VP, Creative Operations

Amika, LLC.; New York, Northern (NY, KY); Hybrid; USD 250,000 - 380,000; Full time

Job summary

amika, a Brooklyn-born haircare brand, seeks a visionary VP of Global Creative Operations to design and scale an enterprise operating model for Creative across the globe. The role focuses on digitizing processes, building infrastructure, and aligning governance with strategic growth while preserving creative excellence.

The VP will lead a cross-functional team, partner with Finance and executive leadership, and drive capacity planning and resource strategy to support continued expansion toward a

Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive leadership in Creative/Marketing Operations within high-growth organizations.
• Experience leading Creative Operations within a multi-billion-dollar or similarly complex global organization.
• Experience guiding growth toward greater organizational scale and complexity.
• Proven ability to design and evolve enterprise operating models, governance, and cross-functional workflows.
• Experience digitizing Creative or Marketing Operations and implementing connected technology ecosystems.
• Deep expertise in capacity planning, resource strategy, integrated production, project management, and organizational design.
• Strong financial acumen including headcount planning, forecasting, and budget optimization.
• Ability to operate at enterprise level with understanding of how creative work moves through an organization.
• Experience building and leading senior operational teams and advising executive leadership.
• Experience in beauty, fashion, retail, lifestyle or prestige brands is valuable but not required.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the Creative Operations organization across senior leaders and future capabilities.
• Build a high-performing leadership team for day-to-day execution while the VP focuses on enterprise strategy and transformation.
• Guide the Creative organization through periods of growth while maintaining operational continuity.
• Establish governance, decision rights, escalation paths, and service expectations across Creative and partners.
• Partner with Finance and executive leadership on headcount planning and long-range resource needs.
• Provide executive-level visibility into Creative health, demand, capacity, investment, and risk.
• Design enterprise operating models, organizational structures, and connected technology ecosystems.
• Define the Creative Operations technology roadmap including platforms, automation, and AI-enabled workflows.
• Move Creative Operations from retrospective reporting toward predictive planning.

Skills

Leadership experience

Creative Operations

Cross-functional collaboration

Budget optimization

Job description

amika means friend. we’re a fearless, Brooklyn-born, salon-raised haircare brand + a friend to all hair, hairstylists, the planet + you.

we’re rooted in clinical results. each product is infused with our intoxicating scent + powered by our superfruit soul, sea buckthorn. known as one of earth’s most omega-rich plant sources, this potent berry nourishes your skin, scalp + strands.

we’re a proud pal to the planet + certified B-Corp. from sustainably sourced ingredients + recyclable packaging to our energy-saving production processes, we pledge to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, waste + energy to reach Net Zero by 2030.

having grown up in salons, we know better than anyone how important stylists are—they’re our confidantes + community. Think of us as your at-home hairapist, here to empower self-expression + bring joy to your haircare experience. all hair is welcome™.

the job:

The Vice President of Global Creative Operations is responsible for designing, building, and continuously evolving the operating model that enables Creative to deliver world-class work at global scale. They will build the operational foundation, digital infrastructure, organizational systems, and capabilities required for Creative to support significantly greater business complexity without compromising creative quality, speed, talent, or culture.

This leader must understand what best-in-class Creative Operations looks like within a multi-billion-dollar or similarly complex global organization and know how to translate that experience into the right operating model for amika’s current stage of growth and future ambition.

A central mandate of the role is the digitization and modernization of Creative. The VP will build a connected operational ecosystem that gives leadership clear visibility into what work exists, why it exists, what it costs, who is doing it, where capacity exists, where work is constrained, and what the organization will need next.

As the VP, you'll operate at an enterprise level: designing the system, shaping the organization, anticipating future needs, and determining how the Creative org must evolve as the business grows.

Success requires more than creating operational excellence. This leader must establish it, sustain it, measure it, and continually evolve it as the organization changes.

location:

Brooklyn, NY 2-3 days a week onsite (must be based in + have the right to work in the US)

what you'll do:

• Design and continuously evolve the global Creative operating model, establishing how the organization plans, prioritizes, resources, produces, governs, delivers, and measures of work.
• Build the operational infrastructure required to support amika’s next stage of growth toward $1B+ and increasing global complexity.
• Translate experience from large-scale organizations into systems appropriate for a high-growth, entrepreneurial business, introducing the right infrastructure at the right stage of growth.
• Evaluate organizational effectiveness and develop future-state structures across Creative Operations, Project Management, Production, Resource Management, and emerging operational capabilities.
• Anticipate capability, capacity, and structural needs before they become business constraints.
• Build an operating model that creates consistency and accountability while remaining flexible enough to evolve with new markets, channels, technologies, and business priorities.
• Lead the digitization of the Creative organization, creating a connected ecosystem across project management, resource planning, production, asset management, approvals, workflow, and reporting.
• Establish a scalable source of truth for Creative work across teams, markets, channels, campaigns, resources, and business priorities.
• Define the Creative Operations technology roadmap, including platforms, integrations, automation, AI-enabled workflows, digital asset management, and emerging operational tools.
• Reduce manual processes, fragmented systems, duplicative work, and dependency on institutional knowledge.
• Establish the data and reporting infrastructure required to provide meaningful visibility into Creative demand, capacity, utilization, timelines, costs, production efficiency, workflow health, and organizational performance.
• Move Creative Operations from retrospective reporting toward predictive planning, enabling leadership to anticipate constraints, investment needs, and operational risk.
• Use operational intelligence to improve performance, guide investment decisions, and shape how the organization evolves.

Capacity, Resource & Financial Strategy

• Build enterprise-level capacity planning, demand forecasting, and resource allocation models across the Creative organization.
• Partner with Finance and executive leadership on headcount planning, workforce strategy, organizational investment, and long-range resource needs.
• Develop scalable resource strategies across full-time talent, freelancers, agencies, creators, production companies, and specialized external partners.
• Establish greater financial visibility across Creative production, external resources, and operational investment.
• Create frameworks for determining the most effective balance of internal and external capabilities as business needs evolve.
• Identify opportunities to improve investment efficiency, consolidate spend, increase asset utilization, and create greater value from Creative resources without compromising creative excellence.
• Use business growth, workload, capability, and financial data to inform future organizational recommendations and scenario planning.

Governance & Executive Partnership

• Establish enterprise governance for how Creative demand is prioritized, resourced, reviewed, approved, delivered, and measured.
• Define clear decision rights, accountability, escalation paths, and service expectations across Creative and its cross‑functional partners.
• Serve as the senior operational advisor to the Executive Creative Director, CMO, and executive leadership.
• Translate company strategy, commercial priorities, and growth plans into Creative organizational and operational requirements.
• Provide executive-level visibility into Creative health, demand, capacity, investment, organizational readiness, and operational risk.
• Partner across Marketing, Product Development, Commercial, Digital, Retail, International, Finance, Technology and People teams to ensure Creative Operations supports broader company strategy.
• Identify systemic friction and solve for root causes rather than managing recurring issues project by project.

Leadership & Organizational Transformation

• Lead and develop the Creative Operations organization, including senior leaders across Creative Operations, Project Management, Production, Resource Management, and future operational capabilities.
• Build a high‑performing leadership team capable of owning day‑to‑day execution while the VP remains focused on enterprise strategy, transformation, and future‑state planning.
• Lead the Creative organization through periods of significant growth and change while maintaining operational continuity.
• Recognize when systems, structures, technologies, or ways of working have become constraints and proactively evolve them.
• Build career architecture and leadership capability across the Creative Operations organization.
• Create a culture of accountability, transparency, partnership, operational excellence, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure the organization can evolve without relying on constant reinvention or heroic individual effort.

Success Measures

• A scalable Creative operating model capable of supporting a $1B+ global organization.
• Successful digitization and modernization of Creative Operations.
• Clear, actionable visibility into Creative demand, capacity, resources, investment, workflow and organizational performance.
• Predictable creative delivery and improved speed to market.
• Stronger creative output enabled by more effective operational systems.
• Reduced operational friction, manual work and organizational complexity.
• More strategic allocation of internal and external resources.
• Greater financial visibility and efficiency across Creative investment.
• Clear governance, accountability and decision‑making across Creative and its business partners.
• Strong stakeholder confidence in Creative as a strategic business function.
• Sustainable ways of working and a stronger employee experience.
• An organizational structure and operating model that evolve ahead of business needs rather than react to them.

must haves:

• 15+ years of progressive leadership experience across Creative Operations, Marketing Operations, integrated production, or related functions within complex, high‑growth organizations.
• Significant experience leading Creative Operations within a multi-billion‑dollar or similarly complex global organization, with firsthand understanding of the infrastructure, governance, technology, planning and organizational discipline required at scale.
• Experience helping organizations navigate significant growth or transformation toward greater organizational scale and complexity strongly preferred.
• Proven success designing and evolving enterprise operating models, organizational structures, governance systems, and cross‑functional workflows.
• Demonstrated experience digitizing Creative or Marketing Operations and implementing connected technology ecosystems across workflow, resources, production, assets, reporting and planning.
• Deep expertise in capacity planning, resource strategy, integrated production, project management, organizational design and operational transformation.
• Strong financial acumen, including headcount planning, forecasting, production investment, external resource strategy and budget optimization.
• Proven ability to operate at both enterprise altitude and with a strong understanding of how creative work moves through an organization.
• Experience building and leading senior operational teams and influencing executive leadership through complex organizational change.
• Experience within beauty, fashion, retail, lifestyle or prestige consumer brands is valuable but not required. Experience successfully operating at meaningful organizational scale is more important than category background.