Creative Studio Manager - 12 month FTC

Role: Creative Studio Manager

Reports into: Head of Creative Operations

Location: London, United Kingdom

Contract Type: 12 Months FTC, working 7.5 hours per day, 37.5 hours per week, 5 days per week

About Us

Nothing is clearer to us than the belief that every woman should include strength training in her life to enhance both physical and mental well-being. It's about building strong bodies and even stronger minds, asserting their right to take up space in the gym, and allowing the spotlight to shine bright on their progress.

To us, strength training represents a determined, goal-oriented mindset and an unwavering work ethic. We don't wait for success; we create it through hard work and determination. When faced with challenges, we don't back down; instead, we break through barriers, recognising that true progress lies on the other side.

These are the pillars that form the foundation of Oner Active. We consistently challenge ourselves to create innovative and impactful products, so that you can perform better. With our range of products and innovative approach, we provide a wide variety of colours to ensure that all skin tones genuinely radiate in Oner.

Our Purpose and Mission

We are on a mission to unite and empower women to be the strongest version of themselves through strength training. We want to inspire women to take centre stage in the gym by promoting strength training, which underpins all movement and sport, as a healthy foundation in life.

Our Benefits

• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays and work from anywhere up to 4 weeks a year

• 5% employer match salary sacrifice pension scheme

• Generous Oner Active discount plus regular office sample sales

• Free Evolve You subscription

• Private Healthcare with AXA including optical and dental

• Monthly wellness allowance and team workout classes

• Start-up culture - the chance to learn and make a real impact

• Great employee events like our Summer party, Christmas party and team away days

• Healthy office snacks and fruit (plus a chocolate cupboard for a sweet treat for the balance)

• Dog friendly office

About the role:

We’re looking for an experienced and highly organised Senior Creative Studio Manager to join Oner Active on a 12-month maternity cover.

This is a broad, hands-on studio leadership role, responsible for the day-to-day management, planning and commercial performance of our Creative Studio. You’ll oversee a high-volume studio operation spanning e-commerce, ghost mannequin, always-on and BAU creative production, ensuring the team can deliver consistently high-quality content, on time and within budget.

The role sits at the intersection of creative, production, people and commercial operations. You’ll need to be equally comfortable managing a significant studio budget, building production schedules, troubleshooting on set, managing a team and working with senior creative stakeholders to ensure everything coming out of the studio is aligned with the Oner Active brand.

You’ll work closely with the newly established Studio Art Director, who will lead the creative execution and image selection across shoots, while you provide senior-level creative oversight alongside ownership of the studio operation.

This role is ideal for someone who enjoys working across multiple disciplines and thrives in a fast-paced environment where priorities can shift quickly and there is significant autonomy and responsibility.

You’ll be responsible for:

Studio Leadership & Operations

• Take day-to-day ownership of the Creative Studio, ensuring all studio activity is planned, resourced and delivered efficiently.

• Manage and prioritise the studio shoot calendar across e-commerce, ghost mannequin, creative, BAU and always-on production, typically overseeing 8–15 shoot days per month, with the potential to increase depending on business requirements.

• Ensure e-commerce and ghost mannequin production runs smoothly and independently, maintaining consistent output and quality.

• Build and manage detailed production schedules, ensuring e-commerce shot lists are appropriately planned and daily production targets are achievable.

• Identify production challenges before they impact delivery and proactively find solutions.

• Maintain high standards across studio organisation, equipment, samples, workflows and physical studio operations.

• Oversee the end-to-end sample flow into and out of the studio, ensuring products are available, organised and accounted for ahead of shoots for both studio and campaigns teams.

• Continuously look for opportunities to improve studio processes, efficiency and ways of working.

Budget & Commercial Management

• Own the Creative Studio P&L and annual budget, currently forecast at approximately £1.2m for 2027.

• Manage studio expenditure across freelancers, production, equipment, talent, and other external suppliers.

• Lead monthly cost tracking, reporting, and variance analysis against forecast.

• Work closely with Creative Operations and Finance to ensure spend remains controlled and accurately forecast.

• Make commercially sound decisions around resource, freelancers and production requirements while protecting creative quality.

• Support longer-term studio planning, forecasting and resource requirements.

Team & People Management

• Manage and develop the Creative Studio team, currently comprising three direct reports.

• Provide clear direction, prioritisation, and support to the team, ensuring everyone understands responsibilities, deadlines, and expectations.

• Support recruitment, onboarding, and performance management across the studio team.

• Manage workload and resource effectively across the team, identifying gaps and opportunities for development.

• Build a positive, accountable, and collaborative studio culture.

Creative & Production Oversight

• Provide senior creative oversight across studio output, ensuring content consistently reflects Oner Active's brand, quality and visual standards.

• Work closely with the Brand Director on creative execution and visual aesthetic.

• Maintain a strong understanding of photography, videography, lighting, styling, digital capture and retouching workflows.

• Oversee production on BAU and Ad Hoc Creative shoots, acting as a senior point of support for the working team.

• Work collaboratively with wider Creative, Brand and Marketing stakeholders to understand priorities and translate them into effective studio production.

E-Commerce & Asset Management

• Own the studio side of e-commerce imagery workflow, including final quality control before imagery is uploaded to site and shared with wider teams.

• Ensure e-commerce imagery meets agreed technical and visual standards.

• Manage the planning and scheduling required to support a high-volume product launch calendar.

• Oversee ghost mannequin production and workflow, working closely with the Studio Assistant and external retouching partners where required.

• Ensure assets move efficiently through photography, retouching, QC, and final delivery.

• Maintain strong studio processes around asset management, sample tracking and production documentation.

Freelancers & External Partners

• Source, book, and manage freelance production talent in collaboration with the Mid-Weight Studio Producer and Studio Art Director.

• Maintain a reliable network of photographers, videographers, retouchers, stylists, HMUAs, talent, and other production specialists.

• Balance freelance resource against budget, workload, and production requirements.

• Ensure external partners understand Oner Active's standards, processes and expectations.

About you:

• 5+ years experience in creative production or studio management.

• At least 2 years experience managing a creative studio or production function.

• Experience managing a significant studio or production budget, ideally £500k+.

• Strong experience working within a high-volume content environment, ideally e-commerce, fashion, retail or a similar consumer-facing business.

• A strong understanding of photography, video, lighting, digital capture, production workflows and retouching.

• Excellent organisational and project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple shoots, deadlines and stakeholders simultaneously.

• Experience managing and developing a team.

• A strong creative eye and the ability to recognise when content is or isn't meeting the required visual standard.

• Confidence working with senior creative, brand, and marketing stakeholders.

• Strong commercial awareness and the ability to make decisions with both creative quality and budget in mind.

• The ability to work independently, take ownership, and make decisions in a fast-moving environment.

• A proactive, solutions-focused approach.

• The flexibility and willingness to work in the studio up to five days per week, depending on production requirements.