Lead Creative Operations Manager

Datadog Datadog · Enterprise · New York, NY · Creative Marketing

This role is for a Lead Creative Operations Manager who will build and manage scalable workflows for the Brand team, focusing on design, video, motion, and illustration. The manager will partner with leadership to improve operational rigor, design systems for creative intake and project management, and drive efficiency. While the role involves using AI tools and automation platforms to streamline workflows, the core function is operational management, not AI/ML development.

What you'd actually do

  1. Lead operational strategy across design, events, video, motion, and illustration to improve scalability, prioritization, and team efficiency
  2. Partner with Brand leadership, marketing stakeholders, and external vendors to align teams through complex operational decisions and shifting priorities
  3. Design and evolve systems for creative intake, project assignment, resource planning, bandwidth visibility, and cross-functional collaboration
  4. Maintain operational systems, including project management tools and digital asset management platforms, to improve visibility, organization, adoption, and creative delivery
  5. Drive speed and quality across high-volume initiatives by maintaining operational oversight, unblocking teams, and stepping into tactical project leadership when needed
  6. Own onboarding, communication, and management for new creative tools and vendors, including opportunities to use AI tools, automation platforms, and emerging technologies to streamline workflows

Skills

Required

  • Creative operations
  • Production
  • Program management
  • Operational leadership
  • Workflow design
  • Project management tools
  • Digital asset management
  • Cross-functional collaboration
  • Stakeholder management
  • Systems thinking
  • Communication
  • Judgment

Nice to have

  • AI tools
  • automation platforms
  • emerging technologies

What the JD emphasized

  • 6+ years of experience in creative operations, production, program management, or operational leadership within a fast-paced creative or marketing organization
  • You are able to operate strategically while remaining execution-oriented, with strong judgment about when to zoom out and when to dive into the details
  • You have experience influencing creative leadership, executive stakeholders, and cross-functional teams through ambiguity, competing priorities, and organizational change
  • You are a systems thinker who approaches operational challenges with curiosity, first-principles thinking, and a bias toward scalable, sustainable solutions
  • You build trust with multidisciplinary teams through clear communication, sound judgment, emotional intelligence, and operational credibility
  • You are familiar with creative operations and workflow platforms such as Asana, Jira, Airtable, Workfront, or similar tools, and are interested in AI-enabled workflow optimization and automation technologies