Creative Operations & Production Director (Mumbai Based) - Emerging Markets

Estée Lauder Companies · Mumbai

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Description

Creative Operations & Production Director (Mumbai Based) – Emerging Markets

This role is based in Mumbai, India.

Help shape how exceptional creative comes to life across Emerging Markets.

Behind every successful campaign is a team that knows how to turn creative ambition into reality. We’re looking for an experienced Creative Operations & Production Director to build and lead the production approach that enables our brands to deliver high-quality creative efficiently, consistently and at scale.

Working across global, regional and local teams, you’ll connect creative ambition with market needs, production expertise and commercial discipline. Your remit will span major campaigns and high-volume, always-on content, with accountability for improving delivery, creating cost transparency and achieving measurable production savings.

What you will do:

Lead creative operations across markets

• Establish workflows for briefing, prioritisation, resource planning, budgeting, approvals and delivery.
• Provide functional leadership to Creative Operations & Production Leads across key markets.
• Create visibility of demand, capacity and timelines to support clear decisions and effective resource allocation.
• Build consistent ways of working that allow flexibility for local market needs.

Build a connected production network

• Define when work should be produced locally, regionally, internally or through external partners.
• Develop and manage relationships with agencies, production companies, creators, freelancers and specialist partners.
• Translate creative concepts into practical production plans while protecting the quality and ambition of the idea.
• Introduce AI-enabled workflows and emerging technologies that improve productivity and speed.

Deliver commercial value

• Own production budgeting and cost governance, bringing transparency and accountability to spend.
• Partner with Finance and Procurement on vendor selection, contracts, negotiations and production models.
• Deliver measurable savings through smarter sourcing, consolidation, regional production and stronger use of internal capabilities.
• Establish cost benchmarks and identify opportunities to reinvest efficiencies in creative quality and capabilities.

Connect teams and improve delivery

• Partner with Creative Leadership, Brand, Marketing, Finance and Procurement to align priorities and execution.
• Represent Emerging Markets in global and regional production discussions.
• Support annual and ongoing resource planning, anticipating future production and capability needs.
• Simplify processes and improve speed, predictability and consistency across the creative organisation.

Qualifications

What you’ll bring

• 15+ years of experience in creative production, integrated production, creative operations or content operations.
• At least 4–5 years in a senior leadership role overseeing complex regional or multi-market creative delivery.
• Experience leading teams or distributed production functions across markets, brands or business units.
• Strong end-to-end production knowledge across film, photography, social content, digital, retail and experiential formats.
• A proven ability to build and implement scalable workflows, production processes and operating models.
• Strong financial and commercial skills, including budgeting, forecasting, negotiation and cost management.
• Demonstrated success delivering production efficiencies and measurable savings.
• Experience working directly with Finance and Procurement on vendor strategy, contracts and commercial governance.
• Experience within luxury, beauty and fashion is a plus.
• A strong understanding of agency, production and freelance partner networks.
• The ability to influence senior stakeholders across global, regional and local teams.
• Practical understanding of how AI and emerging technologies can improve creative production.

What success looks like

You’ll create a connected production network where teams have clear priorities, resources flex with demand, and budgets and capacity are visible. Creative work will move more smoothly from brief to delivery, with tangible improvements in speed, efficiency and cost—while maintaining high creative standards and local relevance.

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