Lead Project Manager, Creative

Athena Global Advisors; Philadelphia (Philadelphia County); Hybrid; USD 75,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/Dental benefits including 1K Health Reimbursement Account

Matching 401K

Generous PTO policy

Substantial Parental Leave Policy

Hybrid Work Environment

Job summary

A creative consultancy in Philadelphia is seeking a Lead Project Manager, Creative to oversee creative project intake and optimize workflows. The ideal candidate will have 5-7 years of experience in creative operations or project management within an agency. Responsibilities include managing project timelines, mentoring a small team, and leading high-profile projects. This role offers a hybrid work environment with competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits.

Qualifications

• 5-7 years of experience in creative operations, project management, or resourcing within an agency or in-house creative team.
• Proven experience leading project teams and owning senior-level client relationships.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to navigate multiple stakeholders with care and clarity.

Responsibilities

• Evolve and maintain best practices for project intake, briefing, planning, and creative delivery.
• Support project managers with creating timelines, deliverables tracking, scoping, risk management.
• Manage weekly resourcing workflows and team assignments across all active creative projects.

Skills

Creative operations experience

Project management

Strong communication skills

Tools

Airtable

Job description

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Compensation

$75,000.00/yr - $85,000.00/yr

About Athena

Athena is a creative place for leaders, risk-takers, creative thinkers and boundary-pushers. We partner with organizations looking to transform their presence, reputation, and performance. For over ten years, we've delivered business insights, marketing strategies, and brand activations for leading organizations in industries ranging from telecommunications to major league sports. Our people make Athena, Athena. They're what help set us apart from traditional ad agencies and consultancies. As a Philadelphia Inquirer Top Workplace for three years running, we take pride in fostering a work environment where passion meets excellence. Our people are solutions-oriented individuals who eagerly roll up their sleeves to make work that works while sharing a couple of laughs along the way.

About The Position

Athena is looking for a Lead Project Manager, Creative to join our team. We're looking for a highly organized, solutions-driven leader to support our client-facing Creative team within the Brand & Digital Communications team for a major telecommunications client. This role oversees creative project intake, team resourcing, optimizes project workflows, leads project managers, and ensures high-quality execution across the board.

Responsibilities

• Evolve and maintain best practices for project intake, briefing, planning, and creative delivery across all creative work
• Create and refine tools and templates to improve workflow consistency and reduce friction across projects
• Support project managers with creating timelines, deliverables tracking, scoping, risk management, and troubleshooting
• Act as a go-to resource for the creative team on workflow, prioritization, and cross-functional coordination
• Help PMs navigate client dynamics - supporting with communication, expectation-setting, and escalation as needed
• Manage weekly resourcing workflows and team assignments across all active creative projects
• Monitor capacity, flag risks early, and balance workload based on availability and skill set
• Collaborate with creative and account leads to prioritize and assign work
• Manage and mentor a small team of creative project managers, and provide organizational support to the Senior Director, Creative
• Work closely with the Senior Director, Creative to routinely identify resourcing roadblocks and reassess priorities
• Provide ongoing feedback, support professional development, and help the creative team operate at a consistently high level of output
• Personally lead a select number of high-profile creative projects - especially those that are cross-functional, fast-moving, or strategically important to the business
• Model strong client partnership - bringing both strategic thinking and a calm, solutions-oriented presence to external conversations
• Serve as a point person for our project management tools, ensuring systems are optimized for team needs
• Lead process improvements that make our creative operations smoother, smarter, and more scalable
• Support onboarding and training of new PMs and creative team members on tools and workflows

Qualifications

• 5-7 years of experience in creative operations, project management, or resourcing within an agency or in-house creative team
• Proven experience leading project teams and owning senior-level client relationships
• Familiarity with creative workflows across digital, print, video, and social
• Experience resourcing cross-functional teams and leading department-wide prioritization conversations
• Strong communication skills and the ability to navigate multiple stakeholders with care and clarity
• Comfort with project management tools (e.g., Airtable) and experience implementing or scaling operational systems

Preferred Skills

• Experience building or scaling creative operations in a growing organization
• Experience mentoring other project managers or developing training programs
• Experience working within Airtable
• A calm, collaborative presence—even when things get messy

Benefits

• Medical/Dental benefits including 1K Health Reimbursement Account
• Matching 401K
• Generous PTO policy
• Substantial Parental Leave Policy
• Hybrid Work Environment

Location & Hybrid Work

Candidates must be willing to work hybrid (4 days on-site) in our Philadelphia, PA office.

EEO Statement

Athena is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other basis prohibited by law. If you are an individual with a disability and need assistance in applying for a position, please contact us at 866.299.6040.