Director of Agency Operations & People

Hollywood Branded•Redondo Beach, CA

23h•Hybrid

About The Position

Hollywood Branded is a pop culture marketing and brand partnership agency founded in 2007. It connects brands and entertainment through product placement, brand integration, celebrity and creator partnerships, licensing, branded content, PR, and experiential programs. The agency is evolving from a project-based business into a scalable, tech-enabled business built on repeatable systems, recurring client relationships, and its [HB]Engine, [HB]Hub, and [HB]Box ecosystem. The Director of Agency Operations & People owns day-to-day operations, including how work moves across teams, how leaders make decisions, how technology is adopted, and how employees are supported and held accountable. This hands-on leadership role diagnoses operational problems, recommends and implements practical solutions, and measures results. The role aims to reduce routine CEO and COO involvement while preserving appropriate authority for functional leaders. It reports to the COO and operates independently within approved policies, budgets, and decision rights. Success includes clear ownership, milestones, reporting, and escalation paths for projects; effective operating rhythms and decision-ready monthly reporting; consistent management practices; measurable adoption and value from core tools; and tested backup coverage for critical processes. The role coordinates across departments, leads operational standards and process improvement, oversees business-side technology governance and adoption, measures capacity and delivery performance, and directly manages the Office Manager and designated operations staff. It also leads HR strategy and policy, handles sensitive employee matters with appropriate legal and executive guidance, and provides regular reporting to the COO. The first 90 days focus on auditing systems, HR risks, and workflows; establishing baselines and an issue tracker; implementing prioritized workflow improvements and decision-rights standards; confirming ownership of active projects; and launching operations reporting and continuity plans.

Requirements

At least 7 years of operations experience and at least 3 years directly managing people for Director level; candidates with at least 5 years of operations experience and 2 years directly managing people may be considered for Associate Director.
Demonstrated hands-on ownership of operations in a small or midsize business, approximately 10–75 employees, ideally an agency or professional services company.
Evidence of implementing cross-functional workflows, managing change, and holding peers accountable without relying on reporting authority.
Practical HR leadership experience, including sensitive employee matters, coaching, performance management, familiarity with California employment law, and knowing when to involve counsel.
Experience leading software and AI tool adoption with measurable business outcomes.
Comfort with resource planning, utilization, project financial indicators, dashboards, spreadsheets, and actionable reporting.
Strong judgment, discretion, direct communication, prioritization, and ability to implement solutions rather than only recommend them.
Bachelor's degree.

Nice To Haves

Agency, entertainment, or marketing experience.
SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, PHR, or SPHR certification.
Hands-on administration or change management experience with HubSpot, Microsoft 365, BambooHR, monday.com, or similar platforms.
Experience helping an organization launch an internal platform or scale from founder-led processes to delegated operations.
Practical experience designing AI-enabled workflows with clear human quality controls.

Responsibilities

Establish and enforce companywide standards for task ownership, project visibility, deadlines, documentation, internal communications, and escalations.
Coordinate across Partnerships, Production, Marketing, Finance, and Administration to remove blockers and address cross-functional handoff failures while department leaders retain responsibility for their teams and client strategy.
Oversee the operational journey from signed contract through onboarding, resourcing, delivery tracking, client reporting, invoicing handoffs, and closeout without personally managing every project.
Document recurring workflows, including the weekly Radar process, with decisions, owners, next steps, and follow-through.
Create a decision-rights and escalation matrix, including approvals reserved for executive leadership.
Identify single points of failure, train backup owners, and build continuity plans for multiweek executive absences.
Own business-side governance and adoption of the technology stack, including Microsoft 365, HubSpot, PandaDoc, monday.com, Canva, Fireflies, Timely, Claude, and BambooHR.
Audit tools, subscriptions, workflows, data quality, and user adoption; recommend what to retain, consolidate, improve, or retire.
Partner with the CEO/CTO and technical resources on operational requirements, testing, rollout, documentation, training, and adoption of [HB]Engine, [HB]Hub, and [HB]Box; engineering and architecture remain with the technical team.
Improve HubSpot reliability, intake and handoffs, data ownership, workflow visibility, and reporting consistency.
Introduce AI into repeatable workflows where it improves speed or quality; establish privacy, approval, and quality-check practices and measure outcomes.
Manage software licenses, renewals, vendors, access provisioning, and external technical support, and maintain clear system ownership.
Measure staff capacity, utilization, workload balance, delivery performance, and project profitability in partnership with Finance and functional leaders.
Identify and correct avoidable rework, delays, margin leakage, redundant approvals, and unclear ownership.
Recommend automation or process improvements before new headcount and identify when specialist support or additional capacity is needed.
Build an operating dashboard and weekly issue tracker with owners, actions, deadlines, and outcomes.
Directly manage the Office Manager and designated operations staff, and coach department managers on consistent management practices.
Maintain role definitions, onboarding standards, weekly 1:1 expectations, scorecards, and six-month performance and promotion review processes.
Assess role effectiveness against fair, job-related expectations and business needs; work with managers to address gaps, support development, and recognize strong performance.
Improve recruiting through structured interviews, practical candidate assessments, onboarding, and succession and backup planning.
Help managers provide timely feedback and document performance improvement plans; ensure appropriate approval and HR review before sensitive actions.
Lead HR strategy and policy while the Office Manager handles day-to-day HR administration, benefits and payroll vendor coordination, and recordkeeping.
Handle sensitive employee concerns, accommodations, leave matters, investigations, discipline, and separations confidentially, using consistent processes and appropriate legal guidance.
Maintain the handbook, required training, and compliance practices for California and federal employment requirements, including wage and hour and classification requirements.
Partner with employment counsel or HR advisers as needed and avoid independently making decisions reserved for counsel or executive approval.
Deliver a monthly COO report covering project health, capacity, profitability signals, tool adoption, people and HR trends, operational risks, and completed improvements.
Present recommendations, accountable owners, deadlines, and tradeoffs; enforce approved operating standards and route reserved decisions and unresolved conflicts through established approval paths.
Provide concise CEO/COO reporting and escalate urgent material client, financial, people, or compliance risks.
During the first 30 days, meet team leads, audit systems, HR risks, and core workflows, map recurring executive decisions, identify bottlenecks, launch an ownership tracker, and establish measurement baselines.
By days 31–60, implement three prioritized workflow improvements, establish an initial decision-rights and escalation matrix, confirm project owners and milestones, and start manager scorecard and meeting standards.
By days 61–90, launch a monthly operations dashboard and reporting, document high-risk workflows and backups, demonstrate early time, error, or escalation improvements, and deliver a six-month improvement and executive-dependency roadmap.
Work toward reducing routine operational escalations to the CEO/COO by approximately 50% from baseline where practical; assigning owners to at least 95% of active projects; and achieving at least 90% timely completion of required 1:1s, scorecards, and reviews.
Deliver 3–5 validated improvements with measured gains, issue all monthly operational reports on time, and test and document core workflow coverage during a planned leadership absence.