Director, Operations, Planning & Production

La Jolla Group

$125K — $150K *
Retail & Consumer Goods
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 12+ years of experience in marketing operations, project management, or agency operations
  • Experience managing diverse, cross-functional marketing teams
  • Strong expertise in creative production and its lifecycle
  • Budget management experience with vendors and external partners
  • Proficiency in marketing technology and digital asset management
  • Strong understanding of AI tools for operational improvement
  • Exceptional organizational and project management skills
  • Experience in building and leading effective teams

Responsibilities

  • Own the strategic planning calendar for PSD Marketing spanning 20+ months
  • Establish clear milestones and dependencies across marketing initiatives
  • Lead operational production across various creative deliverables
  • Drive accountability and standards across cross-functional teams
  • Manage marketing budgets and forecast spending
  • Oversee marketing technology and implement tools to improve efficiency
  • Develop and maintain key agency and vendor relationships

Benefits

  • Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
  • 401(k) Retirement Plan
  • Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
  • Paid Time Off and Company Holidays
  • Growth opportunities in a collaborative culture
Full Job Description
The Role

PSD is growing fast. That creates opportunity, but it also creates complexity.

We're looking for a Director, Operations, Planning & Production to build the operating system that allows PSD Marketing to move faster, work smarter and deliver at a higher level.

This person is the keeper of the machine.

You will own the processes, calendars, production, resources, budget tracking, vendors, tools and operating rhythms that keep PSD Marketing on track. You will work across Creative, Strategy, Culture & Community, Digital, Product, Finance and senior leadership to ensure priorities are clear, decisions happen quickly and work gets delivered on time and at the highest possible quality.

This is not a project-management role. This is a marketing operating leadership role.

You will be expected to challenge teams, solve problems, build systems and drive accountability. You won't own the strategy, but you will make sure the strategy becomes reality.

This role will work closely with PSD's Chief Digital Officer, GM, CFO, CEO and other senior leaders.

And like every role at PSD, you need to be willing to get your hands dirty..

What You'll Own

Strategic Planning

  • Own PSD Gameplan calendar from 20+ months out to GTM working across Marketing, Product, Design, Marketplace


Marketing Planning

  • Own PSD Marketing's AOP and Quarterly calendar and strategic touchpoints with SVP of Marketing
  • Establish clear milestones, decision points, dependencies and owners.
  • Create visibility across all major marketing initiatives.
  • Identify conflicts, risks and resource issues before they become problems.


Creative Production

  • Own the operational production function across campaigns, content, photo, video, digital and other creative deliverables.
  • Build production processes that enable creative teams to move quickly without sacrificing quality.
  • Lead production planning, budgets, timelines, resources, vendors and delivery.
  • Ensure shoots and major productions are properly scoped, staffed and executed.
  • Build relationships with production partners, agencies, freelancers and vendors.


Project Management & Accountability

  • Establish clear project management standards across PSD.
  • Drive cross-functional teams to deliver against commitments.
  • Hold strategy, creative and other functional teams accountable to deadlines and quality.
  • Identify blockers and proactively solve them.
  • Create a culture where 'I'll get it to you tomorrow' gets done tomorrow.


Budget & Financial Management

  • Partner with Finance to manage marketing budgets, forecasts, POs, invoices and vendor spend.
  • Establish visibility into committed and projected spend.
  • Identify opportunities to improve efficiency.
  • Ensure marketing resources are deployed against the highest-value opportunities.


Marketing Technology & AI

  • Own the marketing technology and operational tool ecosystem in partnership with Digital and other stakeholders.
  • Identify and implement technologies that make the organization faster and more effective.
  • Lead the exploration and responsible adoption of AI across marketing (and larger PSD) workflows.
  • Ensure teams have the tools, systems and capabilities needed to operate efficiently.


DAM, Processes & Playbooks

  • Own Digital Asset Management and establish clear standards for asset organization, usage and distribution.
  • Build scalable playbooks for campaign planning, creative production, events and other recurring workflows.
  • Create a Center of Excellence for project management and production across PSD.
  • Develop standards that can be adopted by other functions with project managers and producers.


Agency & Vendor Management

  • Own key operational relationships with agencies, production companies, vendors and external partners.
  • Establish clear scopes, expectations, timelines and performance standards.
  • Ensure PSD gets the right level of service and value from external partners.


Lead and develop the team

  • Build and eventually lead a team of 3-4 operations, project management and production professionals.
  • Establish a high-performance culture built around accountability, clarity and execution.
  • Develop talent and create repeatable systems that scale as PSD grows.


What Great Looks Like

  • PSD Marketing runs on a clear, trusted operating calendar.
  • Teams know what is happening, when it is happening and who owns it.
  • Meetings are run at the highest level with agendas, recaps and time management
  • Campaigns and productions consistently launch on time.
  • Marketing stays within budget.
  • Production quality improves.
  • Agency and vendor management becomes more disciplined.
  • Teams spend less time figuring out process and more time doing great work.
  • Marketing has scalable playbooks and systems.
  • The organization has greater visibility into priorities, resources and risks.
  • Ultimately, if this person is doing their job exceptionally well, everyone else feels like they're better at their jobs.


Who You Are

  • You are the person who sees a messy room and immediately starts organizing it.
  • You are calm when everyone else is panicking.
  • You love a good spreadsheet, but you don't worship one.
  • You can sit with a creative director, a CFO, a product leader and a CEO and understand what each needs from the process.
  • You're comfortable saying: That's a great idea. Let's break this down to make this happen.
  • You are highly organized without becoming bureaucratic. You create structure without slowing people down.
  • And you don't confuse owning the process with owning the strategy.


What You Bring

  • 12+ years of progressive experience in marketing operations, integrated marketing, production, project management and/or agency operations.
  • Experience managing complex, cross-functional marketing organizations.
  • Strong understanding of creative production and the end-to-end production lifecycle.
  • Experience managing budgets, vendors, agencies and external partners.
  • Demonstrated ability to build planning systems, processes and operating models.
  • Experience with marketing technology, digital asset management and/or workflow platforms.
  • Strong understanding of AI and emerging tools that can improve marketing operations.
  • Exceptional project management and organizational skills.
  • Experience building and leading teams.
  • Ability to operate effectively with executives and senior cross-functional leaders.
  • Strong financial acumen and comfort managing significant budgets.
  • Willingness to travel and get into the work.


This position is open for Remote or Hybrid, based on candidate location. Preferred candidate locations: Los Angeles, CA; Portland, OR; NYC, NY; Nashville, TN.

Benefits

PSD offers a comprehensive benefits package for regular, full-time employees designed to support overall well-being and work-life balance. Eligible team members can participate in:
• Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• 401(k) Retirement Plan
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Paid Time Off and Company Holidays
• Enjoy additional perks and opportunities for growth within a collaborative, lifestyle-focused culture.

Physical Requirements

Seeing: Must be able to see well enough to read reports.

Hearing: Must be able to hear well enough to communicate with customers, vendors and employees.

Climbing/Stooping/Kneeling: Must be able to stoop or kneel to pick up products.

Lifting/Pulling/Pushing: Must be able to lift up to 10 pounds.

Fingering/Grasping/Feeling: Must be able to type and use technical sources.

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