Niki Pence
About me
I build the infrastructure that makes creative teams work.
Not just the content. The systems, the governance, the vendor relationships, the DAM architecture, the approval workflows, the brand standards — the operational layer that most organizations don't think about until it breaks.
I've spent 15+ years getting hired to do one thing and ending up doing five, because I can't help but notice what's missing and build it. That's not a complaint. It's the work I find most meaningful.
What I'm looking for
A Creative Operations or content production leadership role where I can build the systems & do the work.
Remote or DFW hybrid.
A team that takes quality seriously and wants the operational infrastructure to support it.
If that sounds like your organization, I'd love to talk.
Let’s talk
How I got here
I started in independent film and agency production — as a 1st Assistant Camera, then as a video editor and shooter at The Marketing Arm, working across national brand campaigns for clients including State Farm. I learned the craft from the inside out: how a set actually runs, how an edit actually works, how to make something look expensive on a timeline that isn't.
In 2017, I joined Stearns Lending as a Junior Content Producer — two people, no infrastructure, a camera budget and a blank wall. My director and I built the entire video production function from scratch. That's when I discovered I was just as interested in building the system as I was in making the content.
In 2022, I joined Achieve as a Brand Video Lead supporting recruiting content. Within a year, I'd expanded into corporate communications, lifecycle marketing, product, and social — not because anyone asked me to, but because each team I worked with saw what I could do and wanted more of it. By the time I left in early 2026, I was operating as the enterprise-wide creative operations lead for video and visual media.
My title said Senior Brand Video Lead. My actual scope was Creative Operations Director. I'm looking for a role where those two things match.
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Systems thinking, creative execution, honest communication.
I'm logic-driven by nature. I want to understand how things work before I try to change them. When I join a new organization, I spend the first few weeks asking a lot of questions and taking a lot of notes. By the time I'm ready to propose a workflow or build a process, I understand the actual problem rather than the surface-level symptom.
I'm also a practitioner, not just a strategist. I can build the system and then do the work inside it. I've shot on cinema cameras and reviewed DAM taxonomies in the same week. Being genuinely competent in the craft makes me a better operations leader because I know what's realistic to ask for and what's actually hard.
The thing I care most about is honest communication. I'd rather tell a stakeholder that a deadline is unrealistic before we miss it than tell them after. I'd rather surface a process problem early than let it become a quality problem at delivery. When you are being asked to overpromise, you are guaranteed to underdeliver.
What's my why
Video storytelling combines everything I've loved since I was a kid with my twin sister and a family camcorder: writing, framing, composing, editing, problem-solving, and telling stories that make people feel something. We both pursued film. She's now Director of Photo & Video at Texas Instruments. I build creative operations systems. We're both still making things.
I'm also a mom to a toddler, a "reader" (listener) of a genuinely embarrassing number of audiobooks, and someone who will always ask one more question about how something works.
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Video storytelling can entertain, reaffirm or defy cultural norms, create brands and universes, call viewers to action, spark ideas and innovation in the minds and hearts of people.
I believe that at its best, video storytelling serves many of these utilities together.