Senior Manager, Creative Operations

Jobtailor; California (MO); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Jobtailor is seeking a Resource Manager for its Creative Operations team to optimize staffing, timelines, and budgets across busy projects. You will partner with Creative leadership and cross-functional teams to balance staff versus freelance talent, maintain accurate capacity planning, and drive efficiency in workflows.

The role emphasizes a people-first approach, proactive problem-solving, and ongoing improvement of resource tools and processes within a fast-paced agency environment.

Qualifications

• 5–7 years of experience in Creative Operations or similar
• Experience partnering with Creative leadership and cross-functional teams
• Experience developing scopes of work, staffing plans, timelines, and estimates
• Strong financial awareness including tracking budgets, burn, freelance spend
• Experience managing creative workflows from brief to delivery
• Balancing staff and freelance talent against project needs, timelines, and budgets
• Excellent organizational skills with ability to manage multiple projects and stakeholders
• People-first approach to operations
• Proactive, solutions-oriented mindset
• Experience with project management, resource management, and financial tracking tools
• Interest in continually improving how teams work

Responsibilities

• Manage and maintain the day-to-day creative resource tracker
• Ensure allocations, availability, project assignments, and upcoming needs are accurate and up to date
• Support staffing across projects and match people and skill sets to briefs
• Understand upcoming work, timelines, staffing requirements, and changes in project needs
• Monitor creative capacity and utilization, identifying conflicts, gaps, and over- or under-allocation
• Lead weekly resource and staffing meetings
• Gather information, maintain accurate allocations, and follow up on staffing changes
• Coordinate freelance resource needs, availability, onboarding, and extensions
• Build understanding of team skills, experience, interests, development goals, and availability
• Keep teams informed of staffing changes and provide visibility into assignments
• Support forecasting of upcoming resource needs based on the pipeline
• Identify additional capacity or specific skill-set requirements
• Improve resource management tools, trackers, and ways of working
• Partner with Creative leadership and Client Services, Production, Resource Management, Finance, and Operations

Skills

Creative operations

Resource management

Project management

Staffing

Cross-functional collaboration

Stakeholder management

Proactive mindset

Organizational skills

Financial tracking

Analytics

Tools

Resource Management Tools

Project Management Tools

Financial Tracking Tools

Job description

• Manage and maintain the day-to-day creative resource tracker
• Ensure allocations, availability, project assignments, and upcoming needs are accurate and up to date
• Support staffing across projects and match people and skill sets to briefs
• Understand upcoming work, timelines, staffing requirements, and changes in project needs
• Monitor creative capacity and utilization, identifying conflicts, gaps, and over- or under-allocation
• Lead weekly resource and staffing meetings
• Gather information, maintain accurate allocations, and follow up on staffing changes
• Coordinate freelance resource needs, availability, onboarding, and extensions
• Build understanding of team skills, experience, interests, development goals, and availability
• Keep teams informed of staffing changes and provide visibility into assignments
• Support forecasting of upcoming resource needs based on the pipeline
• Identify additional capacity or specific skill-set requirements
• Improve resource management tools, trackers, and ways of working
• Partner with Creative leadership and Client Services, Production, Resource Management, Finance, and Operations

Requirements

• 5-7 years of experience in Creative Operations, Creative Services, project management, or a similar role within an agency or fast-paced creative environment
• Strong experience partnering with Creative leadership and cross-functional teams to manage day-to-day operations of a busy creative department
• Experience developing scopes of work, staffing plans, timelines, and estimates
• Strong commercial and financial awareness, including tracking scopes, budgets, burn, freelance spend, and project health
• Experience managing creative workflows and processes from brief through delivery
• Strong understanding of creative resourcing, balancing staff and freelance talent against project needs, timelines, and budgets
• Excellent organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, and stakeholders
• Confidence working with Creative, Account, Strategy, Production, Finance, and Resource Management teams
• People-first approach to operations
• Proactive, solutions-oriented mindset
• Experience with project management, resource management, and financial tracking tools
• Interest in continually improving how teams work

Core Competencies

Demonstrates expertise in Creative Operations and Resource Management, with a strong focus on staffing, project management, and financial tracking. Capable of improving workflows and ensuring optimal resource allocation in a fast-paced creative environment.

Highest-signal resume keywords

• Creative Operations Management
• Resource Management
• Project Management
• Financial Tracking
• Cross-Functional Collaboration

Hard Skills

• Creative Resourcing
• Project Management
• Staffing Plans
• Scopes of Work
• Timelines
• Budget Tracking
• Creative Workflows
• Utilization Monitoring
• Capacity Planning
• Freelance Management

Soft Skills

• Excellent Organizational Skills
• Proactive Mindset
• People-First Approach
• Solutions-Oriented
• Stakeholder Management

Industry Keywords

• Creative Services
• Agency Environment
• Creative Leadership
• Cross-Functional Teams
• Creative Department Operations

Tools & Technologies

• Resource Management Tools
• Project Management Tools
• Financial Tracking Tools