Senior Studio Production Manager

Dunelm

  • Leicester
  • Permanent
  • Full-time
  • 2 days ago
OverviewHome. There’s no place like it.And there’s no feeling like helping people create the joy of feeling truly at home. At Dunelm, that’s what we do. We’re the UK's number one choice for homewares because we make home life lovelier for our customers. And we’ve crafted a workplace that feels just as welcoming – where you can bring your ideas, be yourself, and feel right at home.Sitting within Brand Marketing, the purpose of the Creative team is to generate increased brand affinity, awareness and consideration among customers, encouraging existing customers to shop with us more often and new customers to consider Dunelm as a shopping destination. Our brand platform, The Home of Homes, is supported across our channels from ATL to organic social, underpinned by consistent creative and a single tone of voice. We work closest with the Commercial, Digital Trading and Digital Marketing teams, among others, to ensure the seamless promotion of our fantastic product offering.The Creative team comprises four sub-teams: Design, Copy & Editorial, Studio and Packaging. These teams are the guardians of brand creative, delivering seasonal and campaign content and solutions that fuel our channels.The Senior Studio Production Manager is an operational leader, focused on leading a team of production experts & sample coordinators to enable the creative outputs of our inhouse & external photography teams.This role is accountable for interpreting and forecasting the businesses photography needs to support commercial and channel priorities, shaping these into short and long-term plans to enable delivering of high volume, quality stills and motion content synonymous with our brand.The role holder will provide the framework for success: leading their team to plan & operationally deliver against budgets and business critical paths; shaping & implementing efficient content/sample production processes to maximise inputs and outputs, leading our external partners to deliver on our behalf and staying at the forefront of technology to support our processes.Without our brilliant production team, our studio creative team wouldn’t be able to do what they do best.What you'll be doing
  • Define and implement an efficient photography production approach, continually improving processes to support the business’s evolving imaging and content needs, including leveraging technology to support.
  • Optimise resource, talent and samples to deliver against critical paths and budgets set.
  • Lead the financial forecasting of all productions and attentive management (support by managers) throughout the production to mitigate any overspend.
  • Lead the contractual, logistical and financial relationship with our external suppliers (photography studio; model agencies; freelancers etc.) in the support of the delivery of our imagery needs.
  • Accountable for the delivery of (high volume) ecommerce photography content which supports the commercial product pipeline plans & online sales.
  • Be the gatekeeper for incoming briefs to the studio – ensuring they are clear & can be responded to effectively.
  • Responsible for scheduling shoots (including resource) in the most efficient way, challenging the status quo where necessary.
  • Oversee the daily, weekly and monthly studio shooting and CGI schedules, being active onset & communicating these clearly to the studio team and business stakeholders.
  • Optimise sample process to ensure samples can be located at all times and drive operational efficiency.
  • Build a black book of freelance talent to support additional resource requirements.
  • Line manage, train and mentor the production and samples team, championing their individual development, making sure they’re meeting their performance objectives and supporting their career progression aspirations.
  • Ensure tech tools/processes (e.g. Monday.com; Canopy (DAM); AI/CGI) are optimised to support studio operations; continually looking at new ways of leveraging tech to improve ways of working.
  • Ensure that shoots & the studio comply with Health & Safety requirements, and all equipment is in a good, safe and efficient working condition
What we'll look for in you
  • Experience in delivering high volume e-commerce photography in retail environment.
  • Experience within the photography studio environment with an understanding and empathy of each function and role within.
  • Advanced understanding of pre- and post-photo shoot production processes.
  • Advanced budget management & forecasting experience, alongside exceptional excel skills.
  • Exceptional project management & problem solving skills with the ability to navigate and respond quickly & flexibly to challenges, changing priorities.
  • Proven experience in proactively identifying and resolve issues.
  • Outstanding leadership ability and mentor ethos.
  • Highly networked individual & influencing ability at all levels.
  • Meticulous attention to detail with an ability to communicate clearly and concisely.
  • Experience of working with external Photography, model, creative agencies, as well as creative/production freelancers to procure favourable rates and ensuring transparency of budgets and timelines.
  • Experience of using Monday.com (or similar workflow tools) to ensure visibility, status accuracy and completeness against critical paths.
  • Experience of sample management processes.
  • Excellent planning and organisational skills - adaptable and able to work on multiple tasks and prioritise to meet the business needs.
  • Highly collaborative, encouraging positive relationships and ways of working

Dunelm