Director, Creative Services

Hi there, we’re Article. 👋 Since 2013, we have been redefining the furniture industry one sofa at a time, it’s not easy — it requires solving challenging, meaningful problems. This is where you come in, as our Director, Creative Services, you’ll lead the business and operations behind our Creative Services function, making sure our teams have the resources, processes, budgets, and direction they need to deliver exceptional creative work at scale.

Why We Need You:

Creative Services supports a high volume of work across Article, from product and campaign assets to design, copy, CG, and physical production. As the business grows and our creative needs become more complex, we need a leader who can build the operating environment that helps our creative teams do their best work.

This is a creative leadership role, but it is not a Creative Director role. Instead, you’ll bring a strong creative background and use that experience to lead the business and operational side of a large-scale creative function. You understand what great creative work takes, and you know how to build the budgets, teams, vendor partnerships, workflows, and operating rhythms that make it possible.

You’ll act as a bridge between creative teams and the broader business, translating business priorities into clear production plans while helping stakeholders understand the resources, trade-offs, and timelines required to deliver high-quality creative.

Why Article?
As a Particle (people of Article), you will have a high level of autonomy to solve challenging, meaningful problems the best way you can. That means you’re trusted to explore solutions you believe will work best (you’re the expert, after all). You’ll do all this while growing your skills within a company that is redefining the furniture industry.

About the Creative Services Team:
Creative Services brings together the teams responsible for producing the creative work that supports Article's brand and business. You’ll lead managers across areas including Production Management, Creative Direction, Copy & Design, CG Production, and Physical Production.

The team works across multiple production streams and partners closely with Marketing, Category Management, and Sales. You'll work closely with internal supplier functions such as Warehousing, Logistics, and Project Management.

We are a hybrid team. You’ll be in the office 3 days per week. Creative Operations

• Own how creative work is planned, resourced, budgeted, produced, and delivered across Creative Services, from intake and briefing through production and final asset delivery.
• Lead strategic and operational planning for the function, translating business priorities into clear production roadmaps, capacity plans, budgets, and priorities.
• Build and monitor meaningful performance measures for Creative Services, including throughput, capacity, delivery timelines, budget performance, quality, and other measures that help the team make better decisions.
• Identify operational bottlenecks and build scalable processes, roles, and ways of working that create clearer ownership and help projects move forward.
• We use G Suite (Gmail, Sheets, Google Docs, Meet, etc) to work and Slack to collaborate and communicate, with your choice of Mac or PC device.

Budget and Vendor Management

• Own the operational budget, including forecasting, cost controls, budget variance, vendor spend, and opportunities to improve cost effectiveness.
• Lead resource and capacity planning across internal teams, external partners, and multiple production streams to balance quality, cost, and speed to market.
• Own key vendor and production partnerships, including procurement, evaluation, negotiation, scope management, contract discipline, and ongoing performance.

Business and Creative Partnership

• Act as a bridge between Creative Service and the broader business, translating business needs into practical production plans while clearly communicating timelines, resources and trade-offs.
• Partner with leaders across Marketing, Category Management, Sales, Warehousing, Logistics, and other teams to understand business needs, resolve competing priorities, and improve how Creative Services supports its internal customers.
• Resolve process breakdowns and priority trade-offs between creative teams and business stakeholders, creating clarity on priorities, ownership, timelines, and next steps.
• Bring a strong creative lens to operational decisions, protecting the standards and conditions required for excellent creative work.

Team Leadership

• Lead and develop managers across Creative Services, creating the conditions for them to make strong decisions, coach their teams, and own outcomes.
• Foster a culture of accountability, customer obsession, high standards, and operational rigor.

• You have significant leadership experience in a high-volume creative environment such as an in-house ecommerce or retail studio, large-scale production studio, or agency supporting high-volume ecommerce or retail clients.
• You have a creative or creative production background that gives you a strong understanding of creative workflows, production requirements, and what high-quality execution looks like.
• You have owned large operational budgets, ideally in the multi-million-dollar range, including forecasting, cost management, and financial trade-offs.
• You have experience leading complex creative operations with multiple production streams, competing priorities, and a high volume of deliverables.
• You have strong experience with procurement, vendor management, contract negotiation, and external production partners.
• You can translate business goals into practical creative production plans and communicate trade-offs clearly with both creative and business stakeholders.

Leadership & Coaching:

• You set direction and clear guardrails so managers understand priorities, trade-offs, and the outcomes they are accountable for.
• You build operating rhythms and ways of working that create ownership and follow-through across teams, rather than relying on you to personally keep every project moving.
• You make sound decisions by balancing data, experience, creative context, and business needs, and remain adaptable when priorities or conditions change.
• You develop managers through direct feedback, thoughtful coaching, and clear expectations, helping them strengthen their own judgment and become stronger coaches for their teams.
• You model above the line behaviour by taking ownership of outcomes, addressing challenges constructively, and creating clarity when teams are working through ambiguity.

Additional Requirements:

• Legally able to work in Canada.
• Completion of criminal background check.