Studio Director

Established in 2004, OLIVER is the world’s first and only specialist in designing, building, and running bespoke in-house agencies and marketing ecosystems for brands. We partner with over 300 clients in 40+ countries and counting. Our unique model drives creativity and efficiency, allowing us to deliver tailored solutions that resonate deeply with audiences.

As a part of The Brandtech Group, we're at the forefront of leveraging cutting‑edge AI technology to revolutionise how we create and deliver work. Our AI solutions enhance efficiency, spark creativity, and drive insightful decision-making, empowering our teams to produce innovative and impactful results.

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.

Our values shape everything we do:

• Be Ambitious to succeed.
• Be Imaginative to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
• Be Inspirational to do groundbreaking work.
• Be always learning and listening to understand.
• Be Results-focused to exceed expectations.
• Be actively pro-inclusive and anti-racist across our community, clients and creations.

OLIVER, a part of the Brandtech Group, is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive working environment where all employees are encouraged to reach their full potential, and individual differences are valued and respected. All applicants shall be considered for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, neurodivergence, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by local laws.

OLIVER has set ambitious environmental goals around sustainability, with science-based emissions reduction targets. Collectively, we work towards our mission, embedding sustainability into every department and through every stage of the project lifecycle.