Head of Creative Services

This role is offered on a hybrid contract giving you the opportunity to also work from home three days a week.

PURPOSE OF JOB :

As the Head of Creative Services, you will be pivotal in establishing the smooth operation of our Production Directorate. Reporting to the Creative Director, you will collaborate with department heads and other senior stakeholder across the organisation to develop and implement project management and content workflows across teams to enable the team to deliver work effectively.

Once creative ideas are envisioned and agreed upon, you will lead the team in creating the roadmap for implementation. Your role entails developing, training, and assimilating a team of Creatives and Producers into a new operating model capable of developing, managing, and delivering a range of content year-round. This will involve collaborating with project teams across departments to ensure Producers can successfully deliver large, complex content projects, as well as several small to mid-size projects. The primary focus will be for Producers to work across a range of channels and formats (, digital, broadcast, social etc.), creating a system that empowers Producers to work on multiple campaigns and deliver several content projects concurrently. You will lead on delegating tasks and mapping out internal resources, budgets, timelines, and all major details to enable the production team to deliver content on time and within budget.

Your responsibilities also include ensuring that production activities align with our strategic vision, fostering a harmonious and efficient process for the production team to thrive. By instilling order within the team's processes, you will significantly contribute to fostering efficiency and accountability across the wider organisation.

Key Responsibilities :

• Implement robust project management processes to ensure the efficient workflow in content delivery. This entails responding to briefs from our Strategy Directorate (Fundraising, Funding, and Corporate Partnerships), who set the strategic direction, objectives, and target audiences. You will support our Production team to address various aspects of these briefs, including conceptual work, video content such as appeal films, photography, shoots, design assets, digital content, and more.
• Continuously improve, streamline and assess best processes and ways of working to seamlessly deliver content on time and within budget.
• Oversee the production of all shoots and content activations, implementing a critical path, and ensuring alignment with the Strategy Directorates and the vision of the creative teams.
• Co-create, build, and maintain the planning roadmap and critical paths (including sign-off processes) for the production team, aligning priorities with departmental budget and strategic objectives.
• Collaborate with production teams and department leads in Legal, HR, and Assurance to establish processes aligned with the Production Directorate's workflows and requirements.
• Oversee paperwork processes, including contract management, safeguarding paperwork, legal documentation, and risk assessments, ensuring compliance with regulations and organisational standards.
• The role involves directly managing and strategic planning of production teams while also overseeing resource allocation for creative and production teams, which encompass creatives, designers, editors, and producers.
• Work closely with other department heads to implement traffic management systems, ensuring producers, creatives, and production teams are adequately resourced for optimal performance.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to develop training programs and materials aimed at enhancing Producers' skills in managing content creation across multi-channel campaigns.
• Demonstrate an excellent understanding of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) principles, integrating them into creative processes and outputs.
• Strategically build and nurture relationships with external collaborators and freelancers who share our commitment to DEIB and our mission for change.
• Stay informed on industry best practices and emerging trends in integrated marketing and production management to continuously improve operational processes and training initiatives.

Essential Criteria :

This role requires both creative and technical skills as well as human-centred people expertise. You should be expert in integrated marketing communication tools and techniques, but also expert at stakeholder management, as you will serve as the liaison for senior stakeholders within Strategy and within the production teams.

Extensive and demonstrable experience in department and team management, as well as training & development.

Proven strategic experience in implementing efficient content production workflows for complex integrated cross-media campaigns, such as video, broadcast, digital, event, activations, podcasts, multi-screen shows, and others.

Experience specifically with implementing processes that have directly enhanced team efficiencies and who has led teams through change and transformation.

Possess an in-depth understanding and awareness of the training needs required for producers to effectively manage content within campaigns across various channels.

Previous experience working in a creative agency or production company, with a solid understanding of production operations.

Expert in project management tools and techniques, with a focus on time and resource management.

Strong mentorship and coaching skills, with the ability to upskill Producers and empower them to take on more complex projects.

Excellent knowledge of budget management principles, with the ability to balance financial constraints with creative requirements.

Demonstrable experience of managing varying production logistics and implementing forward planning techniques, including resource allocation and scheduling

Desirable Criteria :

Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to find creative solutions to lastminute issues and challenges.

Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously.

Effective communication skills, with the ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams and stakeholders.

Extensive experience in paperwork management, including contract administration and compliance documentation.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Comic Relief we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Why work at Comic Relief

There are lots of good reasons to join us at Comic Relief. You can read more about our employee benefits , such as our commitment to flexible and hybrid working. We ask staff to come to the office twice a week, normally on agreed team days, so that we can do all those things that are difficult to do online. Our office is based in Whitechapel, London, There are lots of opportunities to develop your skills and experience at Comic Relief, including opportunities to become a Mental Health First Aider or to participate in our Employee Network Groups that focus on making Comic Relief a more inclusive place to work.

Disability Confident employer

As part of the Disability Confident scheme, we take positive action by providing first-round interviews to candidates who have a registered disability, provided they meet the minimum criteria for the role, as demonstrated on their CV.

We ask that candidates that wish to be considered for this scheme email to discuss further. Please do not email CV's / cover letters.