The Creative Operations Manager owns day-to-day project management for an assigned set of programs, driving design timelines and deliverables from kickoff through completion. This role is a strong operational partner to the Sr. Manager, Creative Operations and Design Directors, and serves as the primary liaison between Design and cross-functional partners — including New Product Development (NPD), Product Marketing (PMI), Packaging, and Production — to keep projects on track and running efficiently. The Creative Operations Manager also organizes and manages key assets, meetings, and tracking documents for the Design and Production teams.
Responsibilities:
Project & Timeline Management
- Proactively manage design project timelines and deliverables for an assigned set of programs within the brand portfolio.
- Assist in scheduling and prioritizing work across the design department.
- Communicate timelines and track deliverables for all project milestones.
- Review project Design Briefs to initiate deliverable timelines, coordinating design kick-off timing with New Product Development (NPD) partners.
- Manage the production pipeline in partnership with the Production team.
Cross-Functional & Workflow Coordination
- Facilitate workflow between Design, Product Marketing (PMI), and Packaging teams.
- Manage requests from cross-functional teams (PMI and Sales) — including comps and meeting assets (LPS).
Meetings & Documentation
- Develop and maintain weekly Design meeting agendas and status documents; update and maintain all project tracking documents.
- Lead/support weekly Design meetings.
- Attend and participate in weekly Cross-functional meetings (Innovation, Blue Sky, Design, and Merch) and weekly Packaging meetings, communicating project milestone deliverables and recaps
- Achieves goals with strong attention to detail, tracking progress and anticipating potential issues.
- Builds and maintains effective, collaborative relationships with key partners.
- Continuously seeks to improve process, delivering efficiently with speed and agility.
- Meets time commitments without compromising the quality of work.
- Highly motivated, passionate, and results-oriented.
- Hybrid Role – In NYC office every Tuesday and Wednesday
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree (Design, Project Management, Graphics Production, or related field/equivalent experience).
- 5+ years of experience in a packaging or creative project management role.
- Excellent partnering and teaming skills, cross-functionally and with external vendors.
- Exceptional communication, influencing, and negotiation skills.
- Customer-service mindset with a collaborative, team-oriented approach.
- Familiarity with Adobe Creative Suite.
- Experience with project management and artwork routing tools (e.g., Asana, Esko, Smartsheet).