Kia ora!
We’re looking for a Studio & Client Operations Manager to join our Brand team overseeing our in-house studio: Blackbird in Auckland. This is a pivotal role at the heart of our internal design, creative and content studio – combining operational excellence with strong stakeholder partnership. You’ll ensure our creative engine runs smoothly, while also building trusted relationships across the business to anticipate demand, manage expectations, and elevate how we deliver. This is not a desk-bound traffic role. It’s a visible, relationship-driven position that sits at the intersection of creative delivery, stakeholder management, and commercial performance.
About the Role
Reporting to the Chapter Lead Content Marketing, you’ll lead the operational and relationship management layer of Blackbird.
You will:
- Own studio capacity and workflow governance
- Partner with senior stakeholders across the airline from Brand & Marketing to Cabin Crew & Pilots
- Proactively manage incoming demand and shape briefs early
- Act as a commercial lens over studio output
- Ensure our creative teams are set up to deliver their best work
You’ll be as comfortable in a stakeholder meeting as you are inside a project management board.
Key Responsibilities
Stakeholder & Relationship Leadership
- Build trusted partnerships across the business
- Step out from behind the desk to proactively engage with stakeholders
- Shape briefs early to ensure clarity, feasibility and impact
- Manage expectations and navigate trade-offs confidently
Studio Operations & Workflow
- Own resourcing, prioritisation and capacity planning
- Oversee workflow systems (Monday.com) and reporting
- Identify bottlenecks and improve processes
- Ensure clean handovers and documentation standards
Commercial & Strategic Oversight
- Monitor studio utilisation and budget efficiency
- Ensure the right work is prioritised in line with business strategy
- Provide clarity on risk, scope and timing
- Balance BAU and enterprise-level projects
Creative & Production Understanding
- Maintain working knowledge of production timelines and creative workflows
- Support quality control and brand alignment
- Guide the team through complex or high-visibility workstreams
About You
You likely bring experience from:
- Agency client service / account management
- Creative operations leadership
- Studio management in a fast-paced environment
You are:
- Commercially minded and strategically aware
- Calm under pressure
- Confident influencing senior stakeholders
- Strong in systems and process governance
- Comfortable making decisions and setting boundaries
- Energised by connecting people and solving problems
- Expert user of Monday.com
- Experience of how to navigate ADO would be a distinct advantage
You understand that great creative output depends on strong operational leadership and strong relationships.
Why This Role Matters
This role provides critical wraparound support for our design team, creative specialists and the wider Brand team. You will help futureproof how we operate – ensuring our in-house capability continues to scale sustainably while strengthening how we partner across the business.
If you want to shape how one of New Zealand’s most iconic brands delivers creative excellence, we’d love to hear from you.
Applications close 02/03/2026.
Additional Information
At Air New Zealand, we are proudly committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and believe in creating a truly inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves and thrive. Our people are our greatest asset – because while everything else we do in our operation can be replicated by our competitors, it is our people that truly set us apart. We are firm believers in celebrating the differences and diversity of thought our people bring to their roles.
Whāia te pae tawhiti kia tata. Ko te pae tata whakamaua, kia tina.
"Seek to bring distant horizons closer. Once near, seize them and make them your reality."
