Creative Studio Ops & Strategy Lead

Conagra Brands; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 64,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Bonus + 401(k) & stock

Career development

Flexible schedules

Volunteer opportunities

Job summary

Conagra Brands in Chicago seeks a detail‑oriented project manager to enable the day‑to‑day operation of the in‑house creative agency. You will own timelines, budgets, workflows, and cross‑functional coordination to keep projects on brief and on time.

You will prepare research summaries, trend insights, and planning materials that inform creative briefs and leadership recommendations, leveraging strong organizational skills and project tools to drive visibility and accountability.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required.
• 1+ years of experience in project management, agency operations, brand marketing, insights support, or related fields.
• Experience within a creative agency, media agency, production environment, in-house agency, or corporate marketing organization.
• Experience managing project timelines, budgets, workflow systems, reporting, governance documentation, and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Strong organizational skills with attention to detail and follow-through.
• Proactive problem-solving skills and ownership mindset.
• Intellectual curiosity with an interest in consumer, cultural, and marketplace trends.
• Proficiency with project management, workflow, and collaboration tools.
• Experience creating reporting, dashboards, presentations, and planning materials.

Responsibilities

• Own in-house agency project timelines, milestone tracking, and critical path schedules to help ensure deliverables remain on track, on budget, and on brief.
• Facilitate workflow prioritization and resource allocation discussions, proactively identifying risks and recommending mitigation plans.
• Utilize Aprimo and Jira to maintain workflow visibility, project status tracking, operational planning, and reporting.
• Lead project status reviews and operational planning cadences, creating transparency through dashboards, project health trackers, and leadership reporting.
• Coordinate leadership priorities and key initiatives across short-term, mid-term, and long-term planning horizons, including documenting action items and key decisions.
• Manage the agency awards calendar and coordinate award submissions in partnership with creative teams.
• Track agency budgets, monitor spend against plan, and maintain oversight of vendor contracts and purchase orders.
• Maintain audit-ready documentation and governance processes that support stewardship expectations and compliance requirements.
• Serve as the agency subject matter resource for talent rights, SAG-AFTRA obligations, creative asset governance, and compliance requirements.
• Maintain records related to talent renewals and usage rights while advising project teams on associated budget considerations.
• Serve as the agency archivist by organizing and maintaining creative assets, content libraries, and process documentation.
• Conduct competitive landscape reviews, category assessments, and cultural trend analysis to support creative strategy development.
• Prepare research summaries, planning materials, and insight reports that support creative briefs, frameworks, workshops, and leadership presentations.
• Translate consumer, competitive, and cultural inputs into organized materials that support strategic recommendations for marketing partners and senior leaders.
• Support licensing activities, owned website management, and special projects as needed.
• Coordinate operational details that enable scale, consistency, and executional follow-through across agency initiatives.

Skills

Project management

Cross-functional collaboration

Budget stewardship

Workflow governance

Reporting and dashboards

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Aprimo

Jira

Job description

Conagra Brands in Chicago seeks a detail‑oriented project manager to enable the day‑to‑day operation of the in‑house creative agency. You will own timelines, budgets, workflows, and cross‑functional coordination to keep projects on brief and on time.

You will prepare research summaries, trend insights, and planning materials that inform creative briefs and leadership recommendations, leveraging strong organizational skills and project tools to drive visibility and accountability.