Operations Lead - Brand Experiences

The Role

The role

The Brand Experiences team is responsible for bringing the ITV brand and its IPs to life via experiences and events.

Sitting within ITV Creative, the team works with Commissioning, Communications, Marketing and Publicity teams across the business to deliver B2C and B2B experiences targeted to a range of audiences: content creators, clients, colleagues, programme-makers, talent, competition winners, agencies and sponsor partners.

The team does this by engaging agencies, freelancers, venues and suppliers in any combination in order to execute against a wide range of briefs.

All project work is outsourced, and as such must be carefully assigned and guided by the Brand Experiences team in order to reflect the high creative standards and slick operation that our audiences are used to.

The main purpose of the Operations Lead role is to ensure that all projects are adequately resourced and that all external engagements are contracted swiftly and safely, with payments being processed in record time.

Key responsibilities

• Full ownership of contracting for all third parties and external partners (approximately 15 business entities and up to 6 Freelancers at any one time, drawn from a wider base)
• Ownership and development of Brand Experience supplier base, ensuring a live and accurate roster of strong talent
• Supporting Producers working on project delivery with vetting and contracting of suppliers, compiling Risk Assessments and managing the collation and approval of HSE plans
• Trafficking of incoming briefs, assessing their viability and recommending a resource plan and budget split for each project
• Tracking of all work, spend, allocations and briefs
• Developing close working partnership with stakeholders to ensure expectations are managed and then exceeded
• Supporting in brief creation for partner agencies, working with the Head of Brand Experiences to shape these from stakeholder briefs
• Managing onboarding of partners and Freelancers, with support from the Head of Brand Experiences
• Setting project timelines and payment milestones in partnership with BLA functions and stakeholders
• Reporting post-delivery and completing budgets by detailing reconciled spend if required
• Ensuring adherence to ITV plc's policies around Sustainability and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at all times

Skills you'll need (minimum criteria)

• A wealth experience in a creative operations, production or event management environment
• Experience managing and maintaining event health and safety protocols, risk assessments and method statements
• In-depth knowledge of the agency landscape and entertainment brands, ideally with experience working within one of these landscapes
• Confidence in making decisions at Executive Producer level, with a readiness to justify them if challenged
• Good understanding of database/delegate management software and systems

Other things we're looking for (key criteria)

• Resourcefulness: if there's a way to get things done or to adapt to a change mid-project, you'll do it if it's compliant and works for everyone else; you'll also keep people posted on any risks and how you plan to handle them
• Exceptional organisational, prioritisation and project management skills, with flawless attention to detail and pinpoint accuracy - especially when managing complex data, operational plans, tax reports and budgets
• Self-sufficient and proactive, comfortable working independently if needed
• A confident and clear communicator with excellent written and verbal skills - nobody leaves a meeting with you in any doubt, and your emails don't provoke many questions
• A flexible, agile approach. Able to adapt and respond to changing event requirements and conflicting priorities
• Ability to quickly build relationships across ITV departments and with external vendors/partners
• Acting with discretion and diplomacy, you instil trust in everyone you interact with
• Ability to remain calm in pressurised environments
• A curious realist - you're someone who wants to get close to the challenges and explore them fully before recommending a course of action that is within scope