Brand Operations Manager

Outdoor Research LLC

$100K — $115K *
Retail & Consumer Goods
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 4-6 years in a brand, agency, or marketing operations environment managing multiple workstreams.
  • Strong project management instincts with experience in building systems.
  • Ability to write clear briefs and provide constructive feedback on creative work.
  • Understanding of wholesale and retail commercial cycles, particularly sell-in and sell-through timelines.
  • Experience in both wholesale/retail and DTC contexts is a plus.
  • Comfortable in fast-paced environments with shifting priorities.
  • Low ego, high ownership mentality, focused on enhancing team output and collaboration.
  • Proficiency in project management tools like Asana, with knowledge of creative production workflows.

Responsibilities

  • Act as the first contact for creative requests from DTC and Wholesale stakeholders.
  • Manage and evolve the team's project management system.
  • Maintain the master brand calendar to support go-to-market planning.
  • Assist in briefing seasonal creative requirements with the Production team.
  • Oversee DTC intake across various digital and promotional channels.
  • Manage trafficking of wholesale creative materials for seasonal events.
  • Facilitate communication between stakeholders in DTC and Wholesale contexts.

Benefits

  • 11 paid holidays each year and 3 floating holidays.
  • Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans.
  • Paid time off and paid sick leave.
  • Transportation benefits.
  • Paid volunteer time for community engagement.
  • 401(k) plan with company matching.
  • Wellness amenities including a bouldering wall and workout rooms.
  • Annual outdoor benefits under the Ron Gregg initiative.
  • Employee discounts on products and gear.
  • Access to employee interest groups for sports and activities.
Full Job Description
Position
Brand Operations Manager

Description

Location Hybrid - Seattle, WA (4 days in office to start, moving to three, after 12 months.)

Rate: $100,000 - $115,000k

The Role:
The Brand Operations is responsible for intake, prioritization, and trafficking of creative work across Outdoor Research's DTC and Wholesale marketing functions. The role serves as the primary operational partner to the Design and Production teams keeping work moving, briefs clear, and timelines honest.

This is not a campaign ownership role. It is the organizational infrastructure that allows an 8-person brand team to execute at full capacity. The person in this role must carry enough commercial literacy to understand how sell-in and sell-through cycles shape wholesale creative timelines and enough cross-functional range to coordinate across brand, sales, finance, and planning without losing the thread. Understanding Outdoor Performance categories is also a must.

What you'll do
  • Serve as the first point of contact for all creative requests from DTC & Wholesale stakeholders
  • Own the team's project management system, maintain it, enforce adoption, and evolve it as the team's needs change
  • Support GTM planning by maintaining the master brand calendar, ensuring all workstreams are accounted for and production timelines ladder up correctly to launch dates
  • Assist in briefing seasonal creative needs across photo/video, design, and content in partnership with the Production team.
  • DTC intake ownership (email, web, paid social, promotional)
  • Wholesale creative trafficking (seasonal, sales tools, buyer events)
  • Stakeholder communication across both teams
  • Sell-in/sell-through calendar awareness

What This Role Is Not:
This role does not own campaigns, set brand strategy, manage athletes, or direct creative work. It does not serve as a substitute for clear stakeholder briefs or act as an account manager for external agencies. It is not an entry-level coordinator position, and it is not a stepping stone for someone who ultimately wants to be a creative director or brand strategist.

The role requires genuine ambition around operations, process, and organizational craft not a temporary tolerance for it.

What Success Looks Like
  • Brief quality and completeness at intake (reduction in revision cycles caused by unclear direction)
  • Team capacity utilization: work is sequenced, not piled
  • On-time delivery rate across DTC and Wholesale workstreams
  • Stakeholder satisfaction across DTC and Wholesale on responsiveness and process clarity
  • Project management system adoption and accuracy


Position Requirements

Qualifications
  • 4-6 years in a brand, agency, or marketing operations environment managing multiple concurrent workstreams.
  • Strong project management instincts, has built systems, not just followed them
  • Enough creative literacy to write a clear brief, give useful feedback, and know when something is off-brief.
  • Familiarity with wholesale and retail commercial cycles understands how sell-in and sell-through timelines connect to creative production needs.
  • Experience working across both wholesale/retail and DTC contexts is a genuine advantage.
  • Comfortable working in a fast-moving, resource-constrained environment where priorities shift
  • Low ego, high ownership, takes pride in making other people's work better, not in getting credit.
  • Proficiency in project management tools (Asana); familiarity with creative production workflows.


What do we bring to the table?
  • 11 paid holidays each year and 3 floating holidays
  • Comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans
  • PTO/PSST
  • Transportation benefits
  • Paid volunteer time
  • 401(k) with discretionary company match
  • Bouldering wall and work out rooms
  • Ron Gregg - annual get outdoors benefit
  • Product discounts
  • Employee interest groups including various sports activities


Exempt/Non-Exempt
Exempt

Full-Time/Part-Time
Full-Time

Location
Seattle, WA

This position is currently accepting applications.

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