Creative Services Manager

Nando’s is on a journey of Changing Lives Together, creating lasting happiness for our people, our customers, and the communities we work in. Originally started in Johannesburg, South Africa, we pride ourselves on creating memorable experiences for everyone involved in Nando’s.

This role will be fundamental to the running of the in-house studio, driving creative excellence and efficiency at the heart of Nando’s brand and marketing outputs. As Creative Services Manager, you will lead the team that turns briefs into finished work across digital, print, in-restaurant and social channels. You will manage the outputs across Brand, Local Marketing and Growth Marketing teams.

You will be the main point of contact for every creative request coming into the department, balancing the demands of many internal teams against finite studio capacity and quality standards. You will also work with functional leads to help manage the programming of our marketing plan, identify resource required and support in traffic management of key projects as well as national and local campaigns.

You will bring an agency mindset, process discipline and people leadership needed to keep a fast-moving studio running smoothly across many simultaneous projects, and to make sure we deliver work that cuts through.

What you'll do:

• Champion the studio team: Support and manage the workflow of a five-person creative team of copywriters and designers.
• Own the creative production pipeline: Manage projects from brief to final delivery, ensuring work is properly scoped, resourced, reviewed and approved.
• Manage creative briefs: Act as the main point of contact for creative requests across Marketing and internal teams, ensuring briefs are clear, priorities are agreed and timelines are realistic.
• Plan capacity and prioritise workload: Forecast demand across campaigns and business-as-usual activity, manage resourcing and identify bottlenecks, recommending trade-offs to the Head of Brand Campaigns when needed.
• Manage concurrent projects and traffic: Coordinate multiple projects across campaigns, restaurant, digital, social and partner assets, working with the Head of Brand Campaigns to programme the marketing plan and keep delivery on time and on budget, including work with external agencies.
• Protect brand and creative quality: Uphold Nando’s brand guidelines and creative standards, championing consistency, craft and quality across all touchpoints.
• Improve studio processes: Refine workflows, templates, approval routes and tools to help the team deliver work efficiently without compromising quality.
• Report on performance: Track turnaround times, request volumes, costs and team capacity to inform planning and continuous improvement.
• Manage Restaurant Hub and Zendesk requests: Oversee the supplier relationship and day-to-day management of collateral printing, stock and distribution.
• Support local marketing activations: Develop local marketing toolkits and collateral with Customer Business Partners, supporting restaurants with related requests and queries.
• Adopt AI and automation responsibly: Identify and pilot tools that improve production speed and consistency while maintaining quality, brand integrity and appropriate governance.

What you bring:

• A wealth of experience in a creative services, creative production, creative operations or studio management role, with a strong background in a creative agency environment.
• Proven experience managing complex, fast-paced creative studio and project teams, with a people-first approach to project management and team collaboration
• A track record of running multiple concurrent projects with competing priorities, using project management and workflow tools
• Hands-on understanding of the creative production process across design, digital, print, video and motion, with the ability to scope work and estimate effort and cost accurately.
• Experience managing agency relationships, freelancers and external suppliers, including briefing, commissioning, budgeting, supplier onboarding and quality control.
• Strong commercial awareness, with experience managing budgets, forecasts, procurement and resource planning.
• Familiarity with creative software such as Adobe Creative Cloud and Figma, and a working understanding of how AI tools are changing creative production.
• Experience working within brand governance frameworks and maintaining consistency across multiple channels and markets.

How you work:

• Strategically minded: you understand how creative output supports brand and business goals, and you help the studio prioritise accordingly.
• Calm and decisive under pressure: you make clear calls when deadlines are tight, briefs are changing, or demand exceeds capacity.
• Organised and detail-focused: you plan well, keep track of many moving parts, and spot when things are starting to slip before they do.
• A confident communicator: you can influence senior stakeholders and translate creative requirements into clear, actionable plans..
• Collaborative and adaptable: you balance creative ambition with practical constraints and work well across functions.
• Passionate about inclusive, accessible design: you are committed to great craft and to work that reflects the diverse customers we serve.
• Company bonus
• 25 days holiday + bank holidays
• Free Nando’s when you're working (and 40% discount when you're not)
• Annual team trips, AKA a free holiday
• Reward membership scheme and access to great discounts
• Four-week sabbatical every five years you’ve been with us

This is a hybrid role based from our Putney office 3 days a week.

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