[Hiring] Senior Production Project Manager @Equator Design

Role Description

The seasoned senior project manager plays a pivotal role in supporting the Project Management team across diverse accounts and client projects. This role involves collaboration with cross-functional teams, and direct client engagement if required. In addition to ensuring project delivery within established timelines, budgets, and scope, at the senior level, you will guide and mentor junior team members and be involved with any process improvements needed.

Key Responsibilities

• Project Leadership:
  • Spearhead a diverse range of client projects, ensuring exceptional quality, adherence to deadlines, and alignment with budget constraints.
  • Implement robust project plans and workflows, capitalizing on your comprehensive understanding of creative and design project life cycle.
  • Proven ability to manage large volumes of work.
• Client and Internal Collaboration:
  • Act as a central communication hub among clients, Client Service teams, and internal departments including Creative, Design, Content, Operations and Studio.
  • Foster positive relationships and efficient collaboration to achieve project objectives.
• Process Improvement:
  • Actively contribute to the optimization of project management processes, increasing efficiency and effectiveness across client and internal projects.
  • Leverage project management tools and techniques to enhance team workflow and project tracking.
  • Proactively identify potential roadblocks, offering strategic solutions to keep projects on track.
• Resource Coordination:
  • Coordinate resource allocation in partnership with studio operations, internal schedulers, ensuring availability and optimal deployment of talent and resources needed for project success.
  • Notify PM Director of any capacity issues and advise when the team has capacity to take on more work.
• Training/Onboarding:
  • Able to provide training/guidance/mentorship to junior team members.
• Project specific responsibilities:
  • Develops and maintains production execution plans, including documentation of project scope, implementation of QC plan, objectives, deliverables, key milestones, timelines, schedules, internal and external resources, project dashboards, etc.
  • Communicates the status of production/manufacturing in respect to overall project schedule, requirements, deadlines, and structure to all necessary departments and team members.
  • Ensuring that projects flow seamlessly from conception through to completion, embodying the highest standards of quality, budget adherence, and timeliness.
  • Monitor project progress, handle issues and escalations that arise, document and follow up on critical actions, decisions, issues and risks.
  • Develop a detailed project plan/tracker to monitor and track progress.
  • Create and maintain comprehensive project documentation.
  • Develop thorough understanding of internal team operations and processes.
  • Manage changes to the project scope, schedule, and costs (working with CS to ensure all costs are captured).
  • Review and validate mandatory project information required prior to project kick-off.
  • Verify information is accurate on design briefs, and specifications received from the account team and/or client.
  • Procure all assets (dielines, copy, packaging/printer specs, reference materials) needed for studio and provide flexible solutions to potential production roadblocks.
  • Work within our project management tool to write up work orders, and create project tasks for the studio.
  • Facilitate/lead accurate and clear briefing to the creative team and/or Adaptive team in a timely fashion in partnership with CS.
  • Act as a liaison between the creative team, external partners, and the account team to obtain missing information and materials.
  • Set up and/or attend technical review of projects via pre-pro meetings or onboarding meetings providing valuable insight into project process and next steps.
  • Provide the final rounds of QA on all assets – checking all design files to ensure work has been executed to the client brief prior to releasing for final delivery.
  • Lead and/or participate in post-mortem meetings to review and provide insight on completed projects.
  • Report and escalate issues to management as needed.
  • Evaluates engineered drawings to identify potential production plans and internal/external suppliers.
  • Scopes and procures work to external partners to fill gaps where applicable to overall production plan.
  • Actively manages relationships, project schedules, and quality with external suppliers.

Qualifications

• BA or higher in Graphic Management Services (concentration in packaging is an asset), or Design or in Marketing/Business Administration.
• 6+ years proven experience in project management, preferably in a design environment (concentration in packaging preferred).
• Profound understanding of branding, design, and print-production processes, including knowledge of Flexo, Litho, and Gravure printing techniques.
• Excellent communication skills, leadership qualities, and the ability to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced agency setting.
• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office suite (Excel, Word, Teams, Outlook), project management platforms, and potentially Adobe software suite, with a focus on solution-oriented approaches and critical thinking.
• Intermediate ability to read/interpret engineered drawings.

Personal Attributes

• Demonstrated ability to lead by example, fostering a collaborative team environment while driving for results.
• A solutions-oriented mindset with unparalleled attention to detail, strong analytical skills, and a proactive problem-solving approach.
• Organized, a self-starter able to prioritize effectively, and possesses a deep interest in brand stewardship and project management excellence.

Company Description

Propelis is a portfolio of global marketing services and technology companies with a combined legacy of 150+ years, 2,000+ clients, 9,000 employees, and operations across 30 countries. Propelis provides the scale and support of a global organization while preserving the unique culture and identity of each company in its portfolio.

EEO Statement

We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need. We offer equal employment opportunities to employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, genetic information, age, disability or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.