Creative Operations Manager

Communication Service for the Deaf, Inc; United States; On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Communication Service for the Deaf, Inc is seeking a Creative Operations Manager to serve as the operational backbone of Creative Services, ensuring efficient, scalable delivery across divisions. You will manage intake workflows, project visibility, capacity reporting, and coordinate contractors and vendors to keep projects moving from intake to completion.

The role emphasizes building systems, driving transparency, and improving processes with strong organizational and stakeholder management

Qualifications

• Experience with FreshService or comparable request-management platforms.
• Experience supporting marketing, communications, or creative teams.
• Experience with workflow automation and systems administration.
• Experience coordinating contractors, vendors, and external partners.
• Familiarity with nonprofit organizations and mission-driven work.
• Occasional creator of unnecessarily fun Slack polls.

Responsibilities

• Operate as the operational backbone of Creative Services, ensuring efficient, scalable delivery.
• Own intake workflows, service request governance, and request-routing processes.
• Develop and maintain systems for project visibility, reporting, and accountability.
• Design and maintain workflow automations to reduce manual work.
• Develop capacity, utilization, workload, and demand reporting for leadership planning.
• Monitor operational health and identify opportunities to improve processes and service delivery.
• Maintain project visibility into active and upcoming projects and track timelines and dependencies.
• Coordinate communication among Creative Services, stakeholders, contractors, and vendors.
• Support project intake by gathering requirements, timelines, deliverables, and dependencies.
• Manage onboarding, contracts, invoices, and logistics for contractors and vendors.
• Coordinate ordering, shipping, fulfillment, and distribution for campaigns and creative projects.
• Document workflows, standards, templates, and playbooks; capture lessons learned.

Skills

FreshService or equivalent

Marketing/creative team support

Workflow automation

Contractor/vendor coordination

Nonprofit familiarity

Slack polls experience

Education

Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Business Administration, Project Management, or related field, or equivalent work experience

Job description

The Creative Operations Manager is responsible for ensuring that Creative Services operates efficiently, consistently, and at scale. This role serves as the operational backbone of the department by managing intake workflows, project visibility, capacity reporting, contractor coordination, and process improvement initiatives.

The Creative Operations Manager creates and maintains the systems that enable Creative Services to successfully deliver work across CSD's divisions, programs, and brand initiatives. This role does not directly supervise staff but partners closely with creative, content, design, video, and strategy team members to ensure projects move smoothly from intake through completion.

Success in this role requires strong organizational, communication, process management, and problem-solving skills, along with the ability to build systems that support departmental growth, transparency, and accountability.

Creative Operations & Systems (40%)

• Regularly evaluate Creative Services processes, tools, and workflows and recommend improvements that increase efficiency, visibility, collaboration, and scalability.
• Own service request governance, intake workflows, and request-routing processes.
• Develop, maintain, and improve systems that support project visibility, reporting, and operational accountability.
• Design, implement, and maintain workflow automations that reduce manual work and improve team efficiency.
• Develop capacity, utilization, workload, and demand reporting that supports leadership planning and decision-making.
• Monitor operational health and identify opportunities to improve processes, communication, and service delivery.

Project Visibility & Accountability (30%)

• Maintain visibility into active and upcoming projects.
• Track timelines, dependencies, risks, blockers, and ownership to ensure work progresses.
• Facilitate status reviews and proactively escape unresolved issues or capacity concerns.
• Ensure ownership and next steps are documented.
• Coordinate communication among Creative Services, stakeholders, contractors, and vendors.
• Support project intake by gathering requirements, timelines, deliverables, and dependencies.
• Manage contractor and vendor onboarding, deliverables, contracts, invoices, and related logistics.
• Coordinate ordering, shipping, fulfillment, and distribution needs related to campaigns, events, and creative projects.
• Ensure work transitions smoothly between strategy, content, design, video, and stakeholder review.
• Develop and maintain Creative Services documentation, standards, templates, and playbooks.
• Gather stakeholder feedback and use insights to improve processes, workflows, and overall service delivery.
• Capture lessons learned from major projects and initiatives to improve future work.
• Reduce dependency on institutional knowledge by ensuring key processes and decisions are documented and accessible.

Requirements

• Experience with FreshService or comparable request-management platforms.
• Experience supporting marketing, communications, or creative teams.
• Experience with workflow automation and systems administration.
• Experience coordinating contractors, vendors, and external partners.
• Familiarity with nonprofit organizations and mission-driven work.
• Occasional creator of unnecessarily fun Slack polls.
• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Business Administration, Project Management, or related field, or equivalent work experience. (required)
• 4+ years of experience in project management, operations, marketing operations, creative operations, or related fields. (required)
• Experience managing multiple projects and competing priorities simultaneously. (required)
• Strong organizational, communication, and stakeholder management skills. (required)
• Experience with project management and workflow systems. (required)
• Ability to analyze information, identify risks, and recommend solutions. (required)
• Demonstrated ability to build and improve operational processes. (required)