How & When to Hire a Head of Content Operations (Expert Advice)

Your content team is approaching capacity, content quality is slipping, and deadlines are getting tougher to meet. Given the increasing demands on your team, you might even be losing sight of your content strategy and producing pieces without clear goals.

Sound familiar? If any of these scenarios resonate, it's time to think about building a content operations team so you can manage the people, processes, and technology that power your content—and ensure that everything you produce aligns with your business strategy.

In this article, we'll cover how to find the right head of content operations or content ops specialist, the signs you need to hire now, and how to set up your new hire for success.

We'll go way beyond theoretical examples. I asked several B2B content operations specialists, heads of content, and content strategists for real-world insights and nuanced advice that you can apply to your own situation.

What does content operations do anyway?

“First things first," cautions Sam Chapman, Head of Content & Creative at Demandbase. "I think a lot of people (hiring managers, decision makers, team leaders) still don’t get the nuances of content operations, content marketing, content strategy, and the content lifecycle. The people, process, and tools that it touches must be understood in some meaningful way before a decision can be made to hire either a specialist or someone to run content."

"The work of content ops is maintaining alignment, and the output is consistency," explains Ryan Baum, founder of the Content Community Garden and previously a content leader building programs at tech companies like Gorgias.

For Ryan, consistency is about "content quality, brand alignment, punctuality of delivery, business outcomes achieved, etc., as all of these are rooted in operations (and the day-to-day work, within those systems)."

“Once we have everyone in agreement and commitment on the direction we’re all moving (content strategy + management), operations provide the systems that move us all toward it, together," Ryan shares.

Use Ryan's framework to get a sense of the questions content ops should be responsible for answering:

• What is happening? —> Editorial pipeline
• How will it get made? —> Documentation and briefs
• Who owns each step of that process? —> RACI or similar model
• When will it be delivered? —> Content calendars or deadlines
• Where will we distribute it so the audience can find it? —> Channels and workflow

From a tactical perspective, the day-to-day tasks you'll want to consider listing in your job post include:

• Building and optimizing workflows to ensure things get done
• Setting up systems that can scale so you can grow as necessary
• Translating content strategy into content production
• Overseeing content planning timelines
• Balancing content quality and quantity
• Finding the right tech for your purposes and your budget

Signs it's time to hire a Head of Content Operations

When your content team is on the smaller side (think a content manager, an in-house writer, and a few freelancers), production tends to be pretty straightforward. A dedicated content ops role won't be on your radar yet, as a project management tool plus a #content-team Slack channel should be enough to get the job done.

But as your team grows, capacity increases, and workflows become more complex, you can't expect a content manager to oversee operations on top of everything else on their to-do list. A content operations manager becomes essential for moving things forward while keeping everyone's eyes on the prize (the content strategy).

So, how do you know you've reached this point? Here are a few signs you need to hire.

Your content team is close to capacity

The more content you produce, the more likely you are to test the limits of your processes. For Samuel Lund, Director of Editorial at Omniscient Digital, approaching capacity is a major warning sign that you need to hire.

"We begin the process of finding a new [content ops] lead when we’re about one or two projects from our max output. We want to be strategic and hire just when we’re tipping over our comfort zone. This way, our new hires come in hot, with clients or a client portfolio at the ready."

Of course, you can't make capacity-related decisions if you aren't monitoring this metric closely. Samuel recommends tracking both current production and maximum output so you know when to make a move.

"In calculating max capacity for a grouping of projects/contributors (pods), we factor in the average across pods over time and then variables such as subject matter/client complexity (funnel position, niche/industry), necessary process adjustments/stages, etc."

Your team’s metrics may vary. But you can adjust this calculation to fit your workflow and anticipate when your current team is nearing capacity. This way, you can avoid surprises and start your search well in advance.

Your content quality is declining

Back when your team produced less content, you may have signed off on every piece yourself. Now, you may no longer have time. As a result, your organization's content quality may not meet the standards you originally set.

For Julia Melymbrose, Director of Business Strategy and Operations at Animalz, team size, scale of production, and workflow complexity can all signal the need for a head of content ops. But the most important sign to watch for is "if the quality or the flow feels broken"—such as insufficient workflows or output failing to meet quality standards.

That doesn't mean you have to wait until things reach a breaking point to get your content operations in order. Instead, “You need to start thinking about your content ops on day one," Julia advises.

In the beginning, a writer, editor, or account manager can set up a basic content pipeline for your team. Julia explains that it should answer questions like:

• Where do you jot down ideas?
• How do your ideas go into production?
• Do you have any freelancers working on content?

After you've set up a content workflow and thought through your content operations process, you'll be in a better position to spot when things start to break down. That way, you’ll know when to hire and which content operations role to prioritize.

Your content workflow is chaos

Can't find the latest version of a draft without checking at least a dozen places? Concerned that your team has to skip key steps to meet deadlines? If your production workflow no longer does the job, it's time for a change.

Here's how Sam Chapman describes this scenario: "You create a lot of content, but it's hard. It’s a suck on time and resources, and the content you do produce is tactical, often ad hoc. And you probably don’t have an asset management protocol or well-integrated production or project management."

Sam cautions that if you hire based on this warning sign, it's easy for the job to turn into a chaos management role. To avoid that outcome, you need a realistic goal and alignment throughout the organization.

Your freelancers are struggling to keep up

Don't forget to consider the state of your freelance team. If your onboarding process leaves a lot to be desired or your freelance writers spend more time navigating your tech stack than they do creating content, it's a good idea to focus on content operations.

Setting up a thoughtful freelance onboarding strategy is only the beginning. A skilled content operations specialist can also optimize content production workflows, advise about tech, and help you build and scale robust processes.

How to hire for content operations roles

Realizing it's time to hire is the first step. Now let's look at how to approach the hiring process.

Which skills to seek in a content ops hire

At Omniscient Digital, "A combination of editorial clout (quality) and process acumen (quantity) is the 'superpower' we hope to find (or to be able to coach)," shares Samuel Lund.

He translates: "We look for folks who have a background in writing, editing, or both. Individuals who can source great talent (writers, editors), give insightful editorial feedback, and ensure the final product is up to standards."

Content skills are just the beginning. For Samuel, it's also essential to hire someone who can adopt the organization's processes to create consistent deliverables while also adjusting them as necessary for various content formats or client relationships.

For Michelle Jackson, Chief Strategy Officer for BackPocket Agency, "The biggest skill a candidate for a content operations role can bring to the table is problem-solving—the drive and desire to take pieces and put them together in a meaningful way, and a 'get it done' mentality.

Julia recommends considering ops from a product team's perspective. A head of content ops should think a bit like a product manager because as Julia explains, content operations is your company's internal product.

How to balance content marketing with operations skills

Can a content marketer thrive in a content operations role? You bet.

Michelle shares, "While I would prioritize content marketing experience, project management or operations experience would also factor in highly.”

Case in point: After more than a decade as a writer and content manager, Tamara Franklin, Sales Cloud Content Marketing Operations at Salesforce, made the switch to a content operations role.

“I've always had a side passion for things like productivity, project management tools, processes and systems, and using AI and automation to optimize workflows, both as a freelance writer and on in-house content teams," Tamara shares. "These are all things that lend themselves well to ops."

However, you'll need more than just writing skills. "A content marketer can absolutely thrive in an ops role if they already have a knack for optimizing the trifecta of people, processes, and technology that make a content program work effectively,” Tamara explains.

When to hire a content ops specialist vs. a Head of Content Ops

This decision depends on what your team needs to achieve. If you're confident about your workflows and just need management and optimization, Julia suggests hiring a content ops specialist.

"A content ops specialist can bring skills of organization, taxonomy, centralized production management to support the framework for building content kits to support each solution and easily be repurposed or ‘reswizzled’ to support key verticals in that org’s GTM strategy," Sam Chapman explains.

But when strategy is the missing piece of the puzzle, you'll want to aim higher. “If you need help with the structure, the quality of the output, how you’re getting to that output, and how it plays into strategic goals, it’s definitely time to think about a head of content ops,” Julia advises.

How to set up a new Head of Content Operations for success

Once you've put in the work to make a great hire, take steps to help your new team member succeed.

Create a realistic 30/60/90-day plan

You may want your new content ops hire to hit the ground running. But in reality, they should be in observation mode for the first 30 days, taking every opportunity to learn and absorb.

Julia recommends that they spend the first month focusing on “understanding what the team (copywriters, content writers, SMEs, freelancers, editors, etc.) is experiencing. Listen a lot, understand, reiterate the problems back, and find what isn’t working.”

"Within 30 days, you should know how the editorial/content sausage is made," Samuel Lund explains. "Seek to understand, to observe, to ask questions." He recommends taking these steps:

• Get familiar with the inputs (clients, briefs, other teams) and the outputs (blog articles, research reports)
• Learn what happens from input to output
• Map this process if there's no existing documentation
• Get to know the contributors and how they fit into the big picture

Then, 60- and 90-day goals should focus on moving the content team toward strategic goals. Julia cautions that executives and content teams may have differing ideas on how to approach the situation. It's up to the head of content ops to create a plan that gets buy-in from both sides.

Avoid mistakes that get in the way of progress

When hiring for a content operations role, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is not giving them the authority to make changes. Once the head of content ops has buy-in from both sides, it's in your best interest to give them space to build processes, choose technology, and engage the right people.

Don't expect miracles without investing in the right tech. With tools like Relato, you can onboard your content creation team, manage content operations efficiently, and scale production initiatives effectively.

Above all, your organization has to decide to invest in content. "You need to have one thing in place for the role to be successful: Someone, or some people, within the organization who value content as a strategic part of the business and want to not only further understand its value but also channel that value into contributing directly to GTM strategy and revenue goals," Sam Chapman explains.

If you aren't ready to take content seriously or if you don't consider it a strategic part of your GTM strategy, Sam suggests that hiring for a content operations role may not be the right move.

Get aligned on the right metrics to measure

Every organization has its own set of KPIs or OKRs, which should be the head of content operations' main focus. As Sam Chapman explains, creating engaging content is a fluid process.

"There’s no single dashboard or playbook or template you can download. Run the scientific method, experiment, talk to as many customers as possible, as many sellers and CX people you can. Information is power, and in the end, that information will tell you what success looks like.”

However, there are a few metrics that apply to all organizations. Use them to measure your content operations team's progress or adapt them to fit your team's definition of success.

“The job of content ops is production efficiency, reducing waste, and making good things great. I’d call this outcome Return on Effort (ROE)," explains Sam Chapman.

"I would ideally measure the success of content operations through consistent, quality outputs," Ryan explains. "But the leading indicator is basically where the content team and other stakeholders fall on the spectrum from confused <—> independent (with some inherent slack, because these are human beings in a complex org).”

However, alignment comes first. "Content programs need to have that alignment and commitment before operations, and operations before tooling and automation," Ryan advises. "Software, automation, integration, AI, etc., are all just different forms of leverage. You can’t accelerate a 'process' that isn’t yet a process."

If your content marketing team can benefit from a head of content ops, the cost of doing nothing is higher than you might think. Use the framework above to guide your hiring process and set up your new hire for success.

Then take the next step to improve your content operations. Sign up for early access to Relato and get ready to transform your content ops tech stack.