Director of Ops

Role Overview

Walkup Studio is hiring a Director of Operations to architect, run, and continuously improve the systems that power our work—strategy, content production, talent/influencer programs, and client service. You’ll be the operational heartbeat across resourcing, finance ops, legal/contract workflows, and delivery—ensuring our teams ship excellent work on time, and on scope.

What You’ll Do

Operational Leadership

• Build agency operating systems: planning cycles, weekly business rhythm, dashboards, and post-mortems.

• Translate strategy into resourced, calendarized plans; pressure-test scopes, timings, and budgets before we commit.

• Run capacity management and staffing across strategy, creative, production, community, and paid support.

Finance & Commercials

• Partner with Founders on forecasting, margin targets, and monthly close hygiene (accruals, WIP, COGS, revenue pacing).

• Improve quoting/scoping templates; track burn vs. budget; flag risk early and drive change orders.

• Oversee invoicing cadence, collections follow-up, and vendor payments; standardize POs and cost controls.

Process & Tooling

• Evaluate and implement tooling for project management, asset routing, approvals, and reporting; drive adoption and SOPs.

• Standardize briefing, content calendars, QA, and delivery workflows across platforms (IG/TikTok/YouTube/Pinterest, etc.).

• Continuously optimize: identify bottlenecks, measure cycle times, and roll out process improvements.

Legal, Talent & Compliance

• Operationalize SOWs/MSAs, NDAs, and talent/influencer agreements; maintain version control and clause libraries.

• Ensure usage rights, licensing windows, whitelisting/boosting permissions, and FTC disclosure compliance.

• Manage vendor onboarding (COIs/W-9s), risk checks, and insurance requirements for productions and events.

Client & Team Operations

• Establish a consistent client operating cadence (QBRs, status, reporting) and coach teams on accountability.

• Build a vendor/talent bench; negotiate rates and SLAs.

• Hire, mentor, and performance-manage Operations/PM staff; nurture a culture of clarity, speed, and ownership.

What You’ll Bring

• 7+ years in operations/project management at a marketing, social, or creative agency (multi-client environment).

• Proven track record running complex content/talent programs and production calendars with measurable results.

• Strong financial literacy: revenue recognition, margin management, forecasting, and cost controls.

• Fluency in SOWs, scopes, change orders, and usage/rights mechanics (organic, paid, whitelisting, renewals).

• Data-driven and systems-minded with excellent written comms and stakeholder management.

• Tech expertise (or equivalents): Asana/Notion/Monday, Google Workspace, Slack, QuickBooks (or similar), e-signature, DAM.

Nice to Have

• Experience with influencer EMV/measurement, social listening, and analytics dashboards.

• Production experience and event coverage workflows.