Seasonal Creative Operations Manager

Columbia Sportswear Company; Portland (ME); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401k with company match

Medical, dental, and vision

Life Insurance

Disability Insurance

Employee Discounts

EAP +

Wellness benefits

Generous time off

Job summary

Columbia Sportswear Company is seeking a Seasonal Creative Operations Manager to serve as the strategic backbone of our creative department, linking people, processes, and priorities across multiple workstreams. You’ll translate big-picture marketing strategies into actionable plans—managing scope, deliverables, and timelines with precision.

You will lead a team of designers, writers, and production talents, ensuring campaigns stay on schedule and meet brand standards while enabling creative

Qualifications

• 8+ years in creative operations, program management, or production management, ideally with agency experience.
• Leadership across complexity, guiding multi-stakeholder projects from concept to consumer.
• Workback scheduling expertise for omnichannel campaigns.
• Proficient with project management platforms such as AirTable.
• Excellent communication to translate creative vision into actionable plans.
• Proactive problem solving to keep projects moving forward.
• Creative champion who enables teams to deliver their best work.
• Experience driving change management and evolutions in Ways of Working.

Responsibilities

• Translate Strategy into Execution: Oversee the conversion of marketing strategies into creative deliverables with channel and regional alignment.
• Define & Align: Establish project scope, deliverables, team assignments, and success metrics for campaigns and brand initiatives.
• Synergize Creative Workstreams: Streamline workflows and foster collaboration between Agencies, Internal Design, Photo Studio, and eComm Creative.
• Optimize Creative Operations: Manage seasonal project intake and prioritization to maximize efficiency while maintaining quality.
• Own the Workback: Build and maintain detailed workback schedules from kickoff to delivery with visibility across teams.
• Drive Accountability: Track progress against timelines and address risks to keep projects on track.
• Facilitate Communication: Keep stakeholders informed and empowered to make timely decisions.
• Continuously Improve: Lead retrospectives to refine workflows and operations.

Skills

Creative operations

Program management

Production management

Agency experience

Leadership

Workback scheduling

AirTable

Communication

Change management

Tools

AirTable

Job description

This position is designated as a hybrid role based out of our headquarters near Portland, Oregon. The current expectation is for employees to work onsite four days per week, subject to change based on business needs. This in-office requirement may be adjusted at the discretion of the company.

ABOUT THE POSITION

The Marketing Operations Team believes that creativity thrives when structure supports it—not stifles it. Our mission is to empower our creative teams to do their best work by removing operational roadblocks, streamlining processes, and ensuring every project is delivered with excellence. We value clarity, collaboration, and craftsmanship, and we know that the right operational leadership can turn ambitious ideas into impactful realities.

As our Seasonal Creative Operations Manager, you’ll be the strategic backbone of our creative department—connecting people, processes, and priorities across multiple workstreams. You’ll turn big picture marketing strategies into actionable, achievable plans—managing scope, deliverables, and timelines with precision. Your leadership will ensure that our designers, writers, and production teams can focus on what they do best: creating exceptional work that moves our Brand and our Business forward.

HOW YOU’LL MAKE A DIFFERENCE

• Translate Strategy into Execution: Oversee the conversion of marketing strategies and initiatives into creative deliverables, ensuring alignment with channel-specific and regional requirements.

• Define & Align: Partner with creative leadership to establish project scope, deliverables, team assignments, and success metrics for campaigns and brand Initiatives.

• Synergize Creative Workstreams: Streamline workflows and foster collaboration between our Agencies, Internal Design, Photo Studio, and eComm Creative to ensure seamless, integrated output.

• Optimize Creative Operations: Manage seasonal project intake and prioritization to maximize efficiency without compromising creative quality, leveraging our systems to support and enhance processes.

• Own the Workback: Build and maintain detailed workback schedules that map every milestone deliverable from kickoff to delivery, ensuring alignment and visibility across marketing, creative, and production teams.

• Drive Accountability: Track progress against timelines, proactively identifying risks and implementing solutions to keep projects on track—holding teams accountable to dependencies, decisions, and deadlines.

• Facilitate Communication: Ensure stakeholders are informed, aligned, and empowered to make timely decisions and action through clear, consistent communication.

• Continuously Improve: Lead post-project retrospectives to capture learnings, refine workflows, and elevate operational excellence across the creative organization.

YOU HAVE

• Extensive Experience: 8+ years in creative operations, program management, or production management, ideally with agency experience and a proven ability to navigate complex, fast-paced environments.

• Leadership Across Complexity: Skilled at guiding multi-stakeholder projects from concept to consumer.

• Workback Mastery: Deep and proven expertise in building and managing complex workback schedules for omnichannel and regional nuanced campaigns.

• Tool Proficiency: Mastery of project management platforms such as AirTable, with a talent for turning complexity into clarity.

• Exceptional Communicator: Able to translate creative vision into actionable plans, keeping diverse teams aligned and accountable.

• Proactive Problem Solver: Anticipates challenges before they arise and implements solutions that keep projects moving forward.

• Creative Champion: Passionate about supporting creative talent and enabling them to deliver their best work.

• Change Leader: Experienced in driving change management and evolved Ways of Working to improve transparency, efficiency and collaboration.

#LI-LC1

This job description is not meant to be an all-inclusive list of duties and responsibilities, but constitutes a general definition of the position’s scope and function in the company.

Columbia Sportswear Company is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law. Columbia Sportswear is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities. https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/22-088_EEOC_KnowYourRights6.12.pdf. If you need reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please notify your recruiter.

At Columbia Sportswear Company, we’re proud to offer regular full-time employees a benefits package that includes a variety of services and products to help make your life and work more rewarding. Our benefit programs contribute to overall employee well-being by aligning those programs with the fundamental elements of well-being: physical, social/emotional, financial, career and community. Benefits that can protect your family’s financial future and help you save money through our 401k plan plus a generous company match. Columbia offers medical, dental, vision, life Insurance, disability, flexible spending accounts, health savings account, and an assortment of voluntary benefit offerings (accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and legal services). In addition, Columbia offers EAP + which is free and confidential 24/7/365 counseling services. We have extensive wellness benefits, employee discounts and a generous time off program available.

If you need an accommodation/adjustment to successfully complete and submit your application, please reach out to [e-mail] with the Subject: Applicant Assistance Requested.