Prepress & Production Art Manager

Job Title

Prepress & Production Art Manager

Design

Design & Ecommerce Director

Exempt

Bay Cities, an Employee-Owned Company, is the leading creative packaging and display partner to brand marketers, retailers, and e-commerce. Our passion, experience, technology, and consumer insights move product and drive sales.

Our Passion Powers Your Product

• Creativity
  :
  Our ideas create Client success.
• Passion
  :
  We have heart with a Customer Service attitude.
• Integrity
  :
  We honor our business & planet with sustainable practices.
• Responsible
  :
  We own it!
• Safe
  :
  Our safe work habits protect us all.
• Fun
  :
  We take our work seriously- not ourselves

The Prepress & Production Art Manager leads a highly technical production art team responsible for preparing, adjusting, and optimizing client-supplied artwork for print manufacturing. This is not a creative design role, however there are occasionally opportunities to be creative. The position focuses on ensuring client-provided artwork is production-ready, prints at the highest possible quality, and is routed for the most appropriate printing method and press.

This role is a working manager position. In addition to managing and developing the team, the manager actively pitches in during peak workloads to help lay out, adjust, and finalize production artwork to meet deadlines and maintain quality standards. The role requires expert-level proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite—especially Adobe Illustrator—and deep technical knowledge of digital, flexographic and lithographic printing methods.

The manager partners closely with Project Management, Sales, Production, Prepress Operator, Customer Service, and IT. They are responsible for working with Digital and the Prepress Operator maintain prepress standards, optimize workflows, improve automation, and clearly communicate with clients why production adjustments are required to achieve optimal print results. A key responsibility is building a fun, efficient, and high-performing team culture grounded in technical excellence and collaboration.

• Lead and manage the Prepress / Production Art team, ensuring client-provided artwork is technically accurate, print-ready, and optimized for the highest quality output.
• Act as a hands‑on, working manager, directly supporting production by laying out and adjusting artwork during high‑volume periods or when complex issues arise.
• Review and approve production artwork in collaboration with Project Managers, Sales, Manufacturing, and Customer Service, confirming alignment with print specifications, press capabilities, and client expectations.
• Evaluate artwork to determine the most appropriate printing method and press—with particular expertise in digital printing—ensuring optimal color accuracy, resolution, and substrate performance.
• Oversee color matching, proofing, and print quality standards, maintaining consistency across digital, flexo, and litho platforms.
• Establish, document, and maintain internal and external prepress specifications, workflows, and best practices in partnership with Production and Manufacturing teams.
• Partner with the IT and Workflow Automation teams to evaluate existing processes, define requirements, and identify opportunities for automation to improve efficiency, accuracy, and scalability.
• Serve as a technical liaison to clients, confidently explaining production decisions, artwork adjustments, and print limitations to help clients achieve the best possible outcomes.
• Set goals, manage workloads, and track performance metrics to ensure quality, efficiency, and on‑time delivery.
• Hire, train, coach, and develop team members, fostering accountability, technical mastery, and continuous improvement.
• Build strong relationships with external vendors (plates, litho labels, digital print partners), supporting vendor qualification and print quality standards.
• Develop and maintain documentation related to printing technologies, press capabilities, and production art requirements.
• Foster a positive, engaging, and productive team culture that values collaboration, ownership, and technical excellence.
• Adapt to changing…