creative team. This role owns the systems, processes, and workflows that enable designers, photographers, videographers, and cross-functional partners to work efficiently and consistently across multiple channels. This position acts as a key partner and advocate for the creative team, helping manage workload, prioritize requests, and remove operational obstacles so the team can perform at their best.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in marketing, project management, communications, business operations, or equivalent experience.
4+ years in creative operations, design operations, project management, or in-house/agency creative production.
Strong understanding of digital, print, packaging, photography, video, and integrated creative workflows.
Proficiency with project management and proofing tools (Monday.com, Asana, Workfront, PowerBI, DAM platforms, etc.).
Expert organizational and project management skills with the ability to manage competing priorities and multiple concurrent deadlines.
Excellent communication skills for collaborating with creatives, cross-functional partners, and all levels of leadership.
Ability to translate business needs into operational workflows and actionable creative plans.
High attention to detail with a strong sense of brand integrity and creative quality.
Ability to evaluate and optimize processes, uncover inefficiencies, and implement scalable solutions.
Skilled at managing feedback loops, approval cycles, and stakeholder expectations.
Comfortable working in fast-paced environments with shifting priorities.
Tech-forward mindset with the ability to learn and champion new systems and tools.

Responsibilities

Audit, map, and optimize existing workflows, identifying bottlenecks and inefficiencies.
Build and document scalable processes for intake, scoping, routing, approvals, revisions, and delivery.
Establish and enforce a centralized request system with clear forms, briefs, and templates.
Triage, prioritize, and route requests based on business priorities and team capacity.
Balance standardization with flexibility to support efficiency without hindering creativity.
Manage the end-to-end creative project lifecycle digital, print, packaging, photography, video, social, and integrated campaigns.
Partner with creative and marketing leadership to refine briefs, clarify requirements, and translate strategic objectives into actionable production plans.
Track timelines, dependencies, and milestones, proactively removing roadblocks.
Lead project kickoff meetings, brief reviews, and ongoing status updates (including cross-functional updates to ensure clarity and alignment.
Monitor team bandwidth and balance to ensure equitable, sustainable distribution of work.
Plan resources based on marketing calendars, product launches, and seasonal priorities.
Identify gaps and work with the design team to coordinate freelance, contractor, or vendor support as needed.
Provide leadership with visibility into workload, constraints, and resourcing recommendations.
Own the review and approval workflow, ensuring routing and actionable stakeholder feedback.
Manage version control, asset organization, and tracking of proofs and final files throughout the creative lifecycle.
Serve as the final quality checkpoint, ensuring accuracy, consistency, compliance with guidelines, and readiness for distribution.
Serve as system administrator for project management platforms, proofing tools, and workflow systems.
Drive adoption of tools through training, documentation, and ongoing support.
Identify automation, integration, and technology improvements to increase team efficiency and scalability.
Track operational KPIs, such as project volume, turnaround time, revision cycles, utilization, and stakeholder satisfaction.
Use data to inform resource planning, process improvements, and workload management.
Conduct retrospectives and process reviews to optimize workflows and operational health.
Develop dashboards and reports to communicate team capacity, constraints, and operational priorities to leadership.
Serve as the operational liaison between the creative team and marketing, product, sales, ecommerce, and other partners.
Ensure stakeholders understand timelines, requirements, and approval responsibilities.
Maintain open communication across teams to ensure transparency, streamline handoffs, and avoid misalignment or rework.
Other duties as assigned.