Location: Bend, Oregon area preferred; open to candidates nationwide

Engagement: Independent contractor (1099), fractional

Schedule: Approximately 10–15 hours per week, with potential to grow. This is a fractional role and is well suited to an independent professional managing a small portfolio of clients. Consistent availability throughout the workweek is preferred.

Compensation: $50–$65 per hour, depending on experience

Initial Term: 90-day introductory engagement

Start Date: January 2027

About the Role

Feels on Brand is a retail experience design studio working with established outdoor, active, and lifestyle brands. We’re seeking an experienced Project & Studio Operations Manager to help keep multiple fast-moving projects organized and delivered at a high level.

This role will serve as the studio owner's operational counterpart—maintaining visibility across projects, keeping communication and deadlines on track, and anticipating what’s needed next. The goal is to provide operational support that allows the studio owner to focus on creative direction, client relationships, and business growth.

This is not simply a task-management role. We’re looking for someone who can understand the bigger picture, identify potential roadblocks, and independently drive projects forward.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate with clients, fabricators, and internal designers across active projects

• Translate meetings, emails, and design decisions into clear tasks, deadlines, follow-ups, and team assignments

• Maintain project schedules, priorities, approvals, outstanding information, and deliverables

• Proactively identify missing information, decisions, and project risks, and drive the follow-up needed to resolve them

• Coordinate with vendors on pricing, samples, availability, and lead times

• Track client agreements, invoices, billing milestones, and outstanding payments

• Help develop and improve studio processes as the business grows

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience in architecture, interior design, retail design, construction, environmental graphic design, fabrication, or a related field

• Strong understanding of design, documentation, fabrication, and construction workflows

• Experience managing multiple complex projects with overlapping deadlines

• Excellent written communication and sound professional judgment

• Highly organized, resourceful, and able to work independently

• Comfortable communicating directly with clients, vendors, and other project partners

• Able to recognize next steps, take appropriate action, and know when to escalate an issue

• Experience with Notion and Adobe InDesign preferred

The Right Fit

The ideal candidate is calm, proactive, creative, and highly detail-oriented. They enjoy bringing structure to a fast-moving creative environment and are comfortable moving between big-picture project planning and the details required to deliver great work.

Relevant Backgrounds

Candidates may currently or previously have held roles such as Senior Project Manager, Design Project Manager, Retail Project Manager, Interior Design Project Manager, Architectural Project Manager, Design Operations Manager, Studio Manager, Design Producer, or Construction Project Manager.

Experience within a retail design studio, architecture or interiors firm, experiential agency, brand environment team, or design-build/fabrication company would translate particularly well to this role.

How to Apply

Please email your résumé and a short note about your experience to katie [at] feelsonbrand [dot] com with the subject line Project & Studio Operations Manager – [Your Name].

In your note, please briefly answer the following:

1. Tell us about a project or role where you managed multiple stakeholders, deadlines, and deliverables. What did you personally own?

2. What systems or processes do you use to keep projects organized, identify missing information, and make sure follow-ups don’t fall through the cracks?

3. What experience do you have working within retail design, interiors, architecture, construction, fabrication, or a related industry?

4. Are you available to begin in January, and what does your preferred weekly schedule look like?