Director Creative Resourcing

About Us Sparks is a global brand experience agency that designs and produces trade show exhibits, corporate events, brand activations, and immersive experiences for major brands. They focus on helping companies build real human connection through creative, strategic, and memorable experiences. Sparks recently joined Freeman, but they still operate with their own team, culture, and creative approach. Summary The Director, Creative Resourcing owns the long-term resourcing strategy for the Creative department, ensuring the right mix of internal talent and external/freelance capacity to meet business objectives across a national and diverse portfolio of business. This role connects resource planning directly to financial performance while safeguarding the creative vision and quality of work delivered to clients. This role builds and leads the resourcing function itself: its people, its tools, and the processes that scale it and, when needed, supports at a tactical level (assigning resources, managing conflict, and solving day-to-day staffing problems on complex accounts). This position will our Sparks Creative team. It is eligible to work a hybrid schedule, generally requiring work in-office and/or show-site 2-3 days per week. The ideal candidate will be based out of any of the following locations: Dallas, TX Las Vegas, NV Philadelphia, PA Chicago, IL Los Angeles, CA New York, NY Denver, CO Minneapolis, MN Essential Duties & Responsibilities Strategic Resourcing Leadership Develops and owns the long-term resourcing strategy for the Creative department, aligning talent supply with business objectives, utilization targets, and financial goals. Partners with senior leadership to forecast internal headcount needs and scale the external freelance bench to absorb the ebbs and flows of business volume. Builds and maintains department-wide dashboards and reporting that anticipate staffing needs months in advance, translating utilization, volume, and skill-gap data into actionable plans. Acts as a key voice in utilization and capacity discussions, bringing data-backed recommendations in addition to status updates. Provides strategic input on large-scale RFPs, shaping how the creative team is staffed and set up for success before work is won. Team & Function Building Builds and leads the resourcing department: hires, structures the team, and sets career pathways and professional development plans for resourcing managers and coordinators. Mentors all members of the resourcing team, ensuring consistent adoption of resourcing process and standards across the organization. Coaches direct reports on handling complex, high-volume resourcing challenges, including new-account ramp-up and multi-discipline staffing. Talent Networks & Vendor Relationships Builds and maintains strong relationships with freelance networks, third-party staffing vendors, and emerging creative talent pipelines across multiple regions. Maintains visibility into internal and external resource availability, skill sets, software competencies, and client history to inform both daily staffing and long-range planning. Analyzes utilization, volume trends, and skill gaps to shape and continuously refine the department's freelance strategy. Negotiates rates, terms and conditions with potential freelance resources Tools, Systems & Process Introduces and rolls out new resourcing tools, systems, and best practices that streamline workflow and improve staffing visibility across the company and enterprise. Drives process improvement in team construction, workflow balancing, and conflict mitigation in partnership with discipline and account leaders. Builds executive-ready reporting for leadership, including freelance spend analysis, skill/software gap analysis, and other resourcing trackers. Identifies where AI can streamline resourcing work (i.e. matching talent to project needs, surfacing capacity or skills gaps and drafting reports) and pilots these tools with the team. Operational Fluency Able to step in and personally assign resources and balance workflow across Creative teams and disciplines when needed. Comfortable leading strategic staffing conversations for individual complex projects or accounts. Maintains expert working knowledge of relevant resourcing and project-management software (e.g., resource management, workforce planning, and project tracking platforms). Education & Experience Bachelor's degree preferred, High School Diploma or Equivalent with relevant work experience required. 10+ years of experience in creative resourcing, staffing, or workforce/operations planning within a creative, marketing, agency, or experiential environment; prior experience as a Resourcing Manager or equivalent strongly preferred. Demonstrated track record of building and scaling a resourcing function, team structure, process, and toolin #J-18808-Ljbffr FREEMAN