Head of Brand Studio Operations

Stripe; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Stripe is seeking a Head of Brand Operations to design and scale the Brand Studio ecosystem. You will align inputs from Marketing, Product, and Finance, and build the systems that keep briefs clear and on schedule.

Your leadership will shape the way the studio operates at scale. You will lead a team of producers, set the annual creative roadmap, manage budgets, and partner with executives to make strategic tradeoffs.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in brand operations, creative operations, or creative program management.
• 5+ years managing a team of producers, program managers, or operations professionals.
• Experience engaging cross-functional partners before briefs are written.
• Experience building and owning an annual creative roadmap for a team or function.
• Experience managing significant budgets with transparent accounting structures.
• Strong stakeholder management and executive communication skills.
• People management instincts emphasizing delegation and developing others.
• Experience incorporating AI into team workflows and driving adoption.

Responsibilities

• Architect the Brand Studio ecosystem with cross-functional partners.
• Build and maintain the Brand Studio roadmap with prioritization and capacity planning.
• Set conditions for great work by clearly defining business needs and framing problems.
• Own and evolve the operational infrastructure including intake processes and rhythms.
• Make Brand Studio work visible company-wide with a clear roadmap and status updates.
• Run the business of Brand Studio by managing budget, partnerships, and procurement.
• Lead, develop, and set cultural tone, with clear ownership and feedback.
• Monitor signals to shape ambiguous ideas into clear, actionable outcomes.
• Represent Brand Studio at leadership level, communicating priorities and impact.

Skills

Brand operations

Operations leadership

Team management

Executive communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Budget management

AI in workflows

Stakeholder management

Tools

Procurement systems

Job description

Who we are

About Stripe

Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies - from the world’s largest enterprises to the most ambitious startups - use Stripe to accept payments, grow their revenue, and accelerate new business opportunities. Our mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, and we have a staggering amount of work ahead. That means you have an unprecedented opportunity to put the global economy within everyone's reach while doing the most important work of your career.

About the team

Brand Studio sits at the center of everything Stripe shows the world - from visual identity and brand systems to campaigns, events, digital experiences, and global marketing. The studio functions as a creative multiplier: setting the standards, building the systems, and producing the work that helps Stripe show up with intention and quality across every touchpoint.

World-class creative output requires world-class operational infrastructure. Brand Operations is the function that makes Brand Studio's work possible at scale - not by managing the execution, but by architecting the conditions that enable it. That means shaping what enters the studio, ensuring clarity before a brief is written, and building the systems that allow creative directors and producers to focus on what they're here to do: create exceptional work.

What you’ll do

Most operations leaders are brought in to fix problems. We're looking for someone who prevents them - and designs the system in which prevention becomes the norm.

The Head of Brand Operations exists upstream from creative execution. This role's job is to ensure the work entering Brand Studio is strategically aligned, clarified, prioritized, resourced, and fully prepared for delivery before it ever reaches a creative director or producer. It also means ensuring the company understands how to work with Brand Studio - what it takes to be a ready partner, and where a given initiative stands on the roadmap. When that infrastructure is working, creative leaders spend their time and energy on the thing they're actually here to do.

This role lives at the altitude of setting the team up for success. That means the early-stage, ambiguous conversations where partners are still forming ideas - where the business need hasn't been articulated, where the biggest risks and opportunities haven't been named, and where a structural decision will compound over time. It means building and maintaining a roadmap the entire company can see and trust. And it means leading a team of producers who own their projects fully, with your role being the system that makes their ownership meaningful.

This role isn't about staying out of the details entirely - it's about not defaulting to them. You'll roll up your sleeves when the moment calls for it. But your primary value is in designing the ecosystem, not running the work. If you want to build the system in which great work consistently becomes possible - and watch it scale - this is a rare opportunity to do that.

Responsibilities

• Architect the Brand Studio ecosystem. Engage cross-functional partners - Marketing, Product, Comms, PMM - before briefs exist. Turn ambiguous asks into clear, sequenced workstreams so creative leaders inherit clarity, not chaos.
• Build and maintain the Brand Studio roadmap. Sequence and prioritize work based on business importance, creative opportunity, and team capacity. Give leadership a forward-looking view of what's coming - and the tradeoffs involved.
• Set the conditions for great work. By the time a project reaches a creative director or producer, the business need is defined, stakeholders are aligned, and the problem is framed. Creative leaders shape the work. You shape the environment that makes the work possible.
• Own and evolve the operational infrastructure. Build the intake processes, alignment frameworks, and communication rhythms that help Brand Studio run at scale. Refine them as the team grows.
• Make how Brand Studio works visible to the company. Partners should be able to find the roadmap, understand where their project stands, and know what it takes to show up ready. The process of working with Brand Studio shouldn't require a meeting to explain.
• Run the business of Brand Studio. Own the budget, manage agency and external production partnerships from procurement through delivery standards, and partner with Finance on clear accounting structures. Give the team the resources and partnerships it needs to deliver.
• Lead, develop, and set the cultural tone. Hire great people, build their judgment, and set clear ownership. Give direct feedback, delegate fully, and create the stability that lets people do their best work. You're a steward of how this team shows up - the norms, the standards, and what it means to operate at this level.
• Stay attuned to what's forming. Brand-level initiatives take shape before briefs exist. Catch early signals across the company and help shape ambiguous ideas into clear outcomes before they reach the studio.
• Represent Brand Studio at the leadership level. Keep senior leaders informed on priorities, direction, and impact. Make the case for what deserves investment, what should wait, and why.

Who you are

We're looking for someone who meets the minimum requirements to be considered for the role. If you meet these requirements, you are encouraged to apply. The preferred qualifications are a bonus, not a requirement.

Minimum requirements

• 12+ years of experience in brand operations, creative operations, or creative program management. A track record of building operational systems at the function level, not just executing inside them.
• 5+ years managing a team of producers, program managers, or operations professionals, with clear evidence of developing talent and building production capability.
• Demonstrated experience engaging cross-functional partners before briefs are written - shaping workstreams, clarifying business needs, and setting creative teams up to succeed.
• Experience building and owning an annual creative roadmap for a team or function, including prioritization frameworks, capacity planning, and tradeoff communication with senior leadership.
• A track record of building operational infrastructure - intake processes, prioritization systems, partner communication frameworks - that scaled and outlasted your direct involvement.
• Experience managing significant budgets, including developing transparent accounting structures in partnership with Finance.
• Strong stakeholder management and executive communication skills, with the ability to align competing priorities and influence without authority across a large, cross-functional organization.
• People management instincts that build team judgment rather than dependency - genuine delegation, direct feedback, and a consistent bias toward developing others over personal execution.
• Experience incorporating AI into team workflows and driving measurable adoption across a creative or operations team.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience inside a world-class in-house creative studio or brand team, with deep familiarity with the full creative production lifecycle - from strategy and concept through final delivery.
• A track record of building or rebuilding a brand operations function from scratch within a company or team at scale.
• Experience managing global creative agency and external production partnerships end to end - from procurement and onboarding through creative direction and delivery standards.
• Deep understanding of how brand, marketing, and product teams operate at a technology company, with the instincts to bridge creative ambition and business priorities.
• Experience building operational transparency systems - roadmaps, dashboards, or partner-facing communication frameworks - that gave an entire organization real-time visibility into a creative team's capacity and priorities.
• Experience building creative process standards, playbooks, or partnership guidelines that became lasting institutional infrastructure.