Creative Operations Manager

ORGANIZATION SUMMARY

Utah's Promise is a nonprofit organization focused on removing barriers, improving education, and providing access to basic needs. 211 Utah’s Salt Lake team, Promise Partnership Utah, United Way of Salt Lake, and Utah’s Promise are part of a family of organizations and partnerships committed to ensuring Utahns have access to vital services and quality education so 100% of kids and families are thriving.

Our workplace is fast-paced, friendly, adaptive, and grounded in our core values: relationships, continuous improvement, results, and equity. We offer competitive compensation including a comprehensive benefit package, generous paid time off, and flexible schedules. People with diverse backgrounds and abilities are encouraged to apply.

POSITION SUMMARY

Utah's Promise is seeking an organized, collaborative Creative Operations Manager to lead the planning and coordination that keeps our marketing and communications team on track. You'll take projects from request to delivery: building plans, setting timelines, coordinating people and vendors, managing approvals, and keeping leadership informed on status and capacity.

This is not a content creation role. Our writers, designers, and digital specialists create the work. This role makes sure it gets planned, aligned, and delivered on time. If you're the person who naturally builds the timeline, chases the approval, and spots the bottleneck before it becomes a problem, this role is for you. The ideal candidate makes sound decisions, follows through, handles competing priorities well, and builds strong working relationships.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Lead project intake and prioritization: Capture and track all project requests in Asana and align priorities with the VP of Strategic Communications & Marketing.
• Build and own project plans: Create and maintain plans for marketing and communications projects, including scope, roles, dependencies, timelines, and approval paths.
• Keep work on track: Lead kickoffs, status meetings, and debriefs; monitor progress; and resolve risks or bottlenecks early.
• Manage schedules: Maintain content calendars, production schedules, and approval timelines across the team.
• Coordinate deliverables, logistics, and vendors: Manage the handoffs, logistics, and vendor relationships behind creative, digital, print, and event deliverables, including printers, agencies, and freelancers.
• Report on the portfolio: Own the marketing project dashboard in Asana and provide regular updates to leadership on status, risks, decisions needed, and team capacity.
• Improve processes: Develop and refine templates, workflows, and communication practices that make the team more efficient.
• Perform other duties as assigned, including project coordination support for other departments.

REQUIRED COMPETENCIES

• Project management and planning: Manages multiple projects from start to finish, anticipates dependencies, and balances competing deadlines.
• Attention to detail and accountability: Keeps information accurate and follows through to make sure approvals and commitments are met.
• Communication: Shares clear, timely updates tailored to each audience, including leadership.
• Relationship building: Builds trust with colleagues, partners, and vendors through responsiveness and follow-through.
• Problem solving and adaptability: Spots obstacles early, finds practical solutions, and adjusts plans as priorities change.
• Continuous improvement: Looks for ways to improve tools, workflows, and practices.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum 3–5 years of direct project management experience, where your primary responsibility was planning, scheduling, and coordinating the work of others.
• Professional experience with agency project or account management, creative or print production, traffic coordination, event logistics, and/or project management within a marketing or communications team is strongly preferred but not required.
• Demonstrated experience using project management software. Asana experience strongly preferred.
• Bachelor's degree in business, project management, communications, marketing, nonprofit management, or a related field; equivalent experience will be considered.
• A project management certification (such as PMP or CAPM) is a plus but not required.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and remain flexible in a fast-paced environment.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

The team member is regularly required to communicate clearly, in oral and written formats, with others in person, over the phone and via other devices. The team member must be able to transcribe, take in new information, prepare and analyze data and figures, constantly operate a computer and other standard office machinery. The team member must have the ability to lift, carry, push and/or pull objects weighing up to 50lbs.

The employee is required to work primarily in-person, in our UP offices during core business hours Monday – Thursday, with the option to work remotely on Fridays. Utah’s Promise currently has a 36-hour work week with Friday afternoons off.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

The position is a full-time, exempt position with full benefits. $62,370 – 75,000. Salary commensurate with experience. UWSL/UP provides a wide range of benefits, including:

• Competitive medical, dental, vision insurance • 6% retirement match
• Life, accidental death, and long & short-term disability insurance • FSA • HSA contribution
• Free on-site gym & bike storage • Paid parking or public transportation subsidy
• Two weeks paid office closure (December & July) • Generous PTO & Health time
• Paid parental leave • Paid time to volunteer