Senior Manager, Creative Operations

Senior Manager, Creative Operations
Job ID: 54142

Location: All International
Full/Part Time: Full-Time
Regular/Temporary: Regular
Office Location: Arlington, Vriginia, USA

Location is flexible. The successful candidate must work within a 1-2 hour window of US east coast time zone. Remote and hybrid options available.

Who We Are
The mission of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is to conserve the lands and waters upon which all life depends. As a science-based organization, we develop innovative, on-the-ground solutions to the world’s toughest environmental challenges so that people and nature can thrive. Our work is guided by our values, which include a commitment to diversity and respect for people, communities, and cultures. From a rewarding mission to career development and flexible schedules, there are many reasons to love life #insideTNC.

One of TNC’s primary goals is to cultivate an inclusive work environment so that employees around the globe have a sense of belonging and feel that their unique contributions are valued. We know we’ll only achieve our mission by hiring and engaging a diverse staff that reflects the communities in which we work. Recognizing that people bring talent and skills that have been developed outside the scope of a job, we take a holistic approach to recruitment that considers life experience in addition to the professional requirements listed in our postings. Please apply – we’d love to hear from you. To quote a popular saying at TNC, “you’ll join for the mission, and you’ll stay for the people.”

What We Can Achieve Together

• We’re looking for a Senior Manager, Creative Operations who will provide strategic management and oversight of traffic management, production, TNC’s online storefront, and contract and vendor management for the creative work of TNC’s Marketing and Communications (MAC) division.
• The Senior Manager, Creative Operations you’ll oversee and supervise MAC’s production staff, who are responsible for delivering print production for TNC’s membership magazine, overseeing management of TNC’s external-facing marketplace online shop, and managing design and print production for a variety of other marketing and communications materials. You will direct all creative traffic management and assignment of projects that include design, photography, video, and print production. You will assign creative work, having developed and maintained a deep understanding of the scope of creative work and requests that are executed in-house by MAC’S creative staff, and the work and requests that are outsourced to vendors and contractors. Working closely with project management and operations colleagues, you’ll ensure that work that is executed both in-house and by vendors and contractors is executed to a high standard within agreed-upon timelines and budgets.
• Using the project and team management skills you bring, you will define, implement, and review and improve work processes for the flow of work on creative projects from intake through assignment and execution; manage and maintain an updated and relevant list of trusted contractors and vendors that can execute various types of creative work; and work with operations colleagues to ensure that contracts are in place to execute projects as needed, within set timelines and budgets, and ensuring compliance with laws and TNC SOPs. You will oversee TNC’s online storefront, working with colleagues to ensure all aspects of the storefront, including website, inventory, and fulfillment are well-managed and functioning optimally.
• You’ll understand, follow, and help to improve existing project management workflow and processes, and are responsible for driving high-quality work and outcomes and continuous improvement in all areas that you oversee and manage.

As Senior Manager, Creative Operations, your responsibilities will be:

• Management and supervision of the creative production team, including a focus on managerial excellence, providing appropriate oversight, guidance, and coaching for high performance and development.
• Receiving, prioritizing/categorizing, and assigning (to internal staff or external contractors) all creative requests that come in through creative request intake forms.
• Define and implement a workflow process for creative projects from intake/request through assignment and execution.
• Manage TNC online storefront.
• Manage and maintain an updated list of vendors and contractors, and ensure that contracts with those vendors and contractors are up to date and in compliance with laws and TNC SOPs.
• Develop and maintain an understanding of project management processes in the MAC division, ensure that the processes related to their areas of oversight are executed in line with established processes, and proactively suggest improvements to processes.
• Ensure programmatic commitments, TNC policies and procedures, and financial standards are met and managed for compliance.
• Actively track and manage in-house production and contract budgets.
• Manage own and team accountability for strategic goals objectives.
• Proactively work with staff, stakeholders, and vendors to problem-solve when needed.
• Occasional travel is required.
• Work long or flexible hours as needed during peak workload times.

We’re Looking for You
Are you looking for work you can believe in? At TNC we strive to embody a philosophy of Work that You Can Believe in where you can feel like you are making a difference every day. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the ongoing mission of conservation by helping to shape the work of our team.

The ideal candidate will have all or some of these qualifications. If you don’t have all of them, apply anyway and tell us about your skills and experience:

• Demonstrated experience working in a project management or operations role on a marketing creative team.
• Demonstrated experience with and understanding of the production function of a creative team.
• Experience managing vendors and contractors.
• Management experience that includes ability to lead, motivate, set objectives and manage performance, and conflict resolution.
• Ability to work in partnership with others in a collaborative and/or advisory role.
• Experience working with colleagues, vendors, and partners with differing and diverse backgrounds, and a mindset that seeks to understand and incorporate differing and diverse backgrounds and perspectives in the workplace.
• Experience with and ability to work in a global manner and with a diverse group of colleagues from around the world.
• Multi-lingual skills and/or multi-cultural or cross-cultural experience.
• Results-driven, motivated self-starter capable of working both independently and collaboratively.
• Exceptional organization skills, time management, accuracy, and attention to detail.
• Demonstrated experience and ability in planning and managing budgets.
• Positive and solution-oriented outlook and approach.
• Strong mediation and negotiation skills.
• Strong writing, presentation, and communication skills.
• Working knowledge of Asana project management software.

Expert knowledge of current and evolving trends in production and/or creative operations management disciplines.

What You’ll Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in related field and a minimum of 8 years related experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience supervising staff and teams.
• Experience cultivating and managing client relationships.
• Experience in project management, developing marketing strategies and measuring results.

What We Bring
Since 1951, TNC has been doing work you can believe in. Through grassroots action, we have grown from a small non-profit into one of the most effective and wide-reaching environmental organizations in the world. Thanks to more than 1 million members, over 400 scientists, and the dedicated efforts of our diverse staff and partners, we impact conservation around the world!

TNC offers competitive and comprehensive benefits packages tailored to the individual countries where we work. These may include health care benefits, retirement benefits, parental leave, paid time off, life insurance, and disability coverage as well as an employee assistance program and other life and well-being benefits.

We’re proud to offer a flexible work environment that supports the health and well-being of the people we employ.

Salary Information
This position may be based in any country where TNC has an established entity, taking into consideration legal restrictions, such as non-national ratios and immigration processing times. For U.S. based applicants only, the starting pay range for this position is generally within the range of $77,000 – $111,000 for annual base salary and is based on location, qualifications, specific skills, and experience. This range only applies to candidates whose country of employment is the USA. For all other applicants, pay ranges will be in local currency, the pay range will be based on the local labor market, and not tied to the above pay range. Your geographic location will be confirmed during the recruitment and used to determine your actual pay range. Additionally, for all applicants, actual pay will fall within a range based on a variety of factors including, for example, the candidate’s qualifications, specific skills, and experience.

The Nature Conservancy is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our commitment to diversity includes the recognition that our conservation mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people of diverse backgrounds, beliefs and culture. Recruiting and mentoring staff to create an inclusive organization that reflects our global character is a priority and we encourage applicants from all cultures, races, colors, religions, sexes, national or regional origins, ages, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, military, protected veteran status or other status protected by law.

TNC is committed to offering accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application process.

An attractive salary and benefits package is part of TNC’s value proposition to our employees. TNC strives to provide competitive pay and bases salaries on the geographic location of the role committing to being equitable across groups and providing hiring salary ranges when possible.

Since we support flexible and remote work for our employees, many positions have a flexible location within countries where we’re registered as a Non-government Organization and established as an employer. This may mean we’re unable to provide a hiring salary range in the posting for some of our positions. However, candidates invited to be part of our interview process will be provided their location specific range upon request.