Creative Operations Manager

Applecart; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 95,000 - 115,000; Full time

Job summary

Applecart is seeking a Creative Operations Manager in New York to build and manage the day-to-day operating system for the growing creative function. This hands-on role covers intake prioritization, workflow visibility, deadline tracking, production coordination and process improvement, collaborating with the Design Director, Client Services and other teams to ensure timely, high-quality outputs.

The ideal candidate brings 4+ years in creative operations, strong production process knowledge, and

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience in managing creative operations and workflows in fast-paced agency/media/client service environments.
• Strong understanding of creative production processes including intake, briefing, production, review, revisions, delivery and handoff.
• Experience with paid media, digital advertising, programmatic display, social ads.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to give clear status updates and surface risks early.
• Experience working with designers, creative leads, account/client service teams, media teams and external vendors.
• Comfort managing day-to-day project details and broader process improvements.
• Familiarity with project management tools such as Asana or similar platforms.
• Familiarity with Adobe Creative Cloud workflows, source-file management and digital asset organization.
• Experience supporting political, advocacy, public affairs, issue-based or other fast-turn campaign work is a plus.
• Experience managing creative workflows with remote, offshore or vendor-based design teams is a plus.
• Experience building creative operations processes in a growing or evolving function is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Manage the day-to-day creative queue, including intake, task setup, prioritization, assignments, status updates and delivery tracking.
• Review incoming creative requests to confirm scope, assets, specs, timing, priority and required context before work moves into production.
• Partner with the Design Director to triage standard, rush and same-day creative requests based on business need, capacity and delivery requirements.
• Maintain clear visibility into what is assigned, in progress, at risk, ready for review, delivered and awaiting feedback.
• Coordinate with designers to ensure work is moving through the queue accurately and efficiently.
• Track asset counts, deliverables, due dates, revision rounds and handoffs across multiple active requests.
• Help manage rush requests by clarifying priorities, surfacing tradeoffs and communicating timing clearly.
• Ensure working files, source files, final exports and supporting assets are organized and accessible in approved systems.
• Help enforce intake standards, file management requirements, version control and creative workflow expectations.
• Identify bottlenecks, recurring issues and process gaps, then recommend practical improvements.
• Track and report on creative volume, capacity, turnaround, rush requests, revision and workflow trends.
• Partner with Client Services, Media and Account leads to clarify expectations, reduce unnecessary back-and-forth and improve handoffs.
• Help onboard new designers, vendors or contractors into the creative workflow and production process.
• Support implementation of new tools, templates and processes as the creative function scales.

Skills

Creative Ops

Project management

Communication

Asana

Adobe CC

Remote teams

Tools

Adobe Creative Cloud

Job description

About Us

About Us
Applecart is the leading technology company that C-suites rely on to reach business-critical decision makers. The most important decisions are made by the hardest people to reach and influence. Historically, C-suite leaders have lacked the tools to reach the stakeholders who matter most to their business. The C-suites of hundreds of Fortune 500 companies, major agencies, trade associations, nonprofits, and governments use Applecart to put their best content in front of business-critical decision makers and those they trust — from policymakers and investors to CEOs, key employees, members of the media and more. Decision makers are informed by what they read, learn from advisors, hear from colleagues, and discuss with family and friends. To break through to them, you must reach them through the only channel that really moves them: those they know and trust. Applecart’s platform uses publicly available data to map billions of social relationships between nearly every American adult and enable clients to deliver content directly to decision makers and those who matter most to them.

We are hiring a Creative Operations Manager in our New York office.

About The Role

We are looking for a Creative Operations Manager to help build and manage the day-to-day operating system for our growing creative function.

This is a hands-on operations role that includes daily project management of the creative queue, intake prioritization, workflow visibility, deadline tracking, creative production coordination and process improvement. The person in this role will work closely with the Design Director, Client Services, Media, Account leads and other internal teams to ensure creative work is properly scoped, assigned, tracked, reviewed and delivered.

Our creative work moves quickly and is directly tied to client delivery, campaign launches and business growth. The ideal candidate is organized, proactive, calm under pressure and comfortable working in a fast-paced environment where priorities can shift quickly. You should be able to manage the details of daily production, while also identifying opportunities to make the overall workflow more efficient, transparent, and scalable.

What You’ll Do

• Manage the day-to-day creative queue, including intake, task setup, prioritization, assignments, status updates and delivery tracking
• Review incoming creative requests to confirm scope, assets, specs, timing, priority and required context before work moves into production
• Partner with the Design Director to triage standard, rush and same-day creative requests based on business need, capacity and delivery requirements
• Maintain clear visibility into what is assigned, in progress, at risk, ready for review, delivered and awaiting feedback
• Coordinate with designers to ensure work is moving through the queue accurately and efficiently
• Track asset counts, deliverables, due dates, revision rounds and handoffs across multiple active requests
• Help manage rush requests by clarifying priorities, surfacing tradeoffs and communicating timing clearly
• Ensure working files, source files, final exports and supporting assets are organized and accessible in approved systems
• Help enforce intake standards, file management requirements, version control and creative workflow expectations
• Identify bottlenecks, recurring issues and process gaps, then recommend practical improvements
• Track and report on creative volume, capacity, turnaround, rush requests, revision and workflow trends
• Partner with Client Services, Media and Account leads to clarify expectations, reduce unnecessary back-and-forth and improve handoffs
• Help onboard new designers, vendors or contractors into the creative workflow and production process
• Support implementation of new tools, templates and processes as the creative function scales

Experiences And Capabilities You’ll Bring

• 4+ years of experience in managing creative operations and workflows, creative project management, production management, agency operations or a similar role at a fast-paced agency, media, campaign, performance marketing or client service environment
• Strong understanding of creative production processes, including intake, briefing, production, review, revisions, delivery and file handoff
• Experience with paid media, digital advertising, programmatic display, social ads
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to give clear status updates and surface risks early
• Experience working with designers, creative leads, account/client service teams, media teams and external vendors
• Comfort managing both day-to-day project details and broader process improvements
• Strong attention to detail and a high level of accountability
• Ability to stay calm, organized and solutions-oriented under pressure
• Experience with project management tools such as Asana or similar platforms
• Familiarity with Adobe Creative Cloud workflows, source-file management and digital asset organization
• Experience supporting political, advocacy, public affairs, issue-based or other fast-turn campaign work a plus
• Experience managing creative workflows with remote, offshore or vendor-based design teams a plus
• Experience building creative operations processes in a growing or evolving function a plus

This is a hybrid role. Work from home on Monday and Friday and in Applecart’s New York City office Tuesday through Thursday.

Compensation

Our compensation package consists of three components: (i) a base salary, (ii) annual cash bonus, and (iii) generous equity compensation.

The base salary range for this role is between $95,000-$115,000, based on the candidate's experience and skills relative to the requirements listed above. The salary range provided is exclusive of discretionary annual cash bonus and equity compensation. The salary range provided for this role is specific to candidates located in the New York City area.

A Few Facts About Us

• Applecart’s platform has been used by hundreds of industry-leading clients spanning Fortune 500 companies like Blackstone and Intuit, leading nonprofit organizations like the Environmental Defense Fund, and top-tier advertising and communications agencies like Teneo, FGS, Weber Shandwick, and OMD.
• Applecart is growing quickly — over the last 4 years, we’ve increased our revenue by 10X, grown our headcount by almost 5X, and we’re cashflow positive.
• Our senior leadership team includes two members of the Forbes 30 under 30 list for Marketing and Advertising, the former Head of Product at Moat, Oracle’s online ad measurement platform, a former senior White House advisor, early sales and talent leaders from Google and Twitter, two of the Democratic Party’s most successful pollsters and strategists, and alums of top-tier organizations like Bain & Company, Amazon and Simpson Thacher.
• Applecart raised a $100M Series C from Blackstone’s tech growth fund at the end of 2025. The company’s other investors include Bain & Company, global sports, entertainment and marketing giant Endeavor, KKR Co-Founder Henry Kravis, entrepreneur Chris Burch, a founder of Palantir, senior engineering leaders at Twitter and Yelp, former Fortune 50 and advertising agency CEOs, and a number of well-known venture capitalists. Ari Emanuel, CEO of TKO and Executive Chairman of WME, Wayne Berman, Blackstone’s Head of Global Government Affairs, and Risa Heller, CEO of HELLER, serve on our board.
• Our work has been featured on Morning Joe on MSNBC, BloombergTV, and The Colbert Report, and in Axios, Semafor, BusinessWeek, the Associated Press, Forbes, the Washington Post, and Politico, among many others.