Photography Coordinator

Creative Production Coordinator- Photography Production

Own end-to-end photography production with a strong focus on creative direction and visual consistency, particularly for food, product, and lifestyle photography. This role ensures shoots run smoothly, assets are visually compelling, organized, and usable, and cross-functional teams have what they need, on time, on budget, and on brand.

Partners daily with Photographer/Retoucher, Editors, Designers, Creative, Brand/Category Marketing, and External Vendors.

Core Responsibilities (Photo-Led)

1. Pre-Production (Primary)

• Define scope, deliverables, timelines, and budgets from brief.
• Build shot lists, call sheets, schedules, tech & prop lists.
• Source locations/talent/props; manage permits, COIs, releases.
• Coordinate cross-functional approvals; run pre-pro meetings.
• Collaborate with Creative to establish the leading visual look and feel for photography, ensuring consistency across food, product, and lifestyle imagery.

2. On-Set Production (Primary)

• Lead day-of logistics, timeboxing, and risk management.
• Own stakeholder management and decision logs.
• Ensure brand standards, safety, and legal compliance.
• Guide creative execution on set to maintain approved aesthetic, lighting, and styling for food, product, and lifestyle photography.

3. Post-Production (Primary)

• Manage selects, retouching briefs, color, QC, and approvals.
• Traffic deliverables to editors/retouchers; track status.
• Ensure final imagery aligns with creative direction and brand guidelines.

4. Vendor Management (Primary)

• Maintain a neutral, competitive vendor roster.
• Source 2–3 bids per job; negotiate rates/SOWs; track performance.
• Enforce conflict of interest, preferred vendor policy compliance.

Expanded Responsibilities (to fill variable time)

5. Content Operations (Secondary)

• DAM governance: intake standards, metadata, naming, etc.
• Rights & usage: model/property releases, expirations, usage notes.
• Asset distribution to partners and channel owners.

6. Video & Social Support (Secondary)

• Lightweight producing for short-form video (boards, shot lists, crews).
• BTS capture planning; social cutdowns coordination.
• Trafficking deliverables to channel calendars (with Marketing/CMs).

7. Resource & Schedule Coordination (Secondary)

• Weekly talent resourcing for internal creatives & freelancers.
• Maintain master production calendar and status.

8. Process Improvement (Secondary)

• Build reusable templates (briefs, shot lists, call sheets, budgets).
• Run post-mortems; drive corrective actions.

Required Skills & Experience

• 4–7 years producing commercial/studio photo; bonus for CPG/QSR/retail and food/product/lifestyle photography experience.
• Confident with shot planning, on-set leadership, and post workflows.
• Vendor bidding/negotiation; budget ownership.
• Solid DAM/metadata/usage rights literacy.
• Tools: Smartsheet, Excel/Sheets, Adobe CC basics, DAM (AEM).

Soft Skills (Non-Negotiable)

• Calm, clear communicator; high follow-through.
• Stakeholder management: sets expectations, gives options with trade-offs.
• Vendor neutrality; collaborative, no-drama ethos.
• Ownership mindset, proactive risk management.