Senior Manager, Creative Operations & Project… at PetSmart · Phoenix

About the Team

Marketing brings our brand to life through deep expertise and an authentic love for pets. The team is dedicated to delivering personalized experiences for our consumers, supported by best-in-class, data-driven marketing capabilities.

The work spans key areas including Loyalty, Customer Analytics & Research, Brand Experience & Creative, and Omni-Channel Marketing. Each team member brings a unique perspective, working together to create meaningful and engaging experiences for both pets and pet parents.

About the Location

**Collaborative Work Environment:**At PetSmart, teamwork and connection are core to how we thrive. This role is based at our Phoenix Home Office, with an expectation of working a minimum of four days in the office each week. In a standard work week, associates may work up to one remote “flex day” (with leader approval). Our hybrid approach is designed to foster strong collaboration while also supporting flexibility and individual success.

About the Job

PetSmart is seeking an exceptional leader to head Creative Operations & Project Management for Stores—a critical leadership role overseeing the operational engine behind one of our most visible, complex, and business-critical creative channels.

This leader will drive how work gets done across the Stores creative organization: leading a team of project managers, strengthening cross-functional planning and execution, elevating reporting and resource visibility, improving processes, managing budgets and vendor relationships, and ensuring high-quality work is delivered on time, on strategy, and on budget.

This is not a traditional project management role. It is a leadership role for someone who has successfully built and led teams, improved creative operating models, brought clarity to complexity, and earned trust across creative, marketing, merchandising, production, and executive stakeholders.

The right person is equal parts people leader, operator, strategist, and change agent. They know how to create order in fast-moving environments, improve how teams work at scale, and raise the level of accountability, visibility, and execution across a high-profile channel. They are comfortable managing ambiguity, making decisions, driving alignment, and leading through influence.

This role is essential to the success of the business. The leader in this seat must bring the experience, judgment, rigor, and presence to make a meaningful impact from day one.

Reports to: Director, Creative Operations & Project Management

What You’ll Do

• Lead the Creative Operations & Project Management function for the Stores creative team, owning the systems, workflows, planning, and team performance required to deliver high-quality work at scale.
• Manage, coach, and develop a team of project managers, setting a high bar for accountability, communication, prioritization, and cross-functional partnership.
• Own the full project lifecycle across major and minor initiatives simultaneously—from intake and scoping through production and final delivery—in a fast-paced, high-volume environment.
• Develop, optimize, and scale creative operational processes, including intake, prioritization, scoping, scheduling, resource planning, documentation, workflow management, and delivery standards.
• Build stronger operational visibility through clear reporting on project milestones, capacity, timelines, dependencies, budget, risks, and business impact.
• Ensure work is delivered on time, on budget, on brief, and in alignment with marketing objectives and project scope.
• Lead proactive risk identification, issue resolution, contingency planning, and escalation management across complex programs and campaigns.
• Establish and continually manage expectations with internal clients, creative partners, merchants, marketers, production partners, and external vendors.
• Translate business and marketing objectives into actionable plans for the creative team, while clearly communicating creative needs, tradeoffs, and constraints back to partners.
• Serve as a trusted strategic partner to Marketing, Merchandising, Creative, Production, Finance, and Store-related stakeholders to improve planning, alignment, and execution across highly visible work.
• Provide strategic point of view and operational leadership in presentations, reviews, planning sessions, and cross-functional meetings.
• Own budget stewardship across projects and operations, including quote approval, invoice management, cost tracking, forecasting, and vendor accountability.
• Manage external vendor relationships with a sharp focus on quality, cost, timelines, and execution.
• Champion creative operations as a strategic capability, not simply a workflow or traffic function.
• Identify, evaluate, and implement opportunities to improve speed, efficiency, and scalability through better tools, smarter processes, automation, and AI-enabled workflows.
• Build future-state AI roadmaps for the team and help lead associated education, change management, and adoption efforts.
• Partner with Legal, IT, and other cross-functional teams to support responsible AI governance and implementation.
• Serve as proxy to the Director, Creative Operations & Project Management, stepping in to provide leadership continuity and decision-making support when needed.
• Lead change with confidence, resilience, and a continuous-improvement mindset.

What Success Looks Like

In this role, you will:

• Build a high-performing project management team that is seen as a strategic business partner.
• Improve how work is scoped, prioritized, resourced, and delivered across the Stores channel.
• Create and evolve reporting and visibility so leaders can make faster, smarter decisions.
• Bring greater rigor to budgets, vendor management, timelines, and operational planning.
• Strengthen partnership across merchandising, marketing, creative, and production teams.
• Improve speed, predictability, and quality without sacrificing creative excellence.
• Help modernize the function through scalable systems, process innovation, and responsible AI adoption.

Required Skills & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Advertising, Marketing, Business, Communications, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 12+ years of progressive experience in creative operations, creative project management, marketing operations, agency account/project management, or related workflow leadership roles. We care most about depth of experience, scale of responsibility, strategic mindset, influence and proven success in similar environments.
• Significant experience leading large, complex, cross-functional creative initiatives from concept through final delivery.
• Proven experience managing, leading, and developing direct reports, with success building high-performing teams.
• Deep understanding of creative development processes across print, in-store, digital, and campaign execution.
• Experience working across cross-functional marketing, merchandising, and creative teams in a fast-paced environment.
• Proven ability to create and improve processes, project plans, workflows, documentation, reporting, schedules, and scalable operating models.
• Strong experience managing budgets, quotes, invoices, forecasting, and vendor relationships with sound financial judgment.
• Excellent leadership skills with the ability to influence up, across, and down the organization while maintaining a highly collaborative, solutions-oriented approach.
• Strong executive communication skills, including the ability to quickly build clear presentations, recommendations, and updates for leadership audiences.
• Exceptional critical thinking and problem-solving skills, with the ability to simplify complexity, make sound decisions, and adapt quickly to change.
• Strong organizational and time-management skills, with the ability to prioritize effectively for self, team, and business.
• Must be highly proficient in project management tools such as Workfront, Wrike, Asana, Basecamp, or similar platforms; Workfront experience strongly preferred.
• Working knowledge of Adobe Creative Cloud
• Mac proficient and skilled in Microsoft Office applications.
• Experience managing print production and in-store display development through detailed creative processes.
• Knowledge of print production, in-store signage, and physical retail execution.
• Experience evaluating AI-powered workflow opportunities and helping teams adopt new tools and ways of working responsibly and effectively.

Why PetSmart

We’re a nimble, high-energy Creative Team that thrives on strategy, innovation, and top-tier execution. We collaborate closely, think big, move fast, and deliver work that earns trust—and wows both our business partners and pet parents. Our mission is to be the go-to in-house team that turns creative ideas into real business impact.

And yes—you should love pets, too. Because when PetSmart wins, pets wi

Location: Phoenix Home Office

Additional Job Considerations

• This role requires collaboration, teamwork, and face-to-face interaction with colleagues, leaders, and/or clients.
• Being in the office ensures access to leaders, cross-functional partners, and resources necessary to make timely decisions and drive results.
• On-site presence in accordance with our FlexSmart policy supports our culture of innovation, mentorship, and engagement, which is integral to our success in developing the best team.

* This is not intended to be an all-inclusive, exhaustive list of all essential job functions for this position. PetSmart retains the right to change or assign other required job duties to this position.

About the Culture

At PetSmart, Anything for Pets begins with our people. Every associate plays a vital role in creating meaningful experiences for pets and their families, and we empower our teams with the tools, resources, and opportunities to grow and succeed.

We’re more than a workplace, we’re Team PetSmart. Together, we grow, collaborate, and challenge ourselves to be the best in all we do. Our culture is built on belonging and shared purpose, where every voice and experience matters. Guided by our values, we strive to do what’s right, lead responsibly, and bring our passion for pets to life every day. Not sure if you meet 100% of the position requirements and whether you should apply? We’d still like to hear from you and encourage you to apply with us! You might be the right fit for this role or another opportunity across Team PetSmart.

Our home office offers outstanding amenities in a fun and rewarding workplace including:

• Pet-friendly environment, bring your pets to work and enjoy the on-site dog park!
• On-Site Events & Adoptions, enjoy community-building opportunities, including pet adoption days, seasonal celebrations, family events, art events, & holiday festivals
• “Top Dog” gym with equipment, fitness classes, massage therapists, personal trainers, and wellness spaces
• “Sit & Stay” Café serving fresh breakfast and lunch options, snacks, & more
• “Lil Paws” NAEYC-accredited onsite childcare facility providing high-quality early education
• Paid Volunteer Opportunities to spend time doing good for causes close to heart
• Print Center and Business Services, Dry Cleaning, Mother's Rooms, Sustainable Infrastructure & more

PetSmart provides an equal opportunity for all associates and job applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status or other legally protected characteristics.