Full-Time

Associate Director

Operations Strategy & Business Intelligence

Code and Theory

Code and Theory

1,001-5,000 employees

Digital agency delivering UI and AI

Compensation Overview

$100k - $150k/yr

New York, NY, USA

Remote

Remote role; US residency preferred.

Category
Operations & Logistics
Required Skills
LLM
Claude
Data Lake
Agile
Python
JavaScript
JIRA
n8n
SCRUM
Confluence
Data Governance

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Requirements
  • 5 to 8 years of experience spanning operations, product, or systems work in a professional services, agency, or technology environment
  • Strong operational problem-solving instinct: you can walk into a broken workflow, understand what is actually wrong, and design a fix that addresses root cause rather than symptoms
  • Demonstrated ability to gather requirements from stakeholders across different functions, synthesize competing inputs, and turn ambiguity into a scoped plan without losing momentum
  • Hands-on experience building agentic workflows or automations; comfort with at least one automation platform and basic scripting (Python and/or JavaScript) is expected
  • Enough fluency with operational systems to ramp quickly on new tools; you do not need a certification in any of them, you need the judgment to know what a system should be doing and the ability to figure out why it is not
  • Comfort working across a wide surface area without losing track of priority; you triage well and do not wait to be told what matters
  • Strong business case instinct: you understand ROI framing, push back on unsourced assumptions, and can write a one-pager that earns a decision
  • Clear, concise communicator in writing. You do not over-document. You do not under-explain.
  • Experience working with global teams across multiple time zones
  • Experience working with commonly used project management platforms such as Adobe Workfront, Smartsheet, Airtable, and Atlassian’s suite of products (including Jira and Confluence)
  • Experience with Agile principles and values, and frameworks including Scrum and Kanban to deliver a project
  • Practical experience designing and deploying agentic pipelines or AI-assisted workflows in an operational context
  • Familiarity with prompt engineering and model behavior sufficient to build reliable internal tooling without engineering support
  • Understanding of the difference between automation that runs reliably at scale and a proof-of-concept that works once
  • Awareness of data governance and privacy considerations when using AI tools against internal or client data
Responsibilities
  • Own requirements gathering and workflow design across the agency's operational stack, including project management, financial, CRM, HR, and data infrastructure systems
  • Map where manual steps, data handoffs, and system gaps create risk or overhead, and design solutions that address the root cause rather than the symptoms
  • Partner with Finance, Resourcing, Delivery, HR, and Technology leads to translate operational pain into structured problem statements and scoped plans
  • Design and build agentic workflows and automations using tools including Claude, n8n, Airtable, Python scripting, and AI-native tooling
  • Develop and maintain integrations across internal platforms, reducing manual data relay and reporting overhead across finance, HR, delivery, and pipeline functions to support the goal of eliminating manual steps entirely, not just reducing them
  • Build lightweight internal agents that surface anomalies, generate narrative summaries, and flag risks from financial, project, and operational data
  • Contribute to the AI accelerator portfolio: support scoping, testing, and rollout of internal tools
  • Support development of a centralized data lake and BI layer that ingests from project management, financial, CRM, and HR systems into a single source of truth
  • Translate stakeholder reporting needs into clean data requirements, a shared data dictionary, and scalable dashboard logic for Finance, Resourcing, and Delivery
  • Contribute to forward-looking operational intelligence: capacity forecasts, margin signals, delivery health, and pipeline trends that inform decisions before they are made, not after
  • Support Ops Strat & BI leadership in the initial building of business cases for operational investments: define the problem, size the opportunity, and make the ROI argument with precision
  • Communicate plans and progress to stakeholders across levels, from Delivery to Finance, Ops, and executive leadership
  • Produce clear documentation, process decks, and implementation briefs that hold up under scrutiny and do not require a meeting to explain

Code and Theory combines creative design and engineering to help large brands address consumer behavior, emerging tech, and AI. It offers website design, digital campaigns, and UI development, delivered by a 50/50 team of engineers and creatives to ensure technical solidity and visual appeal. Working with clients like Amazon, Oracle, and Albertsons shows its ability to scale projects and deploy AI-enabled solutions, such as collaborations with Oracle. The goal is to be a trusted partner for big companies by delivering bespoke, data-driven digital solutions that improve presence and performance at scale.

Company Size

1,001-5,000

Company Stage

Debt Financing

Total Funding

N/A

Headquarters

New York City, New York

Founded

2001

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • 17% revenue growth in 2024 added 35 new clients including Amazon and Microsoft.
  • Adobe Creative Intelligence System launch targets financial services at Adobe Summit 2026.
  • Named Adweek's 2025 Innovation Agency of the Year for enterprise AI expertise.

What critics are saying

  • Adobe's 2026 system commoditizes synthetic AI personas, undercutting core value with Fortune 500 clients.
  • Stagwell internal units like Left Labs compete directly for enterprise AI transformation contracts.
  • Agentic coding tools cause 45% vulnerability rates in AI-generated code, threatening engineering delivery.

What makes Code and Theory unique

  • Unique 50% engineer and 50% creative model balances technology and art.
  • Proprietary marketing operating system 'The Machine' serves 50+ Fortune 500 CEOs.
  • Only global network built on exact 50/50 balance of engineers and creatives.

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Benefits

Remote Work Options

Flexible Work Hours

Company News

Code and Theory
Jun 10th, 2026
Code and Theory wins a record 16 B2B awards, leading the ANA b2s.

Code and Theory wins a record 16 B2B awards, leading the ANA b2s. The agency earned a record number of wins for impact with clients Amazon Ads, Microsoft, Stanley Black & Decker, Henry Schein and T. Rowe Price. For the third consecutive year, Code and Theory led the field with the most wins in the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) annual B2 Awards, winning 16 awards of the 35 total, and sweeping the entire "Best Customer Experience" category with Stanley Black & Decker, T. Rowe Price and Henry Schein. Code and Theory is built for moments when the old playbook stops working. It brings a 50/50 split between engineers and creatives to enterprise challenges where brand, experience, data and technology collide. In a market defined by sunk martech costs, an onslaught of new AI launches and rising pressure to show results fast, Code and Theory helps B2B leaders move from experimentation to measurable outcomes. Work recognized includes: * Amazon Ads: Seller Speedway connected global campaigns, social, and immersive experiences into one B2B ecosystem, boosting Amazon Ads adoption and drove a 41% lift in seller adoption of AI-powered ad tools. * Henry Schein: A healthcare commerce transformation reduced e-commerce path-to-purchase by 46% and increased revenue per visit by 23%. * Microsoft: The "Yours to Build" campaign translated advanced technology into a developer-first narrative, beating engagement benchmarks by 37%. * Stanley Black & Decker: An industrial-scale design system unified 30+ brands across 55 markets, driving 39% growth in e-commerce sales. * T. Rowe Price: An enterprise-wide design system unified 47 fragmented sites across six languages, accelerating growth, improving operational efficiency and delivering $15M in cost avoidance in a single quarter. See full win list below: * Gold | Stanley Black & Decker | Corporate/ Brand Website * Gold | Stanley Black & Decker | Customer Experience * Gold | T.Rowe Price | Digital Marketing Tools and Programs * Gold | Microsoft "Yours to Build" B2B Marketplace * Gold | Amazon Ads: Sellers Speedway | Proprietary Company Event * Gold | Code and Theory/WSJ Intelligence Experience Gap | Content Marketing * Silver | Code and Theory | Large Agency of the Year * Silver | T. Rowe Price | Customer Experience * Silver | T.Rowe Price | Corporate/ Brand Website * Silver | Henry Schein | B2B Data Excellence * Silver | Amazon Ads: Sellers Speedway | Trade Show or Conference * Silver | Microsoft "Yours to Build" Lead Gen * Bronze | Henry Schein | Customer Experience * Bronze | Microsoft "Yours to Build" Product Launch or Relaunch * Bronze | T.Rowe Price | Industry Sector Spotlight: Banking and Financial Services * Bronze | Amazon unBoxed 2025 | Proprietary Company Event The ANA is the definitive voice of the marketing industry, with membership representing 20,000 brands with $400 billion in annual marketing investment. It recognized Code and Theory for its ability to turn complexity, across brand, experience, data and technology, into measurable growth for modern B2B organizations. This series of wins follows Code and Theory's 20 Agency of the Year honors during the AI era (2024-2026). Most recently, it was a One Show AI Pioneer, Fast Company Most Innovative Company and Ad Age A-List recipient. This latest recognition builds on a flurry of new-client momentum, including a three-year strategic partnership with Adobe. Code and Theory recently debuted its Creative Intelligence System (CIS) at Adobe Summit, helping marketers learn before they launch by using synthetic personas to pressure-test decisions earlier in the process. CIS was featured in a keynote with Adobe CMO Rachel Thornton and Code and Theory CEO Michael Treff. It was actively demoed for the hundreds in attendance at the ANA Masters of B2B Marketing conference. Dagmara Szluce, Executive Vice President of the Association of National Advertisers, says: "This was the most competitive year in the history of ANA B2 Awards. Across the board, it spotlighted the work raising the bar in business marketing, where creativity, effectiveness and innovation have to show up together. Code and Theory's 2026 B2B Agency of the Year win is a powerful example of that mission in action. Along with A-List clients like Amazon, Microsoft and Stanley Black & Decker, they are shaping the future of B2B marketing." Dan Gardner, Co-Founder of Code and Theory, says: "Enterprise marketers are under more pressure to show results than arguably any time in history. Businesses are being rebuilt in real time by new technology and rising expectations and the winners will be the brands that can connect creativity and engineering into one operating system for growth. We're proud of what we've built with our clients, honored by the ANA's recognition and even more motivated by what comes next." About The Code and Theory Network The Code and Theory Network is the only digital transformation network with a balance of 50% creative and 50% engineers. Its unique makeup makes Code and Theory LLC the place where CMOs, CTOs and CIOs come together to drive results for their businesses. Code and Theory LLC partner with its clients to redefine what is possible to create lasting impact and drive long-term growth. Part of Stagwell, Code and Theory offers a global footprint and the capabilities to work across the entirety of the customer-facing journey, and implement the technology that powers it. The network includes the flagship agency Code and Theory as well as Kettle, Instrument, Left Field Labs, Truelogic, Create. Group and Current. Code and Theory clients include Amazon, JPMorganChase, Microsoft, NBC, NFL and Yeti. For more, visit codeandtheory.com About the Association of National Advertisers The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) is the definitive voice of the marketing industry. Since 1910, Code and Theory LLC has set and advanced the agenda for marketing transformation, connecting over 1,600 member companies to an influential global network, insights and resources that drive growth. Its members represent 20,000 brands and $400 billion in annual marketing investment. Through industry-leading research, the CMO Growth Council, and its proprietary Growth Agenda and Practices, the ANA empowers marketers to shape the future of marketing and create lasting impact for their organizations and the industry. Recent work.

Merced Sun-Star
Mar 24th, 2026
Fast Company names Code and Theory one of the World's Most Innovative Companies for second consecutive year.

Fast Company names Code and Theory one of the World's Most Innovative Companies for second consecutive year. March 24, 2026 7:32 AM Gift Article Stagwell's digital transformation network was recognized in the Advertising and Marketing category for building the infrastructure that turns AI ambition into business transformation. NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / March 24, 2026 / Code and Theory, the digital transformation network within Stagwell (NASDAQ:STGW), has been named to Fast Company's prestigious list of the World's Most Innovative Companies for 2026, the second consecutive year the company has earned the distinction. Code and Theory was recognized in the Advertising and Marketing category alongside Google, Nvidia, Adidas and Walmart. The recognition arrives at a decisive moment. AI has moved from conversation to infrastructure, and the gap between companies that are genuinely restructuring around it and those still piloting around the edges is becoming visible. Code and Theory has spent the past year not just advising clients on AI strategy, but building the systems that make AI-driven marketing and experience work at scale. Central to that work is The Machine, the industry's first agentic marketing operating system, built by Code and Theory in conjunction with Stagwell. The Machine connects people, data and tools to drive better outcomes. What differentiates The Machine is that it works in our clients' tools and on top of their stack to maximize adoption and interoperability. It enables organizations to move at AI speed without surrendering the brand judgment and human instinct that make experiences worth having. Over the past year, some of the most complex organizations in the world have looked to Code and Theory, leveraging its differentiated balance of 50% engineers and 50% creatives to solve some of the industry's toughest challenges, including: * TIME to reimagine its digital flagship and reignite a 100+ year-old media brand. * Amazon to inspire and convert millions of small businesses through a global Amazon Ads campaign. * Henry Schein to reinvent healthcare commerce at global scale. * Microsoft to reimagine how it engages with developers and earns their trust. * Stanley Black & Decker to lead a global digital transformation across 30+ brands and 55+ markets. * NFL to build a connected digital ecosystem across broadcast, social, web, app and stadium experiences. This recognition extends a historic run of industry validation. In the past two years alone, Code and Theory has received 15 top honors from Adweek, Ad Age, the ANA, Campaign, Digiday, The Drum and the Shorty Awards, including Adweek's inaugural Innovation Agency of the Year and taking No. 5 spot on Ad Age's 2026 A-List. Dan Gardner, Co-Founder of Code and Theory, said: "Every meaningful shift in our industry has happened at the intersection of creativity and technology. That's where we've always operated. What's different now is the pace and the stakes. AI isn't a trend. It's a structural change. Our advantage is not that we're reacting to it, but that we're built for it. This recognition reflects a team that knows how to turn change into practical, measurable outcomes." Michael Treff, CEO of Code and Theory, said: "A lot of companies are talking about AI, but very few are restructuring how they actually work. Code and Theory is rebuilding businesses' operating systems so they can move at AI speed without losing the human instincts that create real connection, both for themselves and their clients." Brendan Vaughan, Fast Company Editor-in-Chief, says: "Our list of the Most Innovative Companies is about spotlighting organizations that don't just adapt to change - they drive it. The companies we honor this year are redefining what leadership looks like in 2026, pairing bold ideas with measurable impact and turning breakthrough innovation into real-world value. They are setting the pace for their industries and offering a blueprint for what sustained innovation can achieve." About The Code and Theory Network The Code and Theory Network is the only digital transformation network with a balance of 50% creative and 50% engineers. Our unique makeup makes us the place where CMOs, CTOs and CIOs come together to drive results for their businesses. We partner with our clients to redefine what is possible to create lasting impact and drive long-term growth. Part of Stagwell, Code and Theory offers a global footprint and the capabilities to work across the entirety of the customer-facing journey, and implement the technology that powers it. The network includes the flagship agency Code and Theory as well as Kettle, Instrument, Left Field Labs, Truelogic, Create. Group, Rhythm and Mediacurrent. Code and Theory clients include Amazon, JPMorganChase, Microsoft, NBC, NFL and Yeti. For more, visit codeandtheory.com

The SCORES Network
Sep 3rd, 2025
Code and Theory Launches 100% AI-Generated Ad for SCORES Network to Show How Sport and Poetry Transform Youth Lives

The SCORES Network, a nonprofit that serves underserved youth through after-school programs that blend soccer, poetry and community service, has partnered with creative and technology agency Code and Theory to launch "Find Your Feet."

PR Newswire
Jun 5th, 2025
Code And Theory Named Ana B2B Agency Of The Year After Transforming The World'S Leading Brands

The Stagwell agency's 12 ANA B2 award wins highlight its transformative impact for clients Amazon Ads, ETS, Thomson Reuters and QualcommNEW YORK, June 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Code and Theory has been named Business-to-Business (B2B) Agency of the Year at the prestigious Association of National Advertisers (ANA) B2 Awards, marking its sixth major agency honor in 2025 alone. This recognition reflects Code and Theory's unmatched ability to deliver technology-first, transformative solutions that meet the demands of today's rapidly evolving B2B landscape.Code and Theory has been named Business-to-Business (B2B) Agency of the Year at the prestigious Association of National Advertisers (ANA) B2 Awards, marking its sixth major agency honor in 2025 alone.At the ANA B2 Awards, Code and Theory earned 12 award wins across clients Qualcomm, ETS, Amazon Ads and Thomson Reuters. These wins highlight the agency's ability to blend technology, creativity and collaboration to drive measurable business impact. Notable results include:Rebranding Thomson Reuters as a B2B tech leader, boosting unaided awareness by 40%. Explore the work. Redefining Qualcomm's developer experience, achieving a 425% increase in engagement

Cache Valley Daily
Jun 5th, 2025
Code and Theory Named ANA B2B Agency of the Year After Transforming the World's Leading Brands

NEW YORK, June 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - Code and Theory has been named Business-to-Business (B2B) Agency of the Year at the prestigious Association of National Advertisers (ANA) B2 Awards, marking its sixth major agency honor in 2025 alone.