Apply for Senior Director, Content Operations Lead (US)

Code and Theory, LLC; New York, Northern (NY, KY); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Code and Theory is hiring a Content Operations Lead to design and stand up scalable content services for enterprise clients, from initial model design through go-live and handover. You will work across client teams, production leads, and platform owners to rewrite processes while live work moves through it.

You will drive the full lifecycle, governance, and measurement; shape cross-functional teams; and lead a delivery pod with offshore and partners.

Qualifications

• 10-15 years across content operations, creative production, marketing operations, consulting, or transformation delivery with meaningful time spent both advising and operating.
• Deep fluency in how content actually gets made at enterprise scale.
• A track record of shipping in enterprise environments.
• A history of building pipelines, methods, or production capabilities that outlived the engagement that created them.
• Commercial instinct to shape scopes, build capacity models, defend margin, and grow accounts through proof-driven expansion.
• A background that bridges creative production or studio operations and consulting or transformation work.
• Direct experience standing up a service, studio, shared service center, or production pod from design through go-live and stabilization.
• Working command of the transition lifecycle and the entry and exit criteria at each gate.

Responsibilities

• Map the full content lifecycle end-to-end and the organizational model underneath it.
• Diagnose where the current model breaks and capacity that cannot absorb peak.
• Design the target-state service model and the decision rights that govern all of it.
• Define the governance layer so that compliance can say yes at speed rather than at the end.
• Establish the measurement framework before go-live, with baselines set for cycle time, first-pass approval rate, reuse rate, cost per asset, and on-time delivery.
• Build the activation plan with named owners against every dependency.
• Stand up the service model so the operating infrastructure is working before volume arrives.
• Resource and onboard the team.
• Run the cutover.
• Stabilize the service post-launch through office hours, support, performance monitoring against baselined SLAs and KPIs, model refinement, and a transition close-out that documents what remains open.
• Redesign the operating model around AI-native capability.
• Define the new ways of working, reshape workflows, roles, decision rights and handoffs around them.
• Collaborate with engineers and creative technologists to stand up the content stack, both out of the box and custom built.
• Codify standards, brand compliance, legal review for machine-consumption
• Prototype to accelerate delivery, using prompts, prototypes and lightweight internal tools to prove patterns quickly before scaling them through engineering
• Own VP-to-C-suite relationships across CMO, CCO, content operations lead, and platform owner, and the cross-functional teams that intersect to ship the work
• Translate between the CMO's brand and growth agenda, production's capacity and craft constraints
• Lead the delivery pod, including casting, offshore and partner capacity management
• Shape commercial strategy
• Run the workshops and steering reviews
• Convert proven engagements into reusable accelerators, methods, and offerings
• Develop thought leadership and case studies that earn the next engagement
• Shape partnerships with platform and ecosystem players (Adobe, Pencil, Typeface) and contribute to joint go-to-market plays
• Set the bar for what full-stack, AI-fluent, embedded delivery looks like in the content operations domain

Skills

Enterprise content ops

Program leadership

Change management

Content lifecycle design

Governance & compliance

Resource planning

Cross-functional collaboration

Stakeholder management

AI-enabled delivery

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Job description

Code and Theory is hiring a Content Operations Lead to join our Enterprise Transformation team. This role is responsible for standing up and running scaled content services for enterprise clients — from initial service model design through go-live, stabilization, and handover to the client organization.

Depending on the client engagement, this role may operate in a forward-deployed capacity, embedded inside a client team, working alongside their production leads, creative teams, agencies, and platform owners to redesign and run content operations in real time. That means participating in the intake queue, the production schedule, and the review cycle directly, and rewriting the process while live work moves through it.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Map the full content lifecycle end-to-end and the organizational model underneath it
• Diagnose where the current model breaks and capacity that cannot absorb peak
• Design the target-state service model and the decision rights that govern all of it
• Define the governance layer so that compliance can say yes at speed rather than at the end
• Establish the measurement framework before go-live, with baselines set for cycle time, first-pass approval rate, reuse rate, cost per asset, and on-time delivery
• Build the activation plan with named owners against every dependency
• Stand up the service model so the operating infrastructure is working before volume arrives
• Resource and onboard the team
• Run the cutover
• Stabilize the service post-launch through office hours, support, performance monitoring against baselined SLAs and KPIs, model refinement, and a transition close-out that documents what remains open
• Redesign the operating model around AI-native capability
• Define the new ways of working, reshape workflows, roles, decision rights and handoffs around them
• Collaborate with engineers and creative technologists to stand up the content stack, both out of the box and custom built
• Codify standards, brand compliance, legal review for machine-consumption
• Prototype to accelerate delivery, using prompts, prototypes and lightweight internal tools to prove patterns quickly before scaling them through engineering
• Own VP-to-C-suite relationships across CMO, CCO, content operations lead, and platform owner, and the cross-functional teams that intersect to ship the work
• Translate between the CMO's brand and growth agenda, production's capacity and craft constraints
• Lead the delivery pod, including casting, offshore and partner capacity management
• Shape commercial strategy
• Run the workshops and steering reviews
• Convert proven engagements into reusable accelerators, methods, and offerings
• Develop thought leadership and case studies that earn the next engagement
• Shape partnerships with platform and ecosystem players (Adobe, Pencil, Typeface) and contribute to joint go-to-market plays
• Set the bar for what full-stack, AI-fluent, embedded delivery looks like in the content operations domain

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

• 10-15 years across content operations, creative production, marketing operations, consulting, or transformation delivery with meaningful time spent both advising and operating
• Deep fluency in how content actually gets made at enterprise scale
• A track record of shipping in enterprise environments
• A history of building pipelines, methods, or production capabilities that outlived the engagement that created them
• Commercial instinct to shape scopes, build capacity models, defend margin, and grow accounts through proof-driven expansion
• A background that bridges creative production or studio operations and consulting or transformation work
• Direct experience standing up a service, studio, shared service center, or production pod from design through go-live and stabilization
• Working command of the transition lifecycle and the entry and exit criteria at each gate
• Hands-on experience with the unglamorous half, including resourcing, knowledge transfer, readiness testing, phased ramp, SLA baselining, and transition close-out
• Proven record driving adoption in an organization that did not want the change
• A bias toward shipping
• Ability to decompose a content workflow into demand, capacity, quality gates, automation, and human-in-the-loop steps that hold up under volume
• Accountability to outcomes
• Comfort in ambiguity
• Bachelor's Degree

NICE TO HAVE

• Willingness to travel within the US (20-30%)

ABOUT US

Born in 2001, Code and Theory is a digital-first creative agency that sits at the center of creativity and technology. We pride ourselves on not only solving consumer and business problems, but also helping to establish new capabilities for our clients. With a global client roster of Fortune 100s and start-ups alike, we crave the hardest problems to solve. We have teams distributed across North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. The Code and Theory global network of agencies is growing and includes Kettle, Instrument, Left Field Labs, Create Group, Current, and TrueLogic.

Striving never to be pigeonholed, we work across every major category: from tech to CPG, financial services to travel & hospitality, government and education to media and publishing. We value the collaboration with our client partners, including but not limited to Adidas, Amazon, Con Edison, Diageo, EY, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lenovo, Marriott, Mars, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, and TikTok.

The Code and Theory network is comprised of nearly 2,000 people with 50% engineers and 50% creative talent. We’re always on the lookout for smart, driven, and forward-thinking people to join our team.

The target range of compensation for this role is $160,000 - $220,000. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and location.