Senior Project Manager (Google Tech), Chicago, Illinois

Description

Position at EssenceMediacom

Google via Media Futures Group - A little about us

Google has consolidated its media agency partnership into WPP's GroupM, building on the world class digital work that Essence has delivered for Google for over 15 years. Media Futures Group (MFG) is a bespoke team that delivers on our commitment to Google for a more strategic, creative and integrated media approach established to drive better business results.

The MFG team is made up of best in class digital, offline, and integrated media experts who work together to enhance media's contribution to Google's business. MFG is powered by Essence, MediaCom, and other constituent parts of GroupM around the world. The MFG team operates in a seamlessly integrated way across strategy, planning, investment, creative, business sciences and analytics, data and technology. The profile of people who work in MFG are world class, committed to establishing a new high water mark in the media industry.

About the role

We're looking for a passionate and strategic project management professional who will manage several large tech programs of work within EssenceMediacom for one of our largest clients. You are proactive and highly organized, and you understand the importance of seeing the larger project vision while still being able to manage what's going on in the weeds. You are always looking for new ways to be efficient. As a Senior Project Manager, you will partner with the MFG disciplines of client services, product, engineering, planning, activation, and our client to keep teams on track as they execute a number of initiatives centering around the development and management of new media tools and technologies. This role will be supporting global programs and therefore, you will be driving collaboration and coordinating work & delivery across multiple time zones. This is a unique opportunity to join a fast-growing, dynamic media agency which is already doing cutting-edge work for exceptional clients.

The ideal candidate has experience in operations and project management, preferably with a media and technology focus. You'll have a positive attitude, see solutions and risks clearly and are not afraid to talk about them in the moment. You gain the trust of both senior- and junior- team members, and are proactive and detail oriented. You have no problem setting up meetings and you like to run them. In addition to managing the project plan, you must understand how each project links, impacts and has dependencies across other projects, and therefore be able to successfully execute delivery across all projects.

Some of the things we'd like you to do:

• Be the passionate and trusted gatekeeper and champion of the project management process for several programs of work.
• Actively anticipate and mitigate project risk at the macro- and micro- level.
• Ensure active maintenance of project documentation, including detailed project plans and summaries, roadmaps, and program level communications.
• Define and/or influence processes and ways of working to ensure that the team is working as efficiently as possible. Proactively flex and refine working processes in order to maximize efficiency in constantly evolving environments.
• Partner with project leadership to maintain shared vision by building consensus on priorities leading to product execution. Ensure that decisions at every level are measured against the high level business goals and vision. Understand and be able to convey overall program and product roadmaps against this vision to help inform conversations about scope and priority.
• Ensure alignment between client-facing comms and internal delivery, partnering closely with Product Management and the Technical Delivery Manager to ensure engineering work ladders up to overall project timelines and goals.
• Schedule and emcee effective project meetings, ensuring that every meeting is kept on track and at the right level, has a stated purpose, agenda, and timely follow ups.
• Positively influence accountability across team members.
• Facilitate conversations between necessary parties between milestones to ensure that decisions are made and the project moves forward. Escalate at the right time, before an issue becomes a risk.
• Resource forecasting and ongoing management against client priorities.

A bit about yourself:

• You have 6+ years of project management experience in advertising and/or media technology, with experience applying contemporary PM methodologies to different types of projects.
• You have a proven track record in defining and leading large programs of work with fast-moving multi-agency global teams.
• You have an understanding of the product development process and can work well with both business and technical stakeholders.
• You are proud of and can't control your passion for finding solutions to problems before they happen, and you have a keen interest in the foundations of team management, and how to actively manage them for success.
• You can drive a project forward by building trust from high level executives and the on-the-ground team.
• You are great at follow-through, and very organized, but you don't live in your spreadsheets.
• You can focus on priorities and calmly lead a team under pressure to meet deadlines and deliver results.
• You have great interpersonal skills and don't take yourself too seriously.
• You believe that you can be open, candid and honest communication at all times without offending.
• You believe that empowering those working with you is the best way for everyone to succeed; you look to trust, empower and coach to unleash potential.

What you can expect from MFG and EssenceMediacom:

Our mission is to make advertising more valuable to the world. We do this by employing the world's very best talent to solve some of the toughest challenges of today's digital marketing landscape. It's important that we hire people whose values reflect those of our own: genuine, results-focused, daring and insightful. As an EssenceMediacom employee, we promise you a workplace that invests in your career, cares for you and is fun and engaging. We believe these factors create a workplace where you can be yourself and do amazing work.

GroupM and all its affiliates embrace and celebrate diversity, inclusivity, and equal opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We are a worldwide media agency network that represents global clients. The more inclusive we are, the more great work we can create together.

The base salary for this position at the time of this posting may range from $60,000 to $140,000. Individual compensation varies based on job-related factors, including business needs, experience, level of responsibility and qualifications. We offer a competitive benefits package, please visit https://www.wpp.com/people/wellbeing/benefits-at-wpp-in-the-us for more details.

EssenceMediacom