Director of Operations, Creative; Internal Agency; Hybrid: Onsite and Remote

This role is segmented as Hybrid. You will be onsite in Rosemont, IL 3 days a week (Tuesday - Thursday) and Virtual Monday and Friday.

RESPONSIBILITIES :

Creative Operations Management & Broader Organization Workflow

• Lead intake, prioritization, and workflow across the Creative team to ensure efficient delivery of campaigns, programs, events, and other business priorities.

• Design and optimize workflows, handoffs, and operating rhythms across Creative and cross-functional partners to improve visibility, reduce friction, and increase speed to market.

• Establish metrics, capacity planning, and governance practices that improve throughput, remove bottlenecks, and strengthen execution.

Contract Workforce Management

• Lead contract workforce planning, onboarding, and day-to-day management to ensure flexible, effective support for business demand.

• Assign and oversee contractor work, manage utilization, and maintain quality, speed, and alignment with team standards.

• Manage contractor-related budgets and partner with internal leaders and talent providers to maintain a strong external workforce model.

External Supplier & Budget Management

• Oversee relationships with external suppliers and production partners, including Supply Logic, to ensure strong service, accountability, and reliable delivery.

• Manage supplier budgets, scopes of work, and performance to align spend with business priorities and delivery expectations.

• Partner with Procurement and Indirect Spend teams on contracts, renewals, RFPs, and supplier reporting.

Financial Oversight

• Supervise and manage multi-million-dollar annual budgets and resource capacity plans for a 30+ person team. Direct 1.5k projects per year, over 20k deliverables. Ingesting over twenty new project briefs per week.

• Accountable for approximately $10MM in annual expenditure with third-party procurement sources.

• Own the US Foods online "Marketing Store," overseeing approximately $6 million in Field Marketing materials transactions with an external third-party procurement partner.

• Direct the vendor relationship with outside partners to deliver production resources supporting the $3 million National Menu Design program.

• Collaborate closely with the Indirect Spend team on all contracts/RFPs/negotiations for Creative/Marketing procurement and reporting.

• Other duties as assigned by management.

SUPERVISION
:

• Internal and external project managers, proofreaders, translation agency, third party procurement company and ecommerce content, multiple contractors/employment agencies.

RELATIONSHIPS

• Internal:
  Creative, Marketing, Category Management, Field Sales, Corporate Communications, HR, Analytics, Ecommerce, and IT partners, DCs.

• External:
  Support agencies i.e., digital, content, social, multi-media, and procurement.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

• Hybrid
  :
  This role is partially remote, and the associate is expected to perform assigned responsibilities from a combined home-based and office-based environment.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Must have 10+ years of experience in an advertising, marketing agency, or large corporate matrix environment.

• Minimum 7 years leading Creative or Marketing Resource Operations functions within either an agency or complex client operation; 7+ years of project management experience.

• 7+ years of people leadership and talent development experience building high-performing teams.

• Significant experience in creative operations, marketing operations, project management, or resource management within a complex agency or corporate environment.

• Experience leading business process improvement and change management initiatives.

• Working knowledge of key operational functions and principles, including finance, customer service, and production.

• Proven success managing projects from brief through delivery in a high-volume environment.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

• Proficiency with project management software, Mac-based tools, and collaboration platforms.

• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite, including PowerPoint, Excel, and Word.

• Exceptional at executing complex strategic projects under tight deadlines with strong follow-through and responsiveness.

• Proven ability to take ownership and drive results across large, multifaceted initiatives.

• Track record of establishing effective creative operations processes that improve delivery and team performance.

• Strong business acumen, including budgeting and sourcing experience.

• Ability to build influential, collaborative relationships across teams, functions, and levels.

• Ability to influence others to set and achieve goals and deadlines.

• Ability to identify risks in creative projects and develop contingency plans to mitigate them.

• Flexible and adaptable in a fast-paced, evolving business environment.

• Up to 10% overnight travel for business needs.

EDUCATION

• Bachelor's degree in advertising/marketing or a related field required

This role will also receive an annual incentive plan bonus.

​Benefits for this role may include health insurance, pre-tax spending accounts, retirement…