Director, Operations, AI Innovation (Hybrid Philadelphia)

fingerpaint•Philadelphia, PA

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

Reset your expectations of a health and wellness agency. From our inception, Fingerpaint has been driven by an unstoppable collective spirit of possibility. It’s that curiosity that’s at the heart of everything we do. From our legendary people-first culture to the hundreds of Fingerpainters who define us, we’ve reimagined what it means to be a healthcare and wellness advertising agency. Here, creativity happens naturally—we attract top talent and give them a space to grow and collaborate. The Wet Paint AI Innovation team is a dedicated R&D group focused on transforming our ways of working with applied AI. We identify high-value opportunities and build the agents, tools, and workflows that will empower the broader agency to achieve its business goals with greater speed and precision. Role Overview The Director, Operations is the strategic architect of our efforts. You are responsible for "operationalizing the new" by working with the team to take prioritized, experimental pilots and transform them into scalable, robust capabilities for broad adoption. This role focuses on innovation velocity and adoption impact. You will work to ensure that our creative and technical teams are free to experiment without chaos, while simultaneously building the bridges that allow those experiments to cross over into the daily work of the agency. You are the steward of the agency’s investment in AI, ensuring resources are directed toward initiatives that yield the highest transformative value. Please note that this is a hybrid role that requires 2 days per week onsite in Philadelphia, PA.

Requirements

Minimum of 8–10 years of experience in project management and operations, program management, or innovation management, preferably within an agency or technology environment.
The "Change" Mindset: Understanding that this team’s "client" is often the agency itself. You have experience managing internal transformation initiatives or R&D programs where success is measured by value.
The AI Literacy: You understand the operational realities of the modern AI stack (APIs, token usage, model fine-tuning) and how to budget for them.
The Connector: Proven ability to partner with diverse stakeholders—from Product Managers and Engineers to Legal and Finance—to drive consensus and move complex initiatives forward.
The Tools: Proficiency in operational platforms (e.g., Jira, Asana, Workfront) and the ability to use data to tell the story of the team's impact.
The Leadership: Excellent communication and executive leadership skills, with the ability to advocate for new ways of working in a matrixed organization.

Responsibilities

Operationalizing Innovation Design and manage the lifecycle of innovation deliverables, defining clear operational pathways for how a project moves from "loose experiment" to "reliable internal tool."
Remove friction from the development process, ensuring that Creative Technologists and Engineers have the infrastructure and processes they need to build and iterate rapidly.
Oversee the operational rollout of new AI agents and workflows to the broader agency, ensuring that innovation translates into tangible efficiency gains for account and creative teams.
Product & Project Oversight Partner with Product Management to provide operational structure to the roadmap, ensuring that R&D efforts are resourced realistically and aligned with the agency’s broader strategic priorities.
Establish agile-inspired frameworks for delivery that allow for iteration and discovery, rather than rigid waterfall adherence.
Facilitate cross-functional collaboration, acting as the connector who ensures that our AI solutions are actually solving the right problems for our internal partners and clients.
Resource Stewardship & Impact Analysis Manage the AI investment budget, overseeing technology costs (compute, tokens, enterprise licensing) and optimizing spend to maximize the agency's R&D runway.
Move beyond standard profitability metrics to define and track the true ROI of our work (e.g., hours saved, speed-to-market acceleration, quality improvements).
Oversee resource allocation for the team, protecting time for deep-work exploration while ensuring we deliver on critical internal milestones.
Governance Enablement Partner with Agency Legal, Governance, and Policy roles to co-develop frameworks that enable innovation while managing risk.
Act as the implementation lead for compliance, ensuring that necessary guardrails are built into our operations and tools seamlessly, rather than acting as bottlenecks.
Champion the ethical application of technology, fostering a culture where speed and responsibility go hand in hand.