Orchard - Program Manager (Pm Team Lead)

Orchard Marketing; Sydney; On-site; AUD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Orchard Marketing in Sydney seeks a seasoned Program Manager to own delivery across major client portfolios. This hands-on leader will guide complex programs, coach PMs, and ensure delivery quality, margin and client confidence.

You'll maintain portfolio visibility, manage risks, and partner with Account Direction to translate business objectives into executable programs. AI tooling and continuous improvement are encouraged to raise delivery standards across Australia and the US.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in digital delivery or program management, with agency experience preferred.
• Experience across multi-program portfolios with meaningful commercial responsibility.
• Strong commercial instincts: margins, forecasts, scope changes.

Responsibilities

• Own delivery across major client portfolios with hands-on leadership.
• Establish program governance, timelines, milestones and risks.
• Coach and develop PMs to raise delivery capability.
• Partner with Account Direction to translate business objectives into executable programs.

Skills

Delivery leadership

Program management

Budget forecasting

Team coaching

Systems thinking

Risk management

Ambiguity management

AI tooling

Tools

Claude AI

Job description

Job Description

We're looking for a Program Manager to own delivery across one of our most significant client portfolios. This is a hands‑on role: you'll lead and run complex programs yourself while developing the PMs around you and holding accountability for delivery quality, commercial health, and client confidence.

What You'll Own

Delivery excellence

— you carry your own clients and programs. You estimate, build timelines, run governance, and navigate real briefs and real issues. You're in the work, not above it, while simultaneously leading the team around you and creating the conditions them to deliver at their best.

Program visibility

— you maintain a clear view of your portfolio: milestones, dependencies, and risks. You surface problems early and come with options, not just issues.

Commercial accountability

— you track budget vs actual, manage scope change, and flag margin risk before it becomes a write‑off. You understand the commercial shape of your portfolio and act on it. You also keep a close eye on pipeline: spotting forecast dips before they become gaps, identifying growth opportunities within existing clients, and actively contributing to new business efforts.

Team development

— you lead and coach a team of PMs with genuine investment. You build an environment where work is owned at the right level and people are empowered to deliver.

Client partnership

— you're the senior delivery contact, working closely with Account Direction to translate business objectives into executable programs. You build delivery credibility that retains and grows client relationships.

AI & continuous improvement

— you use Claude and other AI tools as a genuine part of how you work, bring new approaches back to the team, and help build Orchard's AI delivery capability from the inside out.

Qualifications

What We’re Looking For

• 8+ years in digital delivery, agency experience preferred
• Experience across multi-program portfolios with meaningful commercial responsibility
• Solid commercial instincts: you understand margin, own your forecasts, and manage scope change
• A people-first approach: you invest in the people running the work, not just the work itself
• Systems thinker who builds frameworks that scale and empowers others to carry them
• Calm, transparent, and decisive under pressure: you surface risk honestly and present clear options
• Hungry for growth: you spot opportunities within existing clients and actively pursue new business; you see pipeline health as part of your job, not someone else's
• Comfortable with ambiguity: you don't wait for a perfect brief to get moving; you create structure where there isn't any and make calls with incomplete information
• Active user of AI tools with genuine curiosity about where it's heading
• Committed to self-directed learning and bringing new thinking to the team

Additional Information

Why Orchard?

We're a creative and technology agency with serious delivery credentials, part of ASX-listed Enero Group with a client portfolio spanning health, consumer, and automotive sectors across Australia and the US.

You’ll join a PM leadership cohort that genuinely raises the bar. People who care about craft, build real capabilities, and invest in each other. You’ll have direct access to senior leadership, genuine autonomy in how you lead, and the chance to shape how AI changes delivery at one of the most progressive agencies in the market.

If you’re the kind of person who turns ambiguity into structure, builds teams that don’t need you for every answer, and gets genuinely excited about what AI can do for delivery, we’d love to hear from you.

Orchard Marketing is part of the Enero Group. As a Group, we proudly acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we operate, the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation. Our Innovate, Level 2, RAP endorsement aims to nurture, develop, encourage, and include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander talent, partners, and advisors both in our own agency, and across the broader industry. As such, we encourage peoples of all backgrounds to apply.