Operations & Program Delivery Lead – (Hybrid – Cape Town) at Datafin Recruitment

ENVIRONMENT

• Our client is a leading social-first agency that connects brands with influential creators to produce culturally relevant, performance-driven campaigns.
• The agency is scaling into its next phase of growth and is investing in the operational backbone and program-management discipline required to deliver premium work, repeatably, profitably, and at pace.
• This role exists at a growth inflection where operational decisions and project delivery are deeply interdependent. The environment is hybrid, collaborative, and innovation-forward, embracing AI and automation as force-multipliers.
• The person in this role operates across NY and LA, serving as the operational bridge across all departments.

DUTIES:

• Lead planning, execution, and delivery of major agency-wide initiatives.
• Build detailed project roadmaps with clear owners and decision gates.
• Proactively identify risks and implement mitigation plans.
• Drive stand-ups, steering committees, and retrospectives.
• Define and enforce project management methodology standards across the agency.
• Own the selection and optimization of internal tools and tech stack.
• Continuously refine the A-to-Z Process Playbook.
• Eliminate bottlenecks to increase output without proportional headcount.
• Maintain real-time team bandwidth visibility across all accounts.
• Resolve resourcing conflicts, balancing strategic versus immediate needs.
• Refine influencer pricing models and the deliverables calculator.
• Monitor project budgets, gross margins, and P&L data.
• Enforce budget adherence and flag variances early.
• Keep the deliverables calculator aligned with market conditions.
• Manage the end-to-end legal workflow: SOWs, reviews, redlines, scope changes.
• Ensure compliance with FTC regulations and AI content standards.
• Serve as operational point of contact with outside counsel.
• Lead operationalization of AI agents across high-frequency workflows.
• Measure and report on time and cost savings from AI integrations.
• Continuously identify new automation opportunities.
• Serve as the operational bridge across all departments.
• Act as objective decision-maker for shared resource conflicts.
• Contribute an operations-first perspective to leadership discussions.

REQUIREMENTS:

• 7+ years in operations management, project/program management within an agency or marketing services environment.
• Demonstrated track record of leading complex, multi-stakeholder programs from planning through delivery.
• Strong financial acumen — comfortable with P&L statements, margin analysis, and budget management.
• Experience managing SOW/contract workflows and familiarity with FTC advertising compliance.
• Proven ability to manage cross-functional teams without direct reporting authority.
• Proficiency with modern project management tools (Asana, com, Notion, Smartsheet).
• Strong command of both Agile and Waterfall delivery methodologies.
• Preferred: Strong operational experience in a high-stakes environment with excellent project management capabilities driving a premium team to achieve operational objectives.
• Preferred: Hands-on experience evaluating, deploying, or managing AI/automation tools in an operational context.
• Preferred: PMP, PgMP, or equivalent project management certification.
• Preferred: Experience with capacity planning software or resource management platforms.
• Preferred: Background working in a high-growth, founder-led or private-equity-backed agency environment.

ATTRIBUTES:

• Operational Rigor:Builds systems that run without daily intervention; obsessive about documentation, repeatability, and continuous improvement.
• Program Delivery:Consistently delivers complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives on time and within budget — even when scope shifts mid-flight.
• Financial Acumen:Naturally thinks in margins, utilization, and ROI; translates P&L data into actionable operational decisions.
• Cross-Functional Influence:Earns trust across departments without positional authority; resolves conflict through clarity, not escalation.
• Tech & AI Fluency:Comfortable evaluating, adopting, and operationalizing new tools and AI workflows at speed.
• Bias to Action:Defaults to “solve it now” over “schedule a meeting about it.”