Creative Operations Manager

About the role

The Creative Operations Manager will own the end‑to‑end pipeline of all creative work, ensuring projects across design, 3D/CGI, post‑production and technology are delivered on time and within budget. This role bridges strategy, creative, tech and project‑management teams, using data‑driven processes and AI‑enabled tools to keep the studio operating efficiently.

Key responsibilities

• Maintain a master pipeline of active creative projects, flagging delays or capacity conflicts before they affect delivery.
• Allocate resources across departments, forecast capacity, and recommend hiring or freelance support to avoid bottlenecks.
• Manage the freelance network end‑to‑end: onboarding, rate negotiation, relationship management, quality review and invoice coordination with Finance.
• Track studio‑side project cost versus effort, alert leadership to overruns and identify loss‑making projects early.
• Design, document and enforce SOPs for creative workflows from brief intake to final quality control.
• Improve communication loops between Strategy, Creative, Tech and Project Management to reduce friction.
• Own financial tracking tools that monitor studio margin and keep project actuals accurate.
• Leverage AI tools to automate planning, reporting, documentation and workflow management, continuously evolving the toolset.

Required profile

• 5+ years of experience in creative operations, studio management or senior project management within a creative agency, production studio, post‑production house or in‑house creative team.
• Proven track record managing pipelines for multidisciplinary creative teams.
• Strong numerical aptitude – able to read project P&Ls, track cost versus effort and spot margin issues early.
• Demonstrated ability to design SOPs that are adopted by teams.
• Excellent communicator with creative, technical and commercial stakeholders, trusted by senior leadership.
• Hands‑on experience with AI tools for production and operations.

Required skills

• Project management tools
• AI tools for production and operations
• Financial tracking tools