Production Director

Small Girls PR, an Orchestra company; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 104,000 - 127,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Atypical time off

Deep work focus

Comprehensive benefits

Job summary

Small Girls PR in New York and Los Angeles is seeking an Experiential Production Director with 7–9 years leading multichannel events and digital activations. You will shape experiential strategy, manage client relationships, and oversee complex budgets and timelines.

This senior role requires agency experience, strong leadership, and a track record of production excellence. You’ll travel as needed, collaborating across beauty, fashion, and lifestyle brands to deliver standout, measurable

Qualifications

• 7–9 years of experience managing and executing events, ideally at an agency with integrated accounts.
• Experience working with fashion and/or beauty brands is highly valued.
• Ability to lead client relationships and provide strategic counsel.
• Strong production leadership and ability to manage budgets and timelines.
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally as needed for events.

Responsibilities

• Lead experiential projects and client relationships day-to-day.
• Serve as trusted strategic counselor to clients, guiding budgets and strategy.
• Develop experiential strategies in collaboration with senior leadership and interdisciplinary peers.
• Oversee production execution, timelines, and vendor management.
• Ensure projects are scoped, staffed, and delivered on budget and on time.

Skills

Client leadership

Budgeting

Production management

Agency experience

Fashion/beauty experience

Cross-functional collaboration

Presentation skills

Team leadership

Job description

Small Girls PR is looking for an Experiential Production Director with 7–9 years of experience leading multichannel projects across in-person activations and digital experiences. This includes developing cohesive experiential strategies, managing client relationships, concepting standout experiences that drive social conversation and press coverage, overseeing technical execution, managing complex timelines and large budgets, and developing talented producers. Experience working with clients / brands within fashion and/or beauty is highly valued for this role.

This role will serve as the senior day-to-day lead across experiential accounts and projects, connecting creative ideas and production plans to clients’ broader brand and business objectives. The Experiential Production Director will work closely with senior leadership, keeping them informed of campaign progress, strategic or budgetary shifts, client needs, team performance, and potential risks. The right candidate knows how to lead a campaign from ideation through post-production and can project manage in their sleep. They are also prepared to dive into the details, knowing that no task is too small in the world of events.

This role will work with a wide range of creative and innovative brands across beauty and fashion, food and beverage, wellness, consumer technology, and more. Ideally this candidate has agency experience and is adept at client interface, in addition to execution.

Note: This role is based in our New York or Los Angeles office, working two days a week in the office on a hybrid schedule. Candidates should be prepared to travel domestically and internationally as needed for event execution.

How you’ll make an impact

Client Leadership & Strategy

• Lead experiential projects and client relationships day-to-day, ensuring strong delivery, client satisfaction, retention, and continued engagement.
• Serve as a trusted strategic counselor to clients, building confidence through thoughtful guidance, dependable leadership, and consistently strong work.
• Lead a large client account with multiple initiatives running concurrently; experience in the beauty space is a plus, but not required.
• Develop experiential strategies in collaboration with senior leadership and interdisciplinary peers across influencer marketing, earned media, paid media, creative, and other capabilities.
• Maintain routine, clear client communication and keep senior leadership informed of campaign progress, changes in strategy or budget, emerging risks, and opportunities.
• Ensure project teams understand client objectives and are delivering efficiently against clear goals and expectations.

Creative & Production

• Develop breakthrough, culturally relevant experiential strategies and creative concepts that communicate client positioning, drive measurable impact, and generate conversation, social sharing, and earned media.
• Translate client objectives into executable programs with clear KPIs and measurement plans.
• Lead experiential projects of varying sizes, formats, and budgets from initial concept through post-production, adapting your level of involvement based on the needs and complexity of each program.
• Oversee multiple concurrent programs, providing senior production leadership, guiding execution, and stepping in to troubleshoot when needed.
• Maintain a strong command of production fundamentals, including timelines, budgets, vendor negotiations, permitting, fabrication, staffing, run-of-show development, and on-site execution.
• Provide strategic and creative direction that elevates team output and ensures the final work is differentiated, operationally sound, and aligned with client goals.
• Stay closely attuned to experiential trends, cultural moments, emerging technologies, and best-in-class work, translating relevant insights into opportunities for SGPR clients.

Team Leadership & Operations

• Manage and develop experiential team members through clear expectations, ongoing feedback, weekly one-on-ones, goal setting, and thoughtful career development.
• Create a collaborative, accountable, and solutions-oriented team environment that inspires strong creative and production work.
• Understand when to delegate, when to provide direction, and when to step directly into a project to help the team deliver.
• Monitor the performance, workload, and development of direct reports, keeping senior leadership informed of progress, challenges, and support needs.
• Partner with senior leadership and experiential peers to assess team capacity and assign the appropriate staff to each project.
• Collaborate effectively with creative, finance, earned media, influencer, and other interdisciplinary teams to establish clear roles, responsibilities, and ways of working.
• Own project and account budgets day-to-day, proactively identifying potential risks, changes, or inefficiencies and recommending solutions.
• Ensure experiential work is scoped, staffed, and executed appropriately against approved timelines and budgets.
• Contribute constructive input to performance reviews and participate meaningfully in hiring processes for the experiential team.
• Proactively contribute to internal processes and initiatives that strengthen SGPR’s experiential capabilities and client service.

Business Growth

• Play an active role in new business efforts, including pitch strategy, creative ideation, proposal development, budgeting, and scoping in partnership with senior leadership.
• Lead the development of experiential components within integrated and experiential-specific proposals, ensuring recommendations are strategically sound, creatively distinctive, and feasible to produce.
• Own significant portions of new business presentations and confidently present experiential recommendations to prospective clients.
• Identify opportunities to expand existing client relationships and cross-sell services within SGPR and across the Orchestra network, partnering with senior leadership to convert those opportunities into additional work.
• Contribute to case studies, capabilities materials, and other resources that help communicate SGPR’s experiential offering.

Why we’ll love you

• Experience: You have 7–9 years of relevant experience managing and executing events, ideally at an agency where you’ve worked on integrated accounts. You’ve led a range of projects, such as pop-ups, multi-day conferences, product launches, intimate dinners, mobile activations, and other custom brand experiences. You understand permitting requirements and application processes in major U.S. markets and have developed strong relationships with production partners, vendors, and venues.
• Creativity & Cultural Fluency: You are a bold, resourceful thinker who translates cultural insights into ownable, experience-led concepts. You understand what makes an experience worth attending and sharing and know how to sharpen ideas while proactively identifying potential executional challenges. You stay abreast of what’s trending on social, and ideally have at least 2-3 years of experience working directly with beauty and/or fashion brands.
• Client Leadership & Strategic Thinking: You are comfortable independently leading client communications, providing strategic counsel, navigating difficult conversations, and translating discussions into clear next steps. You understand your clients’ businesses and have developed experiential programs tied to meaningful goals and KPIs.
• Team Leadership & Organization: You have experience managing and developing direct reports, delegating effectively, and overseeing interdisciplinary teams and vendor partners. You establish clear systems and expectations while maintaining visibility across active projects, budgets, and team deliverables.
• Production Expertise: You can confidently lead experiential projects across different sizes, formats, markets, and budgets. You understand the technical and logistical requirements needed to bring ambitious ideas to life and are willing to dive into the details when the team needs support.
• Integrated Thinking: You understand how experiential can work alongside earned media, influencer marketing, paid media, and other disciplines to create cohesive programs that are stronger than the sum of their parts.
• Presentation Skills: You are a confident and persuasive presenter who communicates ideas with clarity, builds trust, and contributes meaningfully to new business opportunities.
• Attention to Detail: You review work carefully, maintain high standards, meet deadlines, and look for ways to improve quality and efficiency across programs

Why You'll Love Us:

• Atypical Time Off - Generous PTO that scales with tenure, in addition to Summer Fridays, Days of Rest for mental health, Caregiving days, and time off for Unsick Days dedicated to preventative care
• Deep Work Focus - Our Smalls In Sync program ensures you have dedicated time for collaboration and strategic solo work
• Comprehensive Benefits - A 100% employer-covered medical plan, 401k match up to 4%, dental, vision, and more
• Innovative Leadership -Our agency was amongst the first to offer client brand campaigns on TikTok (back when it was still called Musical.ly), has been recognized for pioneering unique HR policies live on The Today Show, and our AI Leadership committee has been training our employees at the intersection of PR and AI for over two years (not two months!)
• Vibrant Culture - Employee-led committees shape company policy and organize team celebrations from book clubs to outings

At Small Girls PR, fairness and equity are incredibly important factors throughout our hiring process. As a result, we have a set salary threshold for each role to ensure our teams are compensated equitably. At the Production Director level, the salary threshold is $115k-$115k