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The Director, Creative Operations is a key leader within the US Foods Creative organization, responsible for building the operating model that enables high-quality work to move quickly, efficiently, and at scale. This is an important rule that enables the operational success of this team, which operates as an in-house agency tasked with delivering an extensive portfolio of creative materials. Reporting to the Vice President, Creative, this role leads workflow operations across this the team and its business partners, oversees the contract workforce strategy, and manages critical external supplier relationships and budgets, including third party procurement.This leader brings operational rigor, strong judgment, and a service mindset to a high-volume creative environment—improving visibility, capacity planning, resource deployment, and delivery performance across the organization.
This role is segmented as Hybrid. You will be onsite in Rosemont, IL 3 days a week (Tuesday - Thursday) and Virtual Monday and Friday.
RESPONSIBILITIES :
Creative Operations Management & Broader Organization Workflow
Lead intake, prioritization, and workflow across the Creative team to ensure efficient delivery of campaigns, programs, events, and other business priorities.
Design and optimize workflows, handoffs, and operating rhythms across Creative and cross-functional partners to improve visibility, reduce friction, and increase speed to market.
Establish metrics, capacity planning, and governance practices that improve throughput, remove bottlenecks, and strengthen execution.
Contract Workforce Management
Lead contract workforce planning, onboarding, and day-to-day management to ensure flexible, effective support for business demand.
Assign and oversee contractor work, manage utilization, and maintain quality, speed, and alignment with team standards.
Manage contractor-related budgets and partner with internal leaders and talent providers to maintain a strong external workforce model.
External Supplier & Budget Management
Oversee relationships with external suppliers and production partners, including Supply Logic, to ensure strong service, accountability, and reliable delivery.
Manage supplier budgets, scopes of work, and performance to align spend with business priorities and delivery expectations.
Partner with Procurement and Indirect Spend teams on contracts, renewals, RFPs, and supplier reporting.
Financial Oversight
Supervise and manage multi-million-dollar annual budgets and resource capacity plans for a 30+ person team. Direct 1.5k projects per year, over 20k deliverables. Ingesting over twenty new project briefs per week.
Accountable for approximately $10MM in annual expenditure with third-party procurement sources.
Own the US Foods online "Marketing Store," overseeing approximately $6 million in Field Marketing materials transactions with an external third-party procurement partner.
Direct the vendor relationship with outside partners to deliver production resources supporting the $3 million National Menu Design program.
Collaborate closely with the Indirect Spend team on all contracts/RFPs/negotiations for Creative/Marketing procurement and reporting.
Other duties as assigned by management.
SUPERVISION:
Internal and external project managers, proofreaders, translation agency, third party procurement company and ecommerce content, multiple contractors/employment agencies.
RELATIONSHIPS
Internal: Creative, Marketing, Category Management, Field Sales, Corporate Communications, HR, Analytics, Ecommerce, and IT partners, DCs.
External: Support agencies i.e., digital, content, social, multi-media, and procurement.
WORK ENVIRONMENT
Hybrid: This role is partially remote, and the associate is expected to perform assigned responsibilities from a combined home-based and office-based environment.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
Must have 10+ years of experience in an advertising, marketing agency, or large corporate matrix environment.
Minimum 7 years leading Creative or Marketing Resource Operations functions within either an agency or complex client operation; 7+ years of project management experience.
7+ years of people leadership and talent development experience building high-performing teams.
Significant experience in creative operations, marketing operations, project management, or resource management within a complex agency or corporate environment.
Experience leading business process improvement and change management initiatives.
Working knowledge of key operational functions and principles, including finance, customer service, and production.
Proven success managing projects from brief through delivery in a high-volume environment.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Proficiency with project management software, Mac-based tools, and collaboration platforms.
Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite, including PowerPoint, Excel, and Word.
Exceptional at executing complex strategic projects under tight deadlines with strong follow-through and responsiveness.
Proven ability to take ownership and drive results across large, multifaceted initiatives.
Track record of establishing effective creative operations processes that improve delivery and team performance.
Strong business acumen, including budgeting and sourcing experience.
Ability to build influential, collaborative relationships across teams, functions, and levels.
Ability to influence others to set and achieve goals and deadlines.
Ability to identify risks in creative projects and develop contingency plans to mitigate them.
Flexible and adaptable in a fast-paced, evolving business environment.
Up to 10% overnight travel for business needs.
EDUCATION
Bachelor's degree in advertising/marketing or a related field required
This role will also receive an annual incentive plan bonus.
Benefits for this role may include health insurance, pre-tax spending accounts, retirement benefits, paid time off, short-term and long-term disability, employee stock purchase plan, and life insurance. To review available benefits, please click here: https://www.usfoods.com/careers/benefits.html.
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Compensation depends on relevant experience and/or education, specific skills, function, geographic location, and other factors as applicable by law (for example: state or local minimum wage thresholds). The expected base rate for this role is between
$125,000 - $195,000***EOE – Race/Color/Religion/Sex/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity/National Origin/Age/Genetic Information/Protected Veteran/Disability Status***
Skills Required
- 10+ years experience in an advertising, marketing agency, or large corporate matrix environment
- Minimum 7 years leading Creative or Marketing Resource Operations functions; 7+ years project management experience
- 7+ years people leadership and talent development experience
- Significant experience in creative operations, marketing operations, project management, or resource management
- Experience leading business process improvement and change management initiatives
- Working knowledge of finance, customer service, and production operational functions
- Proven success managing projects from brief through delivery in a high-volume environment
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Proficiency with project management software, Mac-based tools, and collaboration platforms
- Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite, including PowerPoint, Excel, and Word
- Ability to execute complex strategic projects under tight deadlines with strong follow-through
- Track record of establishing effective creative operations processes that improve delivery and team performance
- Strong business acumen, including budgeting and sourcing experience
- Ability to build influential, collaborative relationships and influence others to meet goals and deadlines
- Ability to identify risks in creative projects and develop contingency plans
- Bachelor's degree in advertising, marketing, or a related field
What We Do
US Foods is one of America’s great food companies and a leading foodservice distributor, partnering with approximately 300,000 restaurants and foodservice operators to help their businesses succeed. With 28,000 associates and more than 70 locations, US Foods provides its customers with a broad and innovative food offering and a comprehensive suite of e-commerce, technology and business solutions. US Foods is headquartered in Rosemont, IL, and generates more than $28 billion in annual revenue. Visit usfoods.com to learn more. ------------ Rules of Engagement Statement: We are proud to support community engagement on the US Foods LinkedIn page, and we're excited to see your comments, photos and videos. Please note that the views expressed by the community do not necessarily reflect those of US Foods. Before posting, please take a moment to read our rules for community content. We reserve the right to remove content that violates these rules. 1. Don't break the law. Content that appears to break the law or that advocates for breaking the law also is not permitted. 2. Be polite and courteous to everyone, even those you disagree with. This also means you may not post anything that is threatening, harassing, abusive, bullying, discriminatory, profane, sexually explicit, obscene, violent, gruesome, or similarly objectionable. 3. Stay on topic for this community and dialogue. Off-topic content may include but is not limited to irrelevant or out of context material, spam, promotional content, and links to third-party sites. 4. Follow LinkedIn's Terms and Conditions. 5. All posts must be by a real person and from a real profile. Content from fake or anonymous profiles is not permitted. 6. Our employees must also follow all of our applicable policies and guidelines, including but not limited to our Code of Conduct and Electronic Social Networking Policy
