Creative Services Manager

Wasserman•New York, NY

9d•$70,000 - $75,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Wasserman Creative is looking for a committed and proactive Creative Services Manager to join our team. This role is specifically focused on managing the development, production, and processes of experiential creative design and its execution, inclusive of potential extensions into video and social content. As a Manager for the Creative Services team, you will play a crucial role in ensuring flawless execution and delivery of creative work while collaborating with a diverse team of creatives, strategists, producers, technologists, account services and project managers towards the shared goal of producing a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the world’s top-leading brands and talent.

Requirements

3+ years of project management experience at a creative advertising agency or design studio or similar with a portfolio of experiential / event production and design.
Deep knowledge and understanding of creative planning, creative production, and design asset management fundamentals with a desire to learn and grow in the position.
Strong attention to detail and expert in multi-tasking
Able to remain calm and solutions-oriented under pressure, with the ability to mediate and navigate tense and stressful situations positively without panic
Strong written and oral communication skills, comfortable leading a creative team of diverse backgrounds and experience levels
Strong interpersonal skills to keep a Creative team inspired and engaged through rigorous project schedules
Unparalleled commitment to excellence — working nonstandard hours when necessary, travel as required, anticipating issues and communicating with diplomacy, identifying emerging platforms and trends to drive innovation
Proficiency with Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite applications and project management software Asana or similar.

Responsibilities

Serve as the organizational partner to an account’s Creative Lead and their working teams.
Become a guardian of the full creative process.
Manage creative schedules and creative brief intake to ensure a smooth kick off for any new creative project, co-drafting a project workback schedule so all event needs can be designed, produced and installed with enough time for stakeholder input.
Review client briefs to ensure the creative team has sufficient direction, resources, and brand guidelines / assets before kick off.
Facilitate communication between Creative and Client and Production teams to ensure all internal stakeholders are aware of current creative work, expected delivery dates, and any obstacles stalling completion.
Manage daily, weekly, and monthly creative work against overall project timelines and specific vendor deadlines, working closely with Creative Resourcing to report on weekly bandwidth.
Ensure daily Creative status updates that impact the wider team are communicated, documented and tracked in written communications.
Liaise with account and resourcing teams to ensure incremental creative fees & scopes are built, archived, and executed properly.
Conduct and manage internal Creative meetings to review current work and ensure Creative Leads review their teams’ output before client or larger internal reviews.
Responsible for agenda & note-taking for all Creative meetings, tracking next steps on Asana for full team visibility.
Review incoming net-new creative requests and flags priority/constraints with Project Management and Account management teams
Manage burn reports for creative teams and report results to senior leadership
Develop a trusting and communicative relationship with creative team members.
Work collaboratively with all departments; supporting colleagues in other teams on best practice creative project management, terminology, skillsets, process and ways of working.
Flag any potential issues or priority clashes with the Creative Services Team.
Help to flag training and upskilling opportunities within the team.
Collaborate with Production Leads on vendor deadlines, asset requirements
Manage the use of Asana for all creative production deliverables, project assignments, and creative status updates.
Assist with training Asana use to new team members as needed.
Ensure all creative deliverables are designed and produced by the right specialists, flagging where additional resources will be needed as development evolves.
Ensure all 3D design work (e.g floorplans, white models, in situ renders) is scoped accurately and developed with enough time to meet vendor, venue, and local government requirements, consulting with senior Creative Services teams on best practices.
Traffic all mechanical art files for each activation with internal Production Artist teams and external vendors.
Ensure all tech specifications are matched with production art files to mitigate any onsite surprises.
Documents creative production lessons for future activations and coalesces learnings into improvements for each activation iteration beyond the first.