Job Description
What This Role Is About
As our Mid-weight Project Manager, you are central to driving successful project delivery by managing day-to-day operations and ensuring creative and technical execution meet our high standards. You cultivate strong client relationships while ensuring projects remain on track and within budget.
Collaborating closely with senior team members, you’ll manage a variety of client projects — from Drupal and WordPress builds to branding and print campaigns — as well as continuous improvement contracts and our sites’ hosting and maintenance. You take pride in keeping work flowing smoothly and ensuring every deliverable meets the brief.
You are the "calm in the storm," the most organised person in the room, and the primary advocate for our clients' success. You’re also someone who can navigate a complex client conversation without breaking a sweat, spot a risk before it becomes a problem, and still keep the team motivated and on track.
What You’ll Be Doing
Client and financial management
* Being a point of contact for clients — building strong relationships, managing expectations, and keeping communication clear and consistent.
* Providing quotes for smaller jobs and retainer renewals with existing clients, and contributing to larger formal proposals led by the new business director.
* Making sure all projects have solid contracts and billing schedules in place.
* Raising invoices in Productive for finance to process, and making sure billing stays on track throughout the project.
* Monitoring projects for potential problems, budget overruns, and scope creep — flagging risks early and working with senior PMs to resolve issues.
Running projects from start to finish
* Managing the end-to-end delivery of digital builds (primarily Drupal and WordPress) as well as branding, print, and publication projects.
* Managing continuous improvement (retainer) accounts — regularly tracking hours spent against budget and keeping clients clearly informed of where things stand.
* Creating detailed project plans and timelines, and negotiating changes in scope, budget, and schedule — clearly and confidently, with clients and colleagues alike.
* Scheduling designers, developers, and other practitioners across multiple workstreams, working with the wider PM team to keep resources balanced.
* Keeping project management tools up to date and making sure all project information is accurately recorded and available to others
Hosting and maintenance management
* Overseeing the day-to-day hosting and maintenance of all Soapbox sites.
* Collaborating with tech leads to plan maintenance schedules and site upgrades.
* Managing associated contracts and issuing invoices for these services.
What We’re Looking For
You’ll have proven project management experience, ideally in an agency setting, and a track record of reliability under senior guidance. Here’s what matters to us:
* Solid experience managing digital builds (Drupal and/or WordPress a big plus) as well as design projects like branding and print.
* Experience working in a cascading or kanban method; running effective standups, managing and tracking tasks, monitoring burndowns, and providing appropriate reporting internally and to clients.
* You’re commercially savvy — comfortable owning budgets, writing quotes, and monitoring the financial performance of your projects.
* You’re comfortable having constructive conversations with clients regarding scope and timelines, knowing when to involve a Senior PM for support.
* You’re a natural at keeping things organised and on track, and you bring that energy to every project you touch.
* You’re a proactive team player who knows how to keep practitioners motivated and supported to deliver their best work.
* You take a proactive approach to risk — you’re always thinking a few steps ahead.
* You have strong attention to detail in plans, costings, and client communications.
You’ll also be confident using:
* Productive.io or a similar agency management system (we use Productive for tasks, resourcing, time tracking, and financials)
* Instagantt or a comparable project planning tool
* Basecamp for client and project communication
* Slack for day-to-day team communication
* Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive)
Level of Accountability
This is a Mid-weight role. You are expected to require minimal oversight of your day-to-day work, self-managing your tasks and projects within parameters set by the Senior Project Manager. You take initiative to move projects forward while referring to senior staff for guidance on complex strategic decisions.