Marketing and Creative Operations Manager

The Opportunity

At ZBiotics, we make genetically engineered probiotics that improve daily life. We are a team of motivated, down-to-earth people driven by science and by putting customers first. As the first company to bring GMO probiotics to market, we’re committed to setting a new standard for transparency, quality, and innovation.

With two category-defining products—Pre-Alcohol and Sugar-to-Fiber—we’re scaling rapidly. As we expand our marketing team’s impact, we’re looking for a Marketing & Creative Operations Manager to ensure our creative pipeline runs smoothly and our marketing operations are optimized for efficiency and growth.

This role is for someone who thrives at the intersection of creative production and operational systems; a project manager who can keep campaigns on track, while also helping us unlock new efficiencies through tools, automation, and AI. Most importantly, this person will help create structure and clarity that allows the creative team to focus on design work and do their best work at scale.

Your Impact

As Marketing & Creative Operations Manager, you will be the operational backbone of ZBiotics’ marketing and creative work. You’ll act as the “air traffic controller” for creative requests, ensuring projects are properly scoped, resourced, and prioritized, while managing the flow of campaigns from kickoff through delivery. By bringing structure to how creative work is requested, managed, and delivered, you’ll help the team stay focused on what they do best: great design.

Reporting to the Chief Marketing Officer, you’ll also own initiatives that streamline collaboration, information flow, and tool adoption across the Marketing department.

Your Responsibilities

Creative Production & Cross Functional Alignment

• Manage the creative production calendar and resources across all design projects.
• Run day-to-day project flow, from intaking requests to reviews, approvals, and delivery.
• Act as a liaison between the design team and internal stakeholders requesting assets.
• Help both parties scope deliverables to match project needs without overwork. 
• Maintain visibility into creative team capacity with public dashboards and schedules.
• Make production tradeoff decisions day to day when design needs outpace capacity.

Creative Vendors & External Resources

• Build and maintain a roster of creative vendors to flex production bandwidth as needed.
• Lead RFPs, contracts, budgets, and relationship management with creative vendors. 
• Ensure external work meets timelines and standards. 

Department-Wide Project Management

• Lead the annual and quarterly planning process with Marketing’s function leads.
• Ensure marketing plans and budgets are aligned and approved one quarter in advance.
• Own planning and logistics for Marketing’s annual fall offsite.
• Maintain a master marketing calendar and track progress on department goals.
• Partner with the brand team on project management for 360 campaigns.
• Act as the CMO’s right hand and jump in to support the team whenever needed. 

Marketing Operations & Tools

• Write and own the annual Marketing Ops plan aimed at improving operational efficiency.
• Regularly audit usage and satisfaction of the MarTech stack to identify needs.
• Source and evaluate new tools, and support implementation and training with resources.
• Identify tasks that can be replaced with automation/AI and assist in implementing.
• Run weekly marketing meetings—set agendas, secure presenters, and share recaps.

Knowledge & Asset Management

• Maintain Marketing’s Notion Wiki to keep resources current and useful.
• Document workflows and create lightweight playbooks to drive adoption of processes.
• Develop templates for recurring documents, e.g., proposals, plans, and retrospectives.
• Manage and continually improve marketing’s digital asset systems, keeping files organized, up to date, and easily accessible while ensuring proper usage.

Desired Experience

Experience Must-haves:

• 2–4 years in marketing operations, project management, or creative production at a consumer brand or agency.
• Experience working with a creative team in a project management capacity (e.g., managing timelines, deliverables, or intake).
• Stellar organizational and communication skills with proven ability to manage multiple projects and cross functional teams simultaneously.
• Demonstrated expertise with project management tools (Monday.com, Asana, Airtable, etc.).
• Comfortable using automation (e.g. Zapier) and AI tools (e.g. OpenAI).
• Experience setting up or maintaining digital asset management systems.
• Process-oriented mindset with ability to improve workflows and drive efficiency.

Experience Nice-to-haves:

• Background in eCommerce or CPG marketing.
• Familiarity with specific tools ZBiotics uses today: Klaviyo, Zapier, Asana, and Notion.
• Comfort with managing marketing data or conducting data analysis.
• Experience implementing AI and automation tools across a team to improve efficiency.
• An existing roster of go-to vendors in the marketing creative space.
• Experience working in a startup environment.
• Hands-on experience creating or customizing internal tools.

Success in this Role Looks Like

• Creative projects are delivered on time, on budget, and to brand standards.
• The creative team has focus and clarity, with fewer operational distractions.
• Stakeholders have visibility into priorities, timelines, and capacity.
• Campaigns, launches, and department goals stay aligned and on track.
• External vendors are sourced and managed effectively to flex bandwidth.
• Tools, assets, and documentation are well-organized and widely adopted.
• Workflows become more efficient through process improvements, AI, and automation.
• In a nutshell, marketing operations have become noticeably smoother and more efficient.

By Month 3 — Quick Wins

You show clear, early impact.

• Own creative production from request through delivery with a live project dashboard.
• Implement 2–3 fixes (e.g., intake, approvals, or dashboard) adopted by the team.
• Lead the first quarterly planning cycle with approved plans and budgets.

By Month 6 — Reliable Backbone

You are the go-to for smooth execution and alignment.

• Publish a dashboard showing progress toward department goals.
• Help the team adopt one new tool with >70% usage.
• Manage at least two vendors delivering work on time.
• Conduct a mid-year audit with prioritized improvements.

By Year 1 — Trusted Partner

You keep the team running smoothly, end to end.

• At least 85% of creative projects delivered on time, on budget, and to brand standards.
• Lead two quarterly planning cycles with aligned budgets.
• Team reports regular use of shared documentation/templates.
• Vendor roster established and reliable.

By Year 2 — Consistent Excellence

You deliver steady, reliable performance at scale.

• 90% of projects delivered on time and budget with minimal escalations.
• Weekly dashboards and updates give stakeholders clear visibility.
• Complete and act on two annual audits of tools and workflows.
• Meet agreed KPIs for marketing operations.

Benefits

We believe in a life well-lived. ZBiotics offers competitive benefits for a life outside of work, including: health / dental, 401(k) matching, a minimum PTO policy (with unlimited time off), 16 weeks fully paid parental leave, a home office stipend, transit benefits for those in the San Francisco Bay Area, and access to co-working office space if located in or visiting San Francisco.

This position may be required to travel to attend occasional ZBioneers or external events.

The base salary for this position is $155,000 per year, and will include additional equity. A presented offer may be higher, depending on qualifications and experience.

We encourage you to apply …

At ZBiotics, we value our differences, and we encourage all – especially those whose identities are traditionally underrepresented in tech organizations – to apply.