Job Description
Company Description
Black Bear is one of the world’s leading independent studios, producing and releasing the highest quality films across all genres. Founded in 2011, with offices in Santa Monica and London, the studio is behind a diversified slate that blends critically acclaimed, filmmaker-driven fare with broadly commercial action and genre titles. The company directly distributes films in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, and Canada. Black Bear’s original films include Academy Award nominees Train Dreams, The Imitation Game, Sing Sing, Nyad, and Mudbound, as well as Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Craig Gillespie’s Dumb Money, J Blakeson’s I Care a Lot, and David Ayer’s A Working Man, and Ric Roman Waugh's Shelter currently in release.
Position Summary
Black Bear is seeking a Vice President, Marketing Strategy & Operations to build and lead the strategic and operational foundation of our marketing organization.
Reporting directly to the Head of Marketing, this role serves as the connective tissue across every campaign, partnering with Creative, Media, Digital, Publicity, Distribution, Research, and Finance to ensure campaigns are strategically aligned, efficiently executed, and continuously optimized.
Equal parts strategist, operator, and project leader, this executive will establish the systems, planning processes, campaign architecture, and operational discipline that allow a lean team to execute at the highest level.
This position is ideal for someone who enjoys bringing clarity to complexity, thrives in fast-paced environments, and is passionate about helping great marketing become even better.
Responsibilities
Marketing & Creative Strategy
•Partner with the Head of Marketing to define positioning, audience strategy, brand narrative, and go-to-market plans across Black Bear's theatrical slate.
•Lead creative strategy from acquisition through release, ensuring every campaign has a clear, differentiated positioning and cohesive creative vision.
•Translate audience insights, market research, competitive analysis, and cultural trends into actionable creative and marketing recommendations.
•Develop strategic campaign briefs that align internal teams, filmmakers, agencies, and creative partners around a unified campaign direction.
• Lead campaign planning and post-mortem analyses, identifying learnings and best practices that strengthen future campaigns.
Marketing Operations
• Lead campaign timelines and cross-functional execution across the theatrical slate.
• Ensure alignment across departments on priorities, deliverables, approvals, and key milestones.
•Build scalable workflows, planning tools, and operating procedures that improve efficiency, communication, and execution.
•Help prioritize marketing investments and allocate internal and external resources across campaigns.
•Partner with Finance on campaign budgets, forecasting, staffing, agency management, and vendor planning.
• Develop executive presentations, campaign updates, dashboards, and strategic recommendations for leadership.
• Translate campaign performance into actionable business insights, reporting frameworks, and operational best practices.
Qualifications
• 8+ years of experience in entertainment marketing, strategy, operations, or studio campaign management.
• Deep understanding of theatrical film marketing and release strategy.
• Proven ability to lead complex, cross-functional campaigns from strategy through execution.
• Strong strategic, analytical, organizational, and project management skills.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with experience working alongside senior executives and filmmakers.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment with exceptional attention to detail.
• Experience building scalable marketing processes and operational workflows.
• Familiarity with consumer research, audience segmentation, and campaign analytics.
• Proficiency with project management platforms (e.g., Asana, Monday.com, Airtable) and productivity tools including Google Workspace, PowerPoint/Keynote, and Excel.
Reports to:
Head of Marketing
The actual base salary offered depends on a variety of factors, which may include, as applicable, the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, specific and unique skills, level of education attained, and certifications or other professional licenses held. All candidates are encouraged to apply.
Black Bear is an Equal Opportunity Employer.