Managing Director, Creative Business Operations

Clearpath; Arlington (VA); On-site; USD 185,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

6% 401(k) match

Flexible time off

Health and dental plans

Wellness and mental health support (Pe

Job summary

Stand Together is seeking a senior executive to lead Creative operations, overseeing systems, workflows, and vendor relationships to drive efficiency and impact. You will partner with leadership to translate creative plans into resourced actions, build executive-level reports on allocation and capacity, and guide insource/outsource decisions while adopting AI-enabled tooling to improve outcomes.

Successful candidate will craft formal investment cases, maintain documentation, and ensure alignment

Qualifications

• Experience leading creative operations and driving executive decisions.
• Ability to build operating systems, processes and reports.
• Proven vendor management for large contracts and budgets.
• Strong writing and communication, with clear business cases.
• Analytical judgment and systems thinking applied to complex projects.
• Executive presence and ability to influence senior leaders.
• Knowledge of emerging AI capabilities and applications.
• Alignment with Stand Together values and PBM principles.

Responsibilities

• Serve as senior business operations leader for the Creative team, owning systems and workflows.
• Partner with leadership to operationalize creative plans and allocate resources.
• Develop reports on resource allocation and capacity planning for leadership visibility.
• Audit data tracking systems for accuracy and usefulness.
• Support insource/outsource decisions by assessing workload and value.
• Oversee creative contracts and vendor engagements with cross-functional teams.
• Build reports showing spending, value, tradeoffs, and needed leadership decisions.
• Prepare formal recommendations for creative investments with leadership.
• Identify learning opportunities and drive improvements across projects and teams.
• Maintain essential documentation and leverage AI tools to improve efficiency.

Skills

Executive-level experience

Creative operations understanding

Operating systems & reports

Vendor management

Influence leadership

Strong writing

Analytical thinking

Executive presence

AI capabilities

Cultural fit

Job description

Stand Together is a philanthropic community that helps America’s boldest changemakers tackle the root causes of our country’s biggest problems, from education to the economy, broken communities, and toxic division, among dozens of other pressing issues. We provide our partners with access to resources including funding, thought leadership, a network of peers, and a playbook for applying proven principles to transform lives and society.

How You Will Contribute

• Serve as the senior business operations leader for the Creative team, owning the systems, workflows, and relationships that enable the department to function efficiently and effectively, both internally and across the organization.
• Partner with leadership to operationalize creative plans, manage follow-through, and ensure resources are allocated in line with priorities.
• Develop reports on resource allocation and capacity planning, giving leadership clear visibility into the Creative team’s priorities, how resources are being used, and where capacity is constrained. Audit the systems in which these data are tracked, ensuring their accuracy and utility.
• Support insource/outsource decisions by assessing workload, opportunity cost, and long-term strategic value.
• Oversee creative contracts and vendor engagements. Manage vendor relationships, ensuring clear accountability, clarity on spending and pacing, and alignment with strategic priorities (in coordination with Finance, Vendor Management, and Vendor Strategy).
• Build reports that show where Creative dollars are being spent, what value is being created, where tradeoffs exist, and where leadership decisions are needed.
• Prepare formal recommendations and decision-making frameworks for creative investments in partnership with team leadership.
• Identify learning opportunities by driving on after-actions and soliciting stakeholder feedback. Ensure insights carry through across projects and workstreams. Similarly, identify process gaps, unclear ownership, and other constraints; working across the whole Marketing & Communications team to identify and implement solutions.
• Maintain essential documentation, including workflows, decision records, vendor information, reporting, and financial tracking.
• Leverage AI and other tools to create efficiencies without sacrificing quality.

What You Will Bring

• Executive-level experience in creative operations. Marketing operations, chief of staff, or similar operational leadership roles are a plus.
• Strong understanding of how creative, content, production, design, marketing, or agency teams operate.
• Demonstrated ability to build operating systems, processes, and reports that drive executive level decision-making.
• Experience managing or overseeing large vendor relationships, complex contracts, budgets, and financial planning processes.
• Proven ability to lead through influence, drive accountability, resolve conflict, and build trust across teams with different priorities and working styles.
• Superior writing skills and an ability to write a logically sound business case.
• Strong analytical judgment and systems thinking.
• Strong executive presence, judgment, and communication skills. An ability to distill the essential from the complex while advising senior leaders.
• Practical knowledge of emergingAI capabilities.
• Enthusiasm to contribute to Stand Together's vision and principled approach to solving problems, and a commitment to stewarding our culture, which champions values including transformation and innovation, entrepreneurialism, humility, and respect.

What We Offer

• Competit ive benefits: Enjoy a 6% 401(k) match with immediate vesting, flexible time off, comprehensive health and dental plans, plus wellness and mental health support through Peloton and Talkspace.
• A meaningful career: Join a passionate community of over 1,300 employees dedicated to improving lives and driving innovative solutions to complex social challenges.
• Commitment to growth: Thrive in a non-hierarchical environment that empowers employees to discover, develop and apply their unique talents.
• Competitive compensation: Our approach rewards the value you create through competitive salaries and bonus opportunities, allowing you to share in the success you help drive.

185000 - 225000 USD a year

For this role, the anticipated base salary range is $185,000–$225,000 per year. This role may also be eligible for additional bonus or variable compensation designed to align total compensation with an employee’s overall contribution to the organization.

We believe incentives matter. Our Principles-Based Management™ (PBM) compensation philosophy is grounded in an individualized approach that rewards the long-term value each person creates for the organization. Compensation decisions are informed by a variety of factors, including relevant experience, capabilities, demonstrated skills, role responsibilities, and expected contribution. Consistent with this approach, compensation may vary within or outside of the anticipated range based on these considerations.

Our Values: Working for an organization within the Stand Together philanthropic community is different from many other places. The culture is deeply rooted in Principle Based Management® (PBM®), a framework guided by the principles that drive human progress, such as dignity, openness, and bottom-up empowerment. PBM® empowers employees to be entrepreneurial, to innovate, and to continually drive transformation.

We believe diversity fuels creativity, broadens knowledge, and helps drive success. That is why we’re proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and strive to treat all employees and applicants with honesty, dignity, and respect.