Operations Lead - Brand Experiences

ITV Consumer Limited 2024; City of Westminster; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading media company in the UK is seeking an Operations Lead to manage contracting and external partnerships. You will oversee various projects, ensuring all activities meet ITV's high creative standards. The ideal candidate has extensive experience in creative operations or event management, excellent organizational skills, and a proactive approach. This role offers competitive benefits including flexible working, generous holiday allowance, and an annual bonus opportunity.

Benefits

Flexible working options

Generous holiday allowance

Annual bonus opportunity

Competitive pension contribution

Wellbeing and volunteering days

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in creative operations, production, or event management.
• Experience with event health and safety protocols and risk assessments.
• Knowledge of the agency landscape and entertainment brands.

Responsibilities

• Manage contracting for all third parties and external partners.
• Develop and maintain supplier base and manage risk assessments.
• Support producers with project delivery and resource planning.

Skills

Creative operations experience

Event management

Organizational skills

Project management skills

Communication skills

Resourcefulness

Job description

The Brand Experiences team is responsible for bringing the ITV brand and its IPs to life via experiences and events. Sitting within ITV Creative, the team works with Commissioning, Communications, Marketing and Publicity teams across the business to deliver B2C and B2B experiences targeted to a range of audiences: content creators, clients, colleagues, programme-makers, talent, competition winners, agencies and sponsor partners. The team does this by engaging agencies, freelancers, venues and suppliers in any combination in order to execute against a wide range of briefs. All project work is outsourced, and as such must be carefully assigned and guided by the Brand Experiences team in order to reflect the high creative standards and slick operation that our audiences are used to. The main purpose of the Operations Lead role is to ensure that all projects are adequately resourced and that all external engagements are contracted swiftly and safely, with payments being processed in record time.

Responsibilities

• Full ownership of contracting for all third parties and external partners (approximately 15 business entities and up to 6 Freelancers at any one time, drawn from a wider base)
• Ownership and development of Brand Experience supplier base, ensuring a live and accurate roster of strong talent
• Supporting Producers working on project delivery with vetting and contracting of suppliers, compiling Risk Assessments and managing the collation and approval of HSE plans
• Trafficking of incoming briefs, assessing their viability and recommending a resource plan and budget split for each project
• Tracking of all work, spend, allocations and briefs
• Developing close working partnership with stakeholders to ensure expectations are managed and then exceeded
• Supporting in brief creation for partner agencies, working with the Head of Brand Experiences to shape these from stakeholder briefs
• Managing onboarding of partners and Freelancers, with support from the Head of Brand Experiences
• Setting project timelines and payment milestones in partnership with BLA functions and stakeholders
• Reporting post-delivery and completing budgets by detailing reconciled spend if required
• Ensuring adherence to ITV plc's policies around Sustainability and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at all times

Qualifications

• A wealth experience in a creative operations, production or event management environment
• Experience managing and maintaining event health and safety protocols, risk assessments and method statements
• In-depth knowledge of the agency landscape and entertainment brands, ideally with experience working within one of these landscapes
• Confidence in making decisions at Executive Producer level, with a readiness to justify them if challenged
• Good understanding of database/delegate management software and systems

Key Criteria

• Resourcefulness: if there's a way to get things done or to adapt to a change mid-project, you'll do it if it's compliant and works for everyone else; you'll also keep people posted on any risks and how you plan to handle them
• Exceptional organisational, prioritisation and project management skills, with flawless attention to detail and pinpoint accuracy - especially when managing complex data, operational plans, tax reports and budgets
• Self-sufficient and proactive, comfortable working independently if needed
• A confident and clear communicator with excellent written and verbal skills - nobody leaves a meeting with you in any doubt, and your emails don't provoke many questions
• A flexible, agile approach. Able to adapt and respond to changing event requirements and conflicting priorities
• Ability to quickly build relationships across ITV departments and with external vendors/partners
• Acting with discretion and diplomacy, you instil trust in everyone you interact with
• Ability to remain calm in pressurised environments
• A curious realist - you're someone who wants to get close to the challenges and explore them fully before recommending a course of action that is within scope

Benefits

• Flexible working with a range of options
• Generous holiday allowance, plus you can buy more
• Annual bonus opportunity
• Competitive pension contribution
• Save as you earn - with an opportunity to buy ITV shares
• Wellbeing and volunteering days plus a wide range of opportunities to help you live a balanced and healthy life