Resource & Operations Manager

Lightburn•Milwaukee, WI

About The Position

Lightburn is creating a new internal role to support our continued growth and operational maturity. The Resource & Operations Manager ensures our people, work, and revenue stay aligned as we scale. This role is a strong fit for a Project Manager who gravitates toward workflow design, capacity planning, and understanding how operational decisions affect both people and profitability. You'll spend most of your time on resource planning and building internal relationships across the agency. The right person enjoys spotting patterns, anticipating constraints, and improving systems. Because this is a new role, part of the initial responsibilities will involve refining how resource planning, workload coordination, and budget visibility come together in a sustainable, repeatable way.

Requirements

5+ years in an agency, professional services, or similar environment
Experience in project management, operations, or resource planning roles
Proficiency with resource management platforms (Productive, Float, or similar)
Strong ability to work with data and surface insights that drive planning decisions
Systems thinker who connects operational decisions to people, budgets, and delivery outcomes
Proactive problem-solver who anticipates constraints and surfaces risks early
Strong communicator who can facilitate conversations about tradeoffs and priorities

Nice To Haves

Entrepreneurial spirit and comfort with ambiguity in a growing agency
Experience with project management tools like Asana or Monday.com
Background as a producer or project manager
Natural curiosity about how work flows through teams and where inefficiencies hide

Responsibilities

Own Lightburn’s approach to capacity planning, resource allocation, and utilization tracking.
Maintain a clear, forward-looking view of current and upcoming workload.
Identify and resolve resourcing risks and bottlenecks early.
Balance capacity allocation between ongoing retainer work and project-based work, ensuring both workstreams remain visible and prioritized appropriately.
Align team resourcing with priorities, timelines, and budgets in collaboration with Producers, Account Managers, and leadership.
Model new business resourcing scenarios for the growth team, with a focus on feasibility, timing, and impact.
Provide leadership with insight into utilization, profitability, and operational health.
Facilitate internal workload and sprint planning conversations to ensure capacity and planned work stay aligned.
Maintain visibility into upcoming sprint capacity by client and team.
Proactively flag misalignment (e.g., capacity exists but work is not groomed or ready).
Surface readiness gaps and support prioritization decisions with Account Managers and Producers.
Ensure work is queued intentionally rather than reactively.
Maintain visibility into project and engagement budgets to support informed resourcing decisions.
Identify internal budget risk signals (e.g., burn trends, mismatches between planned and actual effort).
Support budget close-out processes, ensuring work is wrapped cleanly and learnings are captured.
Partner with finance and leadership to connect capacity planning to financial performance.
Develop and maintain planning tools, dashboards, and reports that support decision-making.
Ensure projects are ready to bill by confirming time entries and project status before invoices are issued.
Document and improve internal processes related to resourcing, planning, and budget management.