5+ years in agency operations or resourcing, specifically in an agency setting.
Strong negotiation skills with sound judgment in managing freelancer relationships.
Proficient in reading and understanding contracts.
Comfortable with numbers, including contract values and rate conversions.
Experience with resource management and timesheet platforms, plus strong Excel and Google Sheets skills.
Ability to manage budgets and reconcile expenses with finance.
Excellent written communication skills, with a warm and clear tone.
Self-directed and capable of completing tasks independently.
Discretion in handling confidential information.
Familiarity with AI tools and a curiosity about their applications in operations.
Responsibilities
Maintain a vetted bench of freelance talent across various disciplines.
Quickly run outreach for project staffing needs, collecting availability and rates.
Negotiate freelancer rates based on market benchmarks.
Manage the freelance intake process from inquiry to engagement.
Collaborate with project leads and finance for staffing approvals.
Ensure engagements are accurate and within budget before proceeding.
Oversee contractor-of-record and vendor relationships, including contract setup and amendments.
Clearly explain contracting arrangements to freelancers.
Keep the freelance tracker and resourcing system profiles updated.
Support ad hoc operations, including staff plans and timesheet workflows.
Benefits
Flexible work environment.
Opportunity to work with a diverse range of freelance talent.
Engagement in a dynamic agency setting.
Access to advanced tools and technologies, including AI.
Collaborative team culture focused on operational excellence.
Full Job Description
We are looking for a NY-based Resource Operations Manager to be the operational backbone of how our work gets staffed, contracted, tracked and paid for. Our flexible talent bench is how we scale to the work in front of us, and this role owns it end to end, from the first conversation with a freelancer through the final invoice and offboarding. Roles + Responsibilities Freelance sourcing and recruitment
Maintain a vetted bench of freelance talent across creative, production, design, studio, account, strategy and program management, working alongside internal recruiter and external staffing agencies.
Run outreach quickly and on demand when a project or pitch needs a team within days, collecting availability, rate and business status in a single pass.
Negotiate rates against market benchmarks and past engagements.
Manage the freelance intake process and the pipeline from first inquiry to engagement.
Partner with project leads and finance to turn staffing requests into clear, well-supported approvals.
Make sure each engagement is accurate and within budget before it moves forward.
Match each engagement to the right contracting path.
Contractor-of-record and vendor management
Own day-to-day relationships with contractor-of-record and vendor partners: contract and SOW setup, amendments, timesheet approval and offboarding.
Explain contracting arrangements to freelancers clearly: why the paperwork works as it does, how they log hours and how they get paid.
Maintain the freelancer agreement template, complete it accurately for each engagement and get it signed.
Keep the freelance tracker, resourcing system profiles, end-date reminders and hand-offs to IT and operations current, so anyone can ask who is active, on what, until when and at what cost, and get one true answer.
Ad hoc operations and delivery support
The freelance bench is the anchor, but an operations team is asked for whatever the agency needs next. Expect a share of the week to go to work like this:
Resourcing support: staff plans, timesheet workflows, and moving project and employee data between systems.
Recurring reporting: time-off tracking and freelance spend against contract values
Process: document how work actually gets done, find the steps that cost the most time, and simplify them. Where an AI-assisted workflow can carry the repetitive parts, build it, maintain it and teach others to use it.
Expense management: administer the expense/production system, allocate billable and non-billable T&E budgets with project teams, and reconcile monthly expenses with finance and client project teams.
Requirements
5+ years in agency operations or resourcing. Agency experience required.
Sound judgment and diplomacy in negotiating rates and managing freelancer relationships.
A careful reader of contracts.
Comfortable with numbers, including contract values, rate conversions and working-day counts.
Experience with resource management and timesheet platforms, contractor-management platforms and project tracking tools, plus strong Excel and Google Sheets skills.
Experience managing budgets and reconciling expenses with finance.
Clear, warm written communication.
Self-directed, able to work from a brief and see tasks through.
Discretion with confidential information such as rates and contracts.
Fluent with AI tools as a daily practice, and curious about where they make the work better.
NYC-based.
Benefits
The salary band for this role is $80,000 - $90,000. Where a prospective new hire's base salary will fall within this band depends on several factors including their qualifications and experience, the skill level required in the role, market rates, and the salaries of existing crew members at Big Spaceship within the same role to maintain equity.
