Senior Manager of Pre-Production Operations

Job Responsibilities

• Production Art Management
  • Oversee the end-to-end workflow for the creation, revision, and release of all production-ready artwork for licensed sports apparel.
  • Ensure process adherence, quality standards, and on-time delivery across the team.
  • Direct internal and external teams to ensure design concepts are accurately translated into print-ready art for screen print, embroidery, heat transfer, sublimation, and other decoration methods.
  • Balance creative considerations, process adherence, and output quality standards, exercising sound judgment when these priorities compete.
  • Manage capacity to ensure seasonal demands and customer commitments are achieved.
  • Maintain organized digital art libraries and version control systems.
• Licensing & Approvals Management
  • Oversee the internal team’s execution of artwork submission, revision, and licensing approval workflows via company systems and league-specific portals.
  • Establish clear process standards, monitor throughput, and identify bottlenecks that impact approval cycle times.
  • Manage senior-level relationships with licensor counterparts (e.g., the NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA), ensuring escalations are handled appropriately.
  • Partner with brand and sales teams to operationalize brand style guide enforcement and usage requirements across all licensed partners.
  • Translate compliance requirements into repeatable team-level processes and controls.
  • Track approval timelines and ensure on-time product release within each league’s compliance framework.

Qualifications

• Proven track record managing large teams of individual contributors, including setting expectations, measuring performance, and driving accountability across a diverse workforce.
• Working familiarity with Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop sufficient to review and assess work product; strong proficiency in operational and project management tools such as Microsoft Excel, ERP systems, digital asset management (DAM) platforms, and workflow or project tracking software.
• Functional awareness of apparel decoration techniques and print production processes sufficient to manage team output, evaluate quality, and communicate effectively with production partners.
• Exceptional attention to detail, organizational rigor, and data-driven mindset; ability to build and maintain reporting frameworks that provide clear visibility into team performance, project status, and risk.
• Demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities at scale through structured planning, clear prioritization frameworks, and disciplined follow-through in a high-volume, deadline-driven environment.
• Strong people management and communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to motivate, develop, and hold accountable a large team of individual contributors while building effective relationships with external stakeholders.
• Familiarity with licensing management platforms and approval systems; experience with sports league licensing (NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA) a plus but not required.