Direct Response Production Manager

What to know

Help progressive causes achieve lasting change through high-performing programs and sustainable growth. We’re looking for a seasoned direct response expert with a record of success in managing printing and production logistics for direct mail campaigns across multiple large clients. You will manage a nonprofit client portfolio with a focus on finding cost-savings and other efficiencies for our clients while managing and continuing to build relationships with outside vendors such as printers, mailshops, and data brokers to bolster campaign operating processes.

We’re looking for a collaborative and detail-oriented individual who can organize, inspire, and mentor people across disciplines. You’ll work closely with some of the best in the industry – creative directors, communications strategists, analysts, tech directors, account directors, and other experts to bring client’s campaign concepts to life.

The company

Blue State is a purpose-driven agency. We partner with leading causes, brands, and campaigns and create real change. From Google and UNICEF to Amnesty International and Oxfam, we transform how brands and causes raise money, influence policy, build platforms, and grow communities of supporters. Led by the most creative and analytical minds from the political, nonprofit, and brand worlds, Blue State is a part of WPP Digital and has 150+ employees in the US and London.

A day in the life

• Production Managers serve as a knowledgeable resource on print production for staff and clients. Initiating the client education process as new clients are onboarded, making recommendations for efficiency and cost savings for clients and teams when applicable.
• Has mastered basic vendor management techniques, ensuring that all vendor communication occurs timely and clearly, streamlining the production process for offline campaigns. Negotiates with partner vendors with integrity to secure competitive pricing.
• Partners with account and creative leads to ensure that campaign production is innovative, eye-catching, and aligned with the overarching campaign strategy and KPIs while securing the most efficient pricing. Pays attention to industry trends in offline marketing channels to ensure campaigns are attention-grabbing.
• Successfully bids for campaigns with varying levels of complexity, fulfilling this role across multiple clients, resulting in cost savings for the company, and ensuring clients have press time and paper needs booked in advance of saturated market moments. 
• Has a strong attention to detail, serving as the primary reviewer for preprint + production materials ensuring that client campaigns are segmented, printed, and packaged free of error.
• Fluency in building campaign expenditures, preparing invoices and postage requests for campaigns, ensuring necessary information is presented clearly for teams and clients. 
• Comfortable with managing campaign data and complex audience segmentation, thoroughly reviews package segments and other campaign data to ensure all necessary information is pulled in accurately to each campaign. 
• Excellent project management skills: Maintains clear documentation of all necessary campaign materials, ensuring that cost estimates, production deadlines, and other due dates are met on-time and do not result in delays for clients.
• Stays on top of offline trends – building relationships with new vendors to expand Blue State’s offerings and provide more options for cost savings and efficiencies for clients and paying attention to postage rates and changes as USPS regulations evolve.

The team

Our Accounts and Project Management Team is at the heart of everything we do. Our charge is to take complex problems and break them down into solvable pieces. We are close partners with our clients, understanding their needs, worries and hopes and translating that into inspirational charges for our creative teams. We are intensely curious and love exploring new fundraising landscape offerings. Our energy and our passion is contagious.

What we offer

• Unlimited time-off (inclusive of sick, personal, and vacation days)
• $1,000 annually in professional development funds
• Competitive health, dental, and vision insurance
• Inclusive family planning coverage, including fertility, surrogacy, and adoption benefits
• Flexible and health savings accounts
• 401K & employer match
• Generous paid holiday schedule
• 12-week fully-paid parental leave for all parents-to-be
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance
• Pre-tax commuter benefits
• Remote work flexibility

We approach in-office working with a hybrid model. On-site presence is welcome for US staff who are within commuting distance of the NY or DC office. Managers retain discretion to require in-person attendance for folks on their discipline or client teams as necessary, including for those whose roles require them to be in person. To enter our US offices or attend Blue State events, staff and visitors must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, including with a booster shot when eligible. Exceptions for protected grounds will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

The salary range for this position is $72,000–$80,000; compensation will be commensurate with experience.

Some things we're looking for

• 5-7 years experience in direct mail, direct response fundraising, a printer or mailshop, or a related area
• Deep knowledge of direct response fundraising is essential with experience executing offline programs and a proven track record of ensuring accuracy and campaign success 
• Some technical experience or the necessary facility and willingness to learn, in order to be able to communicate clearly and accurately about Blue State’s products and capabilities
• Ability to adapt to new situations, think on your feet, and communicate with those around you. Teamwork and scrappiness required.
• A people and project leader, experienced and dedicated to growing and mentoring teams, while being open to feedback and what you can learn from others
• A shared passion and curiosity for making change and redefining how business is done. This includes comfort with ambiguity, a restlessness that resists the status quo, and a commitment to quality that ensures we’re always making progress.
• Empathy, communication, respect, and the ability to act as a role model and set the standard at Blue State
• Confidence to guide clients at varying levels of seniority, including the C-suite level

At Blue State, diversity is a necessity, not a nice-to-have. We encourage those from underrepresented communities — women, people of color, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, those with disabilities and people at all the intersections in between — to apply. Even if you don’t think your current skill set checks every box below, but this role seems to align with your strengths, we want to hear from you.

Blue State is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible application and interview process. If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation for a disability, including the use of AI tools throughout the hiring process, please contact us at [email protected] with the subject line: Accommodation Request to get started.