Studio Director
Role: Studio Director
Location: Cape Town, South Africa (Hybrid, 3 days a week in studio)
About the role:
The Studio Director is accountable for the operational health of OLIVER's Cape Town studio. You'll create the conditions for consistent, high-quality delivery by leading a team of project managers and creatives, maintaining a robust resourcing rhythm, and building the operational infrastructure the studio needs to scale. You'll act as the primary escalation point for production, workflow, and resource challenges and as the cultural anchor for a collaborative, high-performing team.
What you will be doing:
Studio Operations and Leadership
Lead day-to-day studio operations, holding overall accountability for delivery standards, team performance, and operational health
Act as the primary escalation point for production, workflow, and resource challenges across the studio
Partner with Global Studio leadership to align local operations with wider business priorities and standards
Foster a collaborative, accountable, and solutions-focused culture that supports high performance and team wellbeing
Support the development and growth of team members through coaching, mentoring, and structured enablement
Resource and Capacity Planning
Design and maintain a robust resourcing rhythm, weekly planning, daily triage, utilisation tracking that ensures predictability and strong delivery outcomes
Conduct weekly resource reviews to identify gaps and ensure the team is fully utilised; proactively redeploy resource to support other regions or accounts where capacity allows
Work closely with Producers and Sales Market Leads on forecasting and capacity planning
Source, contract, and onboard freelance and ad hoc resource when demand requires
Production and Workflow Management
Serve as the escalation point for production queries from Regional Producers, IPMs, and Creative teams
Maintain working knowledge of all channel-specific workflows and production requirements
Proactively identify production risks and implement mitigation plans to protect quality and deadlines
Technical and Workflow Enablement
Act as the first point of contact for Cape Town teams on workflow, automation, and production tooling issues, triaging and coordinating resolution
Coordinate the implementation of global workflows, ensuring IPMs adhere to production and automation standards
Maintain workflow documentation and version control; provide structured feedback to the Global Ops team
Deliver practical training and enablement programmes, including buddy systems for new hires
Drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on efficiency, quality, and scalability
Budget and Studio Management
Oversee studio-level production and resource budgets, including freelance spend and cost planning
Present budget performance to OLIVER stakeholders; flag risks early and drive corrective action where needed
Drive cost efficiencies across studio operations without compromising delivery quality or team capacity
Hold overall accountability for the financial health of the Cape Town studio
What you need to be great in this role:
Proven track record leading creative production, studio operations, or project management teams in a fast-paced environment
Strong resource planning and forecasting capabilities, with experience managing complex, multi-function workloads
Deep understanding of production workflows, channel-specific requirements, and operational improvement methodologies
Experience sourcing and managing freelance and contingent resource models
Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills and able to influence and partner at all levels
Confidence managing studio-level budgets, reporting on financial performance, and driving cost efficiency
Fluency with production terminology and methodology across multiple channels and formats
Familiarity with production tooling, workflow automation, and project management platforms
Strategic use of AI tools to enhance studio operations, team efficiency, and delivery quality
Experience setting AI governance and quality standards at team or studio level
Agentic leadership approach: systematic, goal-oriented problem-solving for complex operational and business challenges
Drive for AI innovation with an appetite to share best practice and build capability across the OLIVER network
Req ID: 18643
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