VP, Creative Agency Partnerships

Synchrony•Orlando, FL

17h•Hybrid

About The Position

Role Summary/Purpose: The Creative Agency Partnerships leader is responsible for overseeing the governance and financial management of external creative vendors and in-house contractors supporting the agency. This role ensures vendor partnerships remain strategically aligned, cost-efficient, and operationally effective, while strengthening Goldmind’s position as a creative center of excellence by focusing on engagement, advocacy, and enablement to drive smarter creative sourcing decisions across the organization. Acting as a bridge between Sourcing, Finance, Creative Operations, and functional teams, this role will strategically evaluate agency capabilities, assess gaps, manage purchase orders and invoices, review scopes and change orders for fairness, and strengthen accountability across the creative supply chain. Our Way of Working We’re proud to offer you flexibility. At Synchrony, our way of working allows you to have the option to work from home near one of our Hubs or come into one of our offices. Occasionally you will be required to commute or travel for in person engagement activities such as business or team meetings, training and culture events. Field Sales and some Commercial team roles may have varied location requirements based upon partner obligations or preferences.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Finance, or related field. In lieu of degree, a high school diploma and 8+ years of work experience in business, agency process management, project management or business operations
5+ years of experience in vendor management, procurement, or creative operations (agency or in-house experience preferred)
3+ years of experience in change management to shape enterprise behavior or adoption
Strong ability to navigate organizational hierarchy in a matrixed environment to influence cross-functional stakeholders
Strong ability to communicate with senior leadership (SVP/VP) in a polished and diplomatic manner, ensuring alignment, trust, and increased utilization of Goldmind’s capabilities
4+ years of strong understanding of marketing and creative campaign lifecycles
5 + years of strong financial acumen with hands-on experience managing purchase orders, contracts, and invoice processes
4+ years of proven ability to lead vendor evaluations and enforce best practice standards
Ability to assess creative partner capabilities and ensure alignment with creative standards
Ability and flexibility to travel for business as required

Nice To Haves

Strong attention to detail and ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously
Excellent cross-functional communication, organizational, conflict resolution and problem-solving abilities
Strong computer skills, particularly in MS Office, web-based applications, and project management software
Well-organized, flexible and identifies opportunities to take initiative

Responsibilities

Partners with business and marketing leaders early in campaign planning to influence creative sourcing decisions and advocate for in-house creative capabilities
Establishes strong enterprise relationships to help shift behavior toward more effective and efficient use of internal creative resources
Collaborates with business stakeholders to identify external creative vendor needs while maintaining alignment with enterprise Sourcing policies
Leads the vendor evaluation process from a creative perspective, ensuring all external partners meet clear business objective needs, and quality and pricing standards
Develops and maintains a preferred vendor list, ensuring that the roster remains optimized by capabilities and pricing, and does not expand without clear business justification
Partners with Sourcing, Finance and functional teams to ensure external agencies are charging fair market value, providing accurate scopes, and justified in change orders
Develops standardized agency scorecards to conduct regular quantitative performance measurements that include but are not limited to capabilities, price fairness, delivery quality, and overall value to the business
Identifies, implements, and enforces process controls to match business function needs with the appropriate creative partners, and identify capabilities gaps across our creative ecosystem
Captures patterns and insights from external agency engagements to inform creative leadership of emerging demand trends, perception gaps, and capability opportunities
Provides actionable strategies from qualitative feedback on selection criteria of external agencies where our in-house agency may need additional positioning or enablement support
Provides visibility into creative spend across external agencies and in-house contractors, strategizing opportunities for cost savings or consolidation
Champions the value of vendor governance by engaging and influencing senior leaders
Creates, tracks, and manages purchase orders for in-house contractors, and reviews and approves invoices to ensure accuracy and alignment with contract terms and work output
Supports strategic decision-making by providing reporting and analysis on vendor utilization, engagement costs, and external agency services
Champions process improvements across vendor evaluation and onboarding, agreement consistency, partnership accountability, scope review, and change order management
Perform other duties and/or special projects as assigned.