Managing Director, Creative Business Operations

Abundance Network; 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 & mental health support (Pel–

Talkspace access

Job summary

Stand Together in Arlington, VA is seeking a Managing Director, Creative Business Operations to lead the Creative team’s operating system, ensuring financial discipline, staffing, workflows, reporting, vendor management, and cross‑functional alignment.

The role partners with senior leaders to translate strategy into executable plans, build scalable processes, manage budgets and contracts, and drive AI-enabled efficiency while upholding Stand Together’s PBM values.

Qualifications

• Executive-level experience in creative operations.
• Understanding of creative, content, design and marketing teams.
• Ability to build operating systems, processes and reports.
• Experience managing large vendor relationships, contracts and budgets.
• Ability to lead through influence and build cross‑team trust.
• Strong writing, business case and communication skills.
• Analytical and systems thinking abilities.
• Executive presence and strategic communication skills.
• Knowledge of emerging AI capabilities.
• Aligned with Stand Together's PBM culture and values.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the senior business operations leader for the Creative team and manage systems, workflows and relationships.
• Partner with leadership to operationalize creative plans and allocate resources by priority.
• Develop capacity planning reports with clear leadership visibility and data accuracy.
• Support insource/outsource decisions by evaluating workload and value.
• Oversee creative contracts and vendor engagements with clear accountability.
• Build reporting on spending, value and tradeoffs for leadership decisions.
• Prepare frameworks for creative investments in collaboration with leadership.
• Identify learning opportunities and drive cross‑project improvements.
• Maintain essential documentation, including workflows and financial tracking.
• Leverage AI tools to create efficiencies without sacrificing quality.

Skills

Executive leadership

Creative ops

Vendor management

Budgeting

Reporting

AI capabilities

Matrix organization

Strategic influence

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.

The Managing Director, Creative Business Operations serves as the senior executive responsible for the operating system of the Creative team. This role ensures the team has the financial discipline, resourcing, workflows, documentation, reporting, vendor management, and organizational relationships required to operate as a high-performing creative center of excellence.

Reporting to the Senior Vice President of Content & Creative, this role functions as a strategic operator that bridges our Creative Services, Brand Publishing and Media Partnerships teams with our partners in Marketing Strategy, Events, Communications, Finance, and other enterprise functions. The Creative Business Operations leader drives clarity and accountability across these teams, always looking for the next-best opportunity for value creation and how they can drive on it.

This leader will oversee the day-to-day business operations of the Creative team at an executive level, including vendor contracts, vendor partnerships, budget pacing, productivity reporting, operational planning, team workflows, and cross-functional coordination.

The ideal candidate is someone who can move seamlessly from strategy to execution. They must exercise sound business judgment, lead through influence, manage ambiguity, and foster a culture of collaboration, while providing executive-level visibility into the Creative team’s function.

This role requires someone who understands how creative teams operate, how to thrive within a matrixed organization, and how to build the infrastructure that enables creative talent to do their best work.

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 emerging AI 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

• Competitive 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.

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.

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.