Senior Project Manager

About Ogilvy

Ogilvy was founded in 1948 by David Ogilvy. David created a culture that deeply respects and cares about its people and clients. Our mission is to inspire people and brands to make an impact and we are committed to attracting, growing, and retaining the best talent in the industry. 

About the Role  

Position Summary 

Our Program Managers bring value to our clients by passionately and professionally serving the best interests of our clients and agency by scoping, planning and managing the effective and efficient delivery of our integrated solutions; campaigns, events, experiences, platforms, content, products and services. They are an invaluable resource to the client teams (Delivery leads in particular) in helping to define and manage overall scopes of work, annual/project-based agency resources based on client budgets and project needs, and the integration with key partners throughout the process. Program Managers add value by interrogating every client brief and assignment and striving to solve our client’s more significant business problems, not just the immediate request at hand. They are the trusted partner and point of contact for senior/management level clients, partnering with account leadership to deliver operational efficiencies, delivery excellence, project governance, resource optimization to increase speed-to-market and ROI for our clients and the agency.

What You’ll Do 

• Partner with the brand, Category Business Leads and Project Leads within the client structures to scope, plan and manage individual projects and programs of work with maximum efficiency and impact and project delivery


• Roadmap & Demand: Management of long-term experience roadmap, quarterly demand and detailed content calendars in partnership with client digital lead.


• Draft Key Milestones and Project Plans outlining all detailed deliverables and timings per workstream


• Manage all stakeholders and day to day project contact with senior/management level clients – this includes all teams working on the project – coordinating between all the various role players and agencies to ensure a smooth and seamless flow of communication, information, documentation and logistical aspects of project delivery


• Own/champion/enforce agency core process (Think/Create/Realise/Optimise)


• Effective scoping based on mandatory customer/business outcomes and creative ambitions, assessed against client budgets and timelines


• Effective scope management and communicating change requests, and managing scope-creep to avoid missed deadlines and cost overages


• Ensure all agency briefs are complete and clear (context, mandatory information, deliverables, timelines, budgets etc.) before engaging managed resources


• Enforce internal Quality Assurance (QA) processes and measure to avoid/minimize duplication of effort and protect agency reputation


• Co-own the project budgets to manage costs and deliverables as well as staffing resources


• Responsible or assigning responsibility for all meeting communication and preparation, i.e. Agendas, Presentations, Meeting notes, etc


• Develop and maintain clear and complete Statement of Work (SoW) and Functional/Technical documentation (tech projects)


• Effectively present and justify SoW, including timelines, budgets, resource plans and general delivery ecosystems (integrations and partnerships)


• Maintain up-to-date resource, project information and reporting in Delivery Power Tools (Workfront, JIRA, Other) for effective, data-informed project and resource management and reporting


• Scheduling of all meeting routines, i.e. regular meetings as agreed with Project Team (weekly/bi-weekly, reviews, etc) and based on the phase that the project is in, i.e. daily check ins/stand ups may be required at some point. This includes meetings with the Project team as well as internal meetings


• Manage Project Risk – responsible for flagging and tracking all risks that could impact on the successful delivery of the project and developing contingency plans (Manage Risk Register)


• Serve as a mentor/coach to more junior team members and supporting the development of future Program and Account Managers


• Help facilitate and maintain a collaborative and inclusive work environment where diversity and talent, and flexibility in workflows become key strengths in driving highly creative, effective and efficient outcomes


• Understand & respect every department’s role in delivering great work and building relationships


• Governance & Optimization - Safeguard operating model and management of change ensuring application, implementation and ongoing optimisation within OU/market cluster context. Ensure that the team complies with all teams' processes


• Together with the Brand Integration Lead and Project Lead help navigate the Project Team through the Experience Loop, particularly around timings


• Responsible for the storing, filing and access of all project documents


• Work closely with the Brand Project Lead on completing the Project Statement in MAP and ensure all financial processes, controls are adhered for the Studio for project work


• Exceptional resource planning and team management skills


• Operations Co-ordination & Delivery - Triage of production ready briefs/requests to DigiOps delivery team, tracking and coordinating delivery & go-live timelines between delivery team & client digital leads.


• Change champion: Management of change & ensuring communication around transformation within OU/Market clusters.

What You’ll Need  

• 4 – 7 years of related experience in program/project/account management, with client facing industry experience managing “the making” and delivery of great work


• At least 1 formal qualification/certification in Professional Program/Project Management (or equivalent) such as Agile Certified Professional (ACP) SCRUM, Project Management Professional (PMP), Program Management Professional (PgMP), Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)


• Experienced in delivering programs programs of work and integrated campaigns in minimum 3 of the following verticals (not necessarily on the same project): Brand Development, B2C/B2B Advertising, Content Marketing, Retail, CPG, Digital/Social Advertising, Digital Transformation, Technology Platforms, PR & Influence, Experience Design, Events and Experiential Marketing, Integrated Production


• Demonstrable experience in senior client relationship management


• Demonstrable experience in integrated, digital and traditional production


• Demonstrable capability to deliver integrated projects with multiple deliverables and stakeholder within allocated timelines and budgets


• Working knowledge of Agency operations, including Finance and Commercial processes and compliance frameworks


• An in-depth understanding and appreciation of the ‘creative’ process – championing great work


• Demonstrable knowledge of client-side marketing operations


• Experience forming strong relationships at all levels, internal and with clients/partners


• Proven negotiation skills


• Demonstrable risk assessment, mitigation and management experience (project level)


• Curious, a lifelong learner, good listener, someone who reads people and those in a room well and adapts their style and response accordingly


• Calm and confident under pressure


• Well-organized, punctual and accountable with great presentation skills

How We’ll Support You 

Ogilvy celebrates its people. Fully. Enthusiastically. Unhesitatingly. We’ll empower you with the tools you’ll need to succeed. We’ll give you the autonomy to seek out new paths and better ways of doing things. We’ll support you with colleagues who are experts in their disciplines, drawn from across the Ogilvy network. And we’ll provide opportunities for you to do work of which you’ll be proud, with people you’ll be proud to call your teammates.