Associate Operations Manager

Overview

Marks, part of the Propelis Group, Marks is a consumer experience agency creating engaging moments across the entire brand spectrum—from brand design and packaging, to content and consumer connections. We are a collaborative global network of 1,900+ team members across 25+ studios and 20+ countries, partnering with some of the world’s most recognized brands to solve complex business challenges through design, strategy, and craft.

Associate Manager, Agency Operations – Marks Chicago

Location:

Marks Chicago

Employment type:

FTE, Hybrid (3 days/week in-office)

The Associate Operations Manager supports the operational oversight of the Marks offices and directly supporting the Global HQ in Chicago. This role partners closely with the Director of Agency Operations and cross-functional stakeholders to facilitate facility special projects, coordinate office consolidation endeavours, support capital initiates, and ensure smooth day-to-day facilities operations. The Associate Operations Manager serves as a key resource for office coordinators, providing guidance on escalated issues and major initiatives while helping maintain operational consistency, efficiency, and compliance across locations.

This role requires both onsite management within our Chicago offices and ongoing support for other North American offices. It is essential to possess a professional, cheerful demeanour and service-oriented attitude that helps facilitate a highly functioning work environment.

• Facilities Oversight
  • Assist with oversight and coordination of multiple office locations to ensure operational standards and policies are consistently applied.
  • Ensure site compliance with internal policies, safety standards, and vendor agreements.
  • Partner with facility office coordinators to address complex issues or large-scale initiatives beyond routine operations.
  • Support office coordinators with shipping, helping to share out rollouts of global policies, ensure compliance, and coordinate back-ups for coordinator outages.
  • Support the Director of Operations in monitoring office performance, space utilization, and facility needs.
  • Serve as a point of contact for escalated operational or facilities-related issues.
  • Provide guidance, tools, and process support to help office coordinators.
  • Manage ongoing tracking of site fixed asset lists, coordinating with finance and site coordinators to provide accurate tracking.
  • Collaborate with corporate teams such as Finance, HR, IT, Health & Safety, and Real Estate to support integrated operations.
• Chicago Sites Manager
  • Senior site manager for Chicago HQ office and Walnut Photo Studio.
  • Point-of-contact with building support including security, maintenance, janitorial work, etc.
  • Back up to oversee maintenance, special deliveries, or emergency service calls.
  • Manage facility requests from onsite executives for the HQ.
  • Admin for Chicago keycard access through security system.
  • Help HQ office coordinator for coordinating large-scale events, meetings, and in-house workshops.
  • Sit on core team of Chicago Culture Club to help plan social employee events.
• Strategic Projects & Capital Initiatives
  • Support Director of Operations to manage, plan, coordinate, and execute Ops projects.
  • Assist in management of capital projects and office consolidation efforts, including gathering quotes, budget tracking, logistics coordination, and communication with internal stakeholders and vendors.
  • Track progress and support reporting on capital expenditures and project milestones.
  • Contribute to continuous improvement of operations projects, processes, documentation, and controls
• Financial & Administrative Support
  • Create purchase orders and invoices within delegated authority and ensure alignment with budget and policy guidelines.
  • Liaise with North American IT on hardware requests for Marks business.
  • Support analysis of facility management vendors and contracts, looking for alignment and cost saving opportunities.
  • Support invoice review, expense tracking, and operational reporting.

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Operations Management, Facilities Management, or a related field, or equivalent practical…