Seasonal Creative Operations Manager

Columbia Sportswear Company; Portland (OR); On-site; USD 95,000 - 125,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401k match

Medical coverage

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life Insurance

EAP

Job summary

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

Based in our Portland, Oregon headquarters, this hybrid role requires guiding workflows, coordinating agencies and internal teams, and driving accountability

Qualifications

• 8+ years in creative operations, program management, or production management in fast-paced environments.
• Ability to guide multi-stakeholder projects from concept to consumer.
• Deep expertise in building and managing complex workback schedules for omnichannel campaigns.
• Mastery of project management platforms such as AirTable.
• Excellent written and spoken communication, translating vision into actionable plans.
• Proactive problem solving to keep projects moving forward.
• Experience leading change and evolving ways of working for transparency and efficiency.
• A passion for supporting creative talent and enabling exceptional output.

Responsibilities

• Translate Strategy into Execution: oversee conversion of marketing strategies into creative deliverables.
• Define & Align: establish project scope, deliverables, team assignments, and success metrics.
• Synergize Creative Workstreams: streamline workflows across Agencies, Internal Design, Photo Studio, and eComm.
• Optimize Creative Operations: manage seasonal project intake and prioritization to maximize efficiency.
• Own the Workback: build and maintain detailed schedules from kickoff to delivery.
• Drive Accountability: track progress, identify risks, and maintain deadlines.
• Facilitate Communication: keep stakeholders informed and empowered to decide.
• Continuously Improve: lead retrospectives to refine workflows and practices.

Skills

Leadership

Multi-stakeholder management

Workback scheduling

AirTable

Strategic planning

Communication

Problem solving

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.

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.

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.

Founded in 1938, Columbia Sportswear Company is a global leader in designing, sourcing, marketing, and distributing outdoor and active lifestyle apparel, footwear, accessories, and equipment. Our four primary brands - Columbia®, Mountain Hardwear®, SOREL® and prAna® - complement each other to address the diverse needs of active consumers and their products have gained an international reputation for their innovation, quality and performance. Learn more about our family of brands here.