Managing Director, Creative Business Operations

Stand Together•Arlington, VA

11d•$185,000 - $225,000

About The Position

The Managing Director, Creative Business Operations serves as the senior executive responsible for the operating system of the Creative team. This role ensures the team has the financial discipline, resourcing, workflows, documentation, reporting, vendor management, and organizational relationships required to operate as a high-performing creative center of excellence. Reporting to the Senior Vice President of Content & Creative, this role functions as a strategic operator that bridges our Creative Services, Brand Publishing and Media Partnerships teams with our partners in Marketing Strategy, Events, Communications, Finance, and other enterprise functions. The Creative Business Operations leader drives clarity and accountability across these teams, always looking for the next-best opportunity for value creation and how they can drive on it. This leader will oversee the day-to-day business operations of the Creative team at an executive level, including vendor contracts, vendor partnerships, budget pacing, productivity reporting, operational planning, team workflows, and cross-functional coordination. The ideal candidate is someone who can move seamlessly from strategy to execution. They must exercise sound business judgment, lead through influence, manage ambiguity, and foster a culture of collaboration, while providing executive-level visibility into the Creative teamâ€™s function. This role requires someone who understands how creative teams operate, how to thrive within a matrixed organization, and how to build the infrastructure that enables creative talent to do their best work.

Requirements

Executive-level experience in creative operations. Marketing operations, chief of staff, or similar operational leadership roles are a plus.
Strong understanding of how creative, content, production, design, marketing, or agency teams operate.
Demonstrated ability to build operating systems, processes, and reports that drive executive level decision-making.
Experience managing or overseeing large vendor relationships, complex contracts, budgets, and financial planning processes.
Proven ability to lead through influence, drive accountability, resolve conflict, and build trust across teams with different priorities and working styles.
Superior writing skills and an ability to write a logically sound business case.
Strong analytical judgment and systems thinking.
Strong executive presence, judgment, and communication skills. An ability to distill the essential from the complex while advising senior leaders.
Practical knowledge of emerging AI capabilities.
Enthusiasm to contribute to Stand Together's vision and principled approach to solving problems, and a commitment to stewarding our culture, which champions values including transformation and innovation, entrepreneurialism, humility, and respect.

Responsibilities

Serve as the senior business operations leader for the Creative team, owning the systems, workflows, and relationships that enable the department to function efficiently and effectively, both internally and across the organization.
Partner with leadership to operationalize creative plans, manage follow-through, and ensure resources are allocated in line with priorities.
Develop reports on resource allocation and capacity planning, giving leadership clear visibility into the Creative teamâ€™s priorities, how resources are being used, and where capacity is constrained. Audit the systems in which these data are tracked, ensuring their accuracy and utility.
Support insource/outsource decisions by assessing workload, opportunity cost, and long-term strategic value.
Oversee creative contracts and vendor engagements. Manage vendor relationships, ensuring clear accountability, clarity on spending and pacing, and alignment with strategic priorities (in coordination with Finance, Vendor Management, and Vendor Strategy).
Build reports that show where Creative dollars are being spent, what value is being created, where tradeoffs exist, and where leadership decisions are needed.
Prepare formal recommendations and decision-making frameworks for creative investments in partnership with team leadership.
Identify learning opportunities by driving on after-actions and soliciting stakeholder feedback. Ensure insights carry through across projects and workstreams. Similarly, identify process gaps, unclear ownership, and other constraints; working across the whole Marketing & Communications team to identify and implement solutions.
Maintain essential documentation, including workflows, decision records, vendor information, reporting, and financial tracking.
Leverage AI and other tools to create efficiencies without sacrificing quality.