Studio Manager - E-commerce Fashion Photo Studio - Straub Collaborative

Location: Fully onsite role 5 days a week in Edgemere, Maryland

Reports to: Chief Production Officer

At Straub Collaborative, our teams are well-versed in developing stable workflows and infrastructure to handle 500, 2000, or 50,000 samples at a time. We can be in your distribution center and manage 24-hour turnarounds. We can help you build style guides, manage your DAMs, and leverage your product data in more efficient ways.

We don't stand up and wave our arms. We don't push. We don't overpromise and under-deliver. We sit at YOUR table. And give you exactly what you need — quality, high-volume, fast-turn content — exactly when you need it. With studios and resources around the world, we can help you reach the content scalability and production redundancy you're looking for without losing your brand's uniqueness.

Position Summary:

The Studio Manager is responsible for the administrative control of SC Studios operation including scheduling, establishing, and adhering to studio production procedures, personnel management, client liaison, engagement of freelancers, estimates, budgets, billing as well as equipment purchasing and maintenance. Our Studio Manager oversees the daily operations and provision of facilities of the studio which includes being open for business hours, safety for employees and guests, and securing the facility.

Our studio is a collaborative environment with a talented team of pressure-tested professionals who can focus with fluidity. Straub Collaborative staff works as a team to listen, interpret, augment, and act on the ideas generated by our clients and us. Your work is the foundation of our reputation around consistency, quality, and timeliness that drives the business. Our studios are populated with workaround wunderkinds who produce great work, think on their feet, and play well with others. We welcome creative, consistent, smarty-pants folks with a can-do attitude.

Responsibilities:

• Operates against studio annual budget. This includes providing production estimates to the project manager and business development teams. Efficient production staffing against budget goals, profit and loss evaluation summaries, expenses, estimate accuracy, and invoices prepared by project managers.
• Creates clear guidelines, policies, and guidance to ensure that all salaried and freelance staff are informed of changing processes and SOP's.
• Schedules photo sets and staff to achieve client goals for production.
• Formulates production plans utilizing studio space and gear to effectively meet production objectives and ensures all photo production sets are ready according to the project specifications before production
• Effectively communicates studio business status and adherence to client delivery specifications, and areas where improvement is needed to meet client obligations.
• Collaborate with other members of staff to resolve any queries or conflicts to achieve a balance between production requirements and service excellence.
• Books appropriate levels of freelance staff and external services that are utilized as efficiently and effectively as possible.
• Ensures all full-time and temporary staff are trained in established studio workflow procedures for beginning of the day start-up, set and lighting daily calibration, capture, file movement, storage and end of day warp.
• Ensures all weekly studio invoices, timecards, paid time off requests, expense receipts, Independent Contractor, personnel changes, contracts, and relevant documentation are processed and shared with HR and Finance department leadership.
• Resolves production scheduling conflicts.
• Collaborate with other members of staff to resolve any queries or conflicts to achieve a balance between production requirements and service excellence.
• Undertakes any other relevant administrative tasks/projects to ensure the smooth running of the facility. This could include but is not limited to scheduling any building maintenance needs (janitorial, structural, security, food/beverage, technology) or equipment maintenance (repairs, quotes, rental, replacement). If budget approval is required, securing appropriate authorization and documentation is expected.
• As needed support and undertake administrative tasks/projects that ensure the smooth running of the facility. (I.E., planning equipment movement, set builds, equipment maintenance, equipment rentals, technology upgrades, replacements, etc.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• This position will supervise Photographers, Digital Technicians, Merchandising Manager, Stylist, and Studio Assistant, including hiring, training, coaching, performance management and development.
• Experience cross-training direct reports to execute production flow in your absence.
• Conducts 1:1 mentoring with direct reports.
• Prepares and presents annual performance evaluations, goal setting and performance KPIs.

Required Experience & Skills:

• 5+ years proven photo studio management or operations experience leading and directing e-commerce, high-volume fashion, apparel, footwear, or retail clientele photography/video production with an emphasis on workflow systems and processes.
• 3+ years experience managing a team of five or more creative production staff (i.e., Photographers, Digital Technicians, Merchandising Manager, Stylist) with demonstrated leadership skills in people development, coaching, and mentoring.
• Expert knowledge of e-commerce or high-volume fashion photography workflow processes including knowledge of merchandise receipts, storage, equipment set-up, lighting, set builds, merchandise preparation, on-set best practices in high-volume photography capture, and knowledge of post-production.
• Exceptional knowledge of studio strobe and continuous lighting, current industry standard photography and video cameras, lenses, and utilization of professional capture and editing software.
• MAC OS experience with proficiency with industry-standard software including Capture One Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Bridge, and other Adobe photo/video editing tools.
• Experience with photo agency production and inventory management.
• Ability to think strategically, synthesize complex data, and develop innovative solutions with the ability to influence decisions and outcomes cross-functionally.
• Ability to accept and meet critical deadlines with good planning and organization skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to communicate effectively across organization functions and levels and to write business correspondence.
• Comfortable interacting with people of varying cultures and experience levels.
• Bachelor's Degree and/or specialty certificate; or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Culture/ EEO Statement

Straub Collaborative embraces diversity in a profound way and believes in the power of a shared table to bring people together as we are committed to building a culturally inclusive team. We see diversity and inclusion as central to our organization. This means that we stand up against discrimination and harassment wherever we operate.

Straub Collaborative is committed to providing equal employment opportunity (EEO) and equal pay to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.

Applicants must be authorized to work for ANY employer in the US. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment Visa.

The above declarations are not intended to be an all-inclusive list of the duties and responsibilities of the job described, nor are they intended to be such a listing of the skills and abilities required to do the job. Rather, they are intended only to describe the general nature of the job and may be changed as deemed necessary by the company.