Creative Manager

Lemonlight is a full-service video production company creating high-quality, scalable video content for brands across industries. We combine creative expertise with operational precision to deliver fast, consistent, and impactful results for our customers. The Role We’re looking for a Creative Manager to lead the day-to-day management and performance of Lemonlight’s Creative team. This role is responsible for driving performance through a team of creative professionals, ensuring the team is organized, properly resourced, accountable, and consistently delivering against expectations. You’ll serve as the management backbone of the Creative department: overseeing workload and bandwidth, setting priorities, tracking deadlines, developing team members, improving processes, and solving problems before they become escalations. This is not a Creative Director role. You won’t be expected to be the person coming up with every concept, writing every script, or making every creative decision. We have talented creative professionals responsible for developing and executing the work. Your job is to make the team better at doing theirs. You’ll work closely with our Chief Creative Officer to build a high-performing, accountable Creative department and create the structure that allows senior creative leadership to remain focused on creative vision, strategy, quality, innovation, and the company’s highest-impact creative initiatives. What You’ll Do Manage & Develop the Creative Team Manage the day-to-day performance of Associate Creative Directors, Creative Producers, and other members of the Creative team. Set clear expectations around ownership, communication, deadlines, preparedness, and performance. Hold regular 1:1s and provide ongoing coaching, feedback, and professional development. Establish individual goals and help team members improve against them. Recognize strong performance and address performance gaps quickly and effectively. Build a culture of accountability, ownership, urgency, and collaboration. Support hiring, onboarding, and development of Creative team members. Own Workload, Bandwidth & Priorities Maintain clear visibility into everything the Creative team has in flight. Manage assignments and balance workloads based on bandwidth, strengths, deadlines, and business priorities. Ensure the right creative resources are assigned to the right opportunities and projects. Help the team prioritize when multiple deadlines and requests compete for attention. Identify capacity issues early and develop solutions before work is impacted. Ensure team members have clear priorities and understand what is expected of them. Drive Accountability & Execution Ensure pitches, decks, scripts, concepts, client deliverables, and internal initiatives are progressing against agreed-upon timelines. Track deadlines and follow up proactively rather than waiting for work to become late. Identify blockers, stalled projects, communication gaps, and ownership issues early. Step in to resolve day-to-day issues and keep work moving. Ensure commitments made by the Creative team are followed through. Create visibility into project status, ownership, deadlines, and risks. Escalate significant creative, client, or business issues to the Chief Creative Officer when appropriate. Manage Process & Performance Own and improve the workflows that support Lemonlight’s Creative department. Ensure established creative processes are followed consistently. Identify recurring inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and breakdowns and implement solutions. Establish clear operating rhythms for team meetings, 1:1s, project reviews, workload planning, and performance management. Develop and track department and individual KPIs. Use data and team performance trends to identify areas for improvement. Help the department operate with greater consistency and predictability as Lemonlight scales. Identify opportunities to use AI and emerging tools to improve team efficiency and workflows. Collaborate Cross-Functionally Partner closely with Sales, Production, Post-Production, and Customer Success. Ensure Creative has the information and resources needed to execute effectively. Create clear ownership and smooth handoffs between departments. Help resolve timeline, resource, communication, and workflow issues that cross teams. Represent Creative’s capacity, priorities, and operational needs in cross-functional conversations. Ensure changes in scope, deadlines, or client expectations are communicated and accounted for internally. Partner with the Chief Creative Officer Serve as the CCO’s primary partner for the day-to-day management of the Creative department. Translate department goals and priorities into clear actions for the team. Provide visibility into team performance, workload, challenges, and resource needs. Surface problems early and bring solutions, not just issues. Help implement new processes, expectations, capabilities, and department initiatives. Take ownership of the day-to-day management required to keep the Creative team performing at a high level. What You Bring 7+ years of experience in creative, advertising, marketing, video production, project management, or a related field. 3+ years of experience directly managing creative professionals. Strong understanding of creative workflows and commercial video production. Experience managing teams in an agency, production company, studio, marketing department, or similarly fast-paced environment. Proven ability to manage workload, capacity, priorities, and deadlines across multiple team members. Strong people-management skills with experience coaching, developing, and holding employees accountable. Exceptional organizational skills and follow-through. Proactive approach to problem-solving — you identify issues before they become emergencies. Clear, direct communicator who is comfortable setting expectations and having difficult conversations. Strong judgment around what you can solve independently and what requires escalation. Ability to bring structure and accountability to creative teams without creating unnecessary bureaucracy. Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, deadline-driven, client-service environment. Proficient with Google Workspace and project management platforms such as Monday.com. Bonus Qualifications Experience managing Associate Creative Directors, Creative Directors, Creative Producers, Copywriters, Designers, or similar creative talent. Agency or commercial video production experience. Experience with resource planning and creative capacity management. Experience developing team KPIs and performance systems. Experience improving creative department workflows at scale. Familiarity with AI-assisted creative tools and workflows. What Success Looks Like Everyone on the Creative team knows what they own, what’s expected, and when it’s due. Work is appropriately assigned and team bandwidth is visible and actively managed. Deadlines are consistently met and potential misses are identified early. Team members receive consistent feedback, coaching, and development. Performance issues are addressed instead of lingering. Creative workflows are clear, followed, and continuously improved. Cross-functional teams know what to expect from Creative and have visibility into project status. Problems are solved quickly and at the appropriate level. The department operates with greater accountability, consistency, and predictability. The CCO is able to spend significantly more time on creative vision, strategy, quality, innovation, major pitches, and high-impact company initiatives. Why Lemonlight Lead and develop a talented Creative team. Work directly with senior leadership and have meaningful ownership over how the department operates. Help build the systems and management structure behind a growing creative organization. Shape how a modern video company manages creative talent and workflows at scale. Make a direct impact on team performance, efficiency, and company growth. Creative Manager: $90,000–$120,000, depending on experience, with eligibility for a performance-based bonus. Health, dental, and vision insurance Paid time off and company holidays Los Angeles-based team environment If you’re an exceptional people manager who understands creative teams, brings structure to complex workflows, and knows how to turn expectations into consistent performance, we’d love to hear from you. #J-18808-Ljbffr Lemonlight