Chief of Staff | Head of Operations

Chief of Staff | Head of Operations (Philippines, Remote)

Shelter Studios | Full time | Australian business hours

We’re looking for the person who runs Shelter Studios. Not coordinates. Not supports. Runs. You’ll own how the agency operates day to day so the founders can step back from delivery and focus on clients, strategy and growth. If you’ve led operations at a digital agency and you’re the one people go to when something needs fixing, read on.

About us

Shelter Studios is a boutique creative and digital marketing agency on the NSW South Coast, Australia. We work only with premium regional hospitality, accommodation and primary producer brands. We deliver organic social, paid media, content production, branding, websites, PR and partnerships.

What you’ll own

Running the agency

• Day-to-day operations end to end: delivery, resourcing, workflow, quality and deadlines
• The weekly operating rhythm, including priorities, team check-ins, leadership reporting, and the decisions that keep work moving without waiting on the founders
• Acting as the founders’ right hand. You turn strategy into plans, follow them through, and tell us what we need to hear

Delivery

• Making sure every client gets what they pay for, on time and on brief, across social, paid, content and web
• Client onboarding, from signed contract to first deliverable
• Spotting bottlenecks and scope creep early and fixing them

Team

• Leading the delivery team, contractors and freelancers, including briefing, accountability and quality control
• Driving hiring, onboarding and induction as we scale
• Setting the standard for how we work and holding people to it

Commercial and systems

• Tracking utilisation, delivery cost and margin by client and retainer
• Bringing real data to pricing and scoping decisions
• Owning the tool stack and SOPs so the agency can grow without chaos

This is a hands-on role. You’ll be in the project management tool, on client calls and reviewing the work. You won’t be managing it from a distance.

Essential

This role is not for generalist ops managers, project coordinators or VAs looking to step up.

• You’ve led operations at a digital marketing, creative or media agency as Head of Operations, Operations Director, Chief of Staff, GM or equivalent. Agency-side experience only
• 5+ years in agency operations, including time at an agency that was actively scaling
• A track record of running an agency day to day with real autonomy and decision-making authority
• Experience working with Australian, US or UK agencies or clients
• A working command of retainer, scope and margin economics
• Enough understanding of how social, paid, content and web work gets produced to resource it and check its quality
• Expert use of a PM platform (ClickUp, Asana, Monday, Notion or similar), and the ability to get a team to actually use it
• Exceptional written and spoken English, sharp commercial judgement, and calm under pressure
• Reliable high-speed internet with backup power and connectivity

Beneficial

• Experience with hospitality, tourism, accommodation, food and beverage or premium lifestyle clients
• Familiarity with Meta Business Suite, Google Ads and GA4
• Experience moving an agency onto new systems

The details

• Fully remote, based in the Philippines
• Full time, with strong overlap with Sydney business hours
• Highly competitive salary, paid monthly in AUD, reviewed at six months
• Independent contractor arrangement
• Real ownership, direct access to the founders, and a growing agency to shape

How to apply

Apply via LinkedIn with your CV send this to with a short note (200 words max) answering:

• Which agency did you run operations for, how big was it, and what changed while you were there?
• What is one system or process you built that the agency still runs on?
• Can you run a social media or digital ads campaign if required? If so, provide a few examples