Operations Manager - Remote - Digital Advertising Agency

The Role

Full-time / Remote

• The right person will thrive in ambiguous environments, have experience and success with building, growing, and leading high performing teams, and is focused on defining new processes and ways of operating, and will be able to interface with senior leaders.
• This role provides the opportunity to progress into a COO role in the longer term when you have proven yourself in this operations leadership role.
• Your focus will be to better systemize and organise the business to support our continued growth and accelerate the realization of the strategic business plan.
• You will be responsible for managing resources, optimizing workflows, and overseeing project delivery timeframes.
• This position is essential in the day-to-day running of Grip and you must work well in a team-based, fast paced, detail-oriented environment.
• As the Operations Manager at Grip, you’ll be the right hand to our visionary CEO. You will ensure the smooth functioning of the agency’s day-to-day operations and processes.
• In this role, you will oversee the building and maintenance of excellent operational processes (Process Maps, SOPs, Automations) lead strategic initiatives, help develop best practices from both a creative and technical perspective and support the growth of Grip. This is a dynamic role. You’ll need to be willing to both roll up your sleeves, and lead high profile, complex initiatives at the same time.
• The Operations Manager will play a key leadership role, helping set the strategic direction for our team-oriented culture and ensuring we continue to exceed our client's expectations.

The Responsibilities and The Impact You'll have

Project management:

• Confirm scope of work with all stakeholders and ensure the project is assigned correctly inside ClickUp.
• Ensuring that projects are delivered on time and meet quality, cost, delivery and morale KPI metrics. This includes monitoring project progress, tracking milestones and deadlines, and identifying and mitigating potential roadblocks or delays by liaising with team members.
• Ensure successful handoffs from Sales Team to Account Managers, Creative Team and Media Buyers, including comprehensive knowledge transfer, project team onboarding, systems connectivity, preparation and delivery of successful Project Kickoff.
• Ensure the timely and effective onboarding of new clients.
• You will proactively monitor and manage our ClickUp workspace.

Process optimization:

• You will be responsible for optimizing the agency's processes to improve efficiency and productivity. This includes identifying areas for improvement, developing and implementing new tools, processes and procedures that scale the efficiency of the team.
• Architect our digital processes within ClickUp using advanced native automation features and further automate our company wide processes using Make (formerly Integromat)
• Audit all software systems, platforms, and processes to identify potential redundancies, efficiencies, secure access, and optimal user flows.
• Lead retroactive analysis on project sprints to diagnose operational challenges and provide strategic solutions for efficiencies.
• You will define opportunities and drive priorities to enhance and through new tools and internal processes.
• You will focus on removing friction for our client-partners and our internal team.

Resource planning and management:

• Partner with Account Managers and CEO in developing scopes of work to ensure clarity in deliverables, timeline development, resource allocations and capacity forecasting
• Establish quantitative and qualitative metrics, guidelines, and standards by which the company’s efficiency and effectiveness will be evaluated; identify opportunities for improvement.
• Monitor and track accurate time allocation for billable hours against forecast and agreed scopes of work. Make recommendations for improvement or adjustments in resourcing, processes, and/or timing to improve future productivity. Provide CFO and CEO with monthly and quarterly utilization reports.
• Forecast and manage agency resourcing needs on a weekly, monthly, quarterly basis. De-conflict and develop contingency plans to enable project teams to operate smoothly in immediate, near, and long term
• Contribute to the overall short- and long-range planning process and in the establishment and assessment of the organization's annual operating budget.

Team management:

• Inculcate a culture of continuous improvement (Kaizen) to ensure that the quality of work is consistently best-in-class in terms of design, content, speed, performance.
• Be your team's biggest fan.
• Onboarding new team members to agency systems and processes in partnership with CEO, ensuring adoption and adherence to Grip's best practices, including tools, software platforms, and systems, providing ongoing training and support, and facilitating team collaboration and communication.
• Actively participate in hiring, onboarding, and training new team members while building a culture of feedback and accountability and leading the performance management process for your team, including levelling up team output
• Ensure that the team is motivated and inspired by the higher level of organisation and proud of their accomplishments.
• Hold each Team Player accountable for adherence to managing tasks in ClickUp.
• Identify capacity constraints and opportunities to improve overall agency efficiency
• Ensure compliance with internal policies and guidelines that give our team a clear path to work better - together.

Client communication:

• You may also be responsible for communicating with clients during the scope development phase, in partnership with Account Managers, to ensure comprehensive understanding of resourcing requirements, timing, and deliverables are clearly aligned and agreed with both client and agency.
• In summary, as the Operations Manager you will play a critical role in managing the day-to-day operations of Grip, ensuring that projects are delivered on time and within budget, and optimizing processes and workflows to improve efficiency and productivity.

The Required Experience, Skills, Abilities & Attributes You'll Bring

• You're naturally curious, you seek to understand and show empathy. Have an insatiable thirst for learning and knowledge combined with a bias for action. You're able to convert thought into execution quickly.
• Ability to articulate confidently and in a compelling manner that positively influences others to take action
• Skilled in creating and overseeing Process Mapping that adheres to international standard BPMN.
• Proactive individual who is full of grit and relentless resolve. You love to find solutions to problems rather than avoiding them, no matter the scenario.
• Recognize recurrent or potential issues and problems, and know when to escalate, pull in a subject matter expert and propose solutions
• Must have 3+ years Experience in Operations Management and Project Management
• You have a willingness to 'roll up your sleeves' to do whatever it takes to get the job done: You'll need to be customer-centric in your approach and across detailed operational metrics.
• Demonstrate the ability to clearly articulate ideas and feedback in a constructive way.
• Supported or caused the growth of a business above 300k a month in gross revenue.
• Analytically minded with the ability to assess project performance and financial viability.
• Effective time management skills and a demonstrated ability to organize and manage multiple projects simultaneously, keeping them on-track using problem-solving/resolution skills and a team focus.
• Excellent business and financial acumen coupled with strong analytical and organizational skills.
• Ability to use data to frame business questions, translate business needs into strategies, and implement tactics and process improvements
• Experienced with managing projects and teams using Gantt charts.
• Proven management and interpersonal skills and ability to clarify or resolve discrepancies.
• Lead coordination and integration of efforts among Marketing, Sales, Delivery, Operations, and Finance divisions to produce smoother workflow and more cost-effective business processes.
• Demonstrate active listening skills and your ability to apply learnings over time
• Organized and methodical with meticulous attention to detail and when you find a solution, you turn it into a process that anyone else can easily follow.
• Experienced with auditing, developing, and/or implementing best practices and process consistency across operational procedures.
• Motivated by clients’ happiness, success and constantly improved customer service and campaign results.
• Communicate like a pro by expressing oneself clearly and concisely in written and oral communications in English. This includes meeting facilitation and presentations where you must be effective at translating technical ideas to non-technical professionals and vice versa.
• You take pride in delivering results far beyond what people expect of you.
• You will demonstrate the ability to build effective long-term relationships across all levels of the organisation and with external stakeholders.
• A natural leader with a demonstrated track record in driving superior performance and leading change through motivating, developing and building effective teams.
• Advanced level proficiency and experience with platforms like ClickUp, Make (Integromat), Zapier, Miro, Google stack, Slack, Zoom and data visualization/dashboarding tools.
• You anticipate emerging and current operational requirements and deliver solutions through a deep, internalised understanding the business’ strategic objectives and mission
• Creation of standard SOP structure and leadership of the team in creation of departmental SOPs
• You have the ability to work independently and cooperatively in a diverse group.

Ideal but not essential:

• Experience within an agency environment. Ideally in digital marketing
• Managing P&L and financial analysis reporting
• Experience with Xero, PandaDoc and Time Doctor.
• Strong understanding of the digital advertising ecosystem
• PMP certification a plus