Project Manager, Brand + Digital

Helloadeo; Baltimore (MD); Hybrid; USD 70,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work for Baltimore-area office

Remote consideration for candidates in

Job summary

adeo is seeking a Project Manager to own day-to-day momentum across client engagements in a hybrid Baltimore-area role. The right candidate will manage timelines, risks and communication, guiding both clients and internal teams with clear, proactive recommendations and steady collaboration with senior leaders.

This role supports brand strategy, website development and strategic communications for value-aligned clients.

Qualifications

• Approximately three to five years of experience in project management, production, account service, creative operations or a related role within a brand, creative, communications or digital agency.
• Meaningful experience supporting or managing foundational brand work, including research, strategy, naming, identity development, messaging or brand guidelines.
• Experience supporting or managing at least one substantial website or digital-platform engagement.
• Experience working across several clients or workstreams at the same time.
• Demonstrated ability to organize complex information and maintain accurate project records.
• Clear, professional writing and confident verbal communication.
• Comfort working with senior colleagues and clients.
• Foundational understanding of scope, hours, budgets and resource planning.
• Fluency with project-management and collaboration technology.
• Active use of AI tools to improve personal or project-management workflows.
• Curiosity about industries, clients and work outside your immediate responsibilities.

Responsibilities

• Manage the daily operation of several concurrent brand, website and strategic communications engagements.
• Build and maintain project plans, timelines, milestone schedules, task assignments and decision trackers.
• Keep ClickUp and related systems accurate and current.
• Track dependencies, inputs, approvals and next actions.
• Follow up directly with internal team members, senior leaders, clients and partners.
• Identify when work has stalled and take action to restore momentum.
• Prepare agendas, status updates, meeting notes and action summaries.
• Lead routine internal meetings and client status calls.
• Coordinate kickoffs, reviews, trainings, handoffs and final delivery.

Job description

Baltimore preferred; US-remote candidates considered. Full-time Reports to the COO.

Team members who live within commuting distance of Baltimore work on a hybrid schedule with regular in-person collaboration. Remote candidates must be based in the United States.

About adeo

adeo is a woman-owned and run brand and communications agency for organizations at inflection points in disrupted, regulated and emerging markets.

We work exclusively with values-aligned clients across higher education, cannabis, renewable energy, arts and culture. Our engagements span brand strategy and identity, CPG, large-scale website strategy, design, and development and other strategic communications projects. We use AI to improve operations and increase what our people can accomplish, but judgment, relationships and the standard of the work remain human responsibilities.

The role

Project managers at adeo own the day-to-day momentum of assigned client engagements.

The right person makes responsibilities, decisions, timelines and risks visible. They follow up without waiting to be asked, keep project systems accurate and help clients and internal teams understand what is needed next.

This is not a project coordinator position. The Project Manager will receive guidance from the COO and senior discipline leads, particularly on sensitive client, financial and scope decisions. They are nevertheless expected to take hold of their projects, manage routine communication and bring recommendations rather than wait for instructions.

The work

Different work requires different forms of structure.

Brand strategy develops through research, interpretation, strategic decisions and iteration. Website development has defined technical dependencies and launch requirements. Strategic communications and ongoing engagements may shift with new information, client priorities and external conditions.

The Project Manager learns how each kind of work moves and applies the appropriate level of structure. They maintain accountability without imposing arbitrary dates or unnecessary ceremonies simply because a project tool allows them.

Our clients are also not interchangeable. Some relationships have developed over many years and operate with substantial trust and direct access to senior leadership. The Project Manager supports those relationships rather than policing them.

Responsibilities

Day-to-day project management

• Manage the daily operation of several concurrent brand, website and strategic communications engagements.
• Build and maintain project plans, timelines, milestone schedules, task assignments and decision trackers.
• Keep ClickUp and related systems accurate and current.
• Track dependencies, inputs, approvals and next actions.
• Follow up directly with internal team members, senior leaders, clients and partners.
• Identify when work has stalled and take action to restore momentum.
• Prepare agendas, status updates, meeting notes and action summaries.
• Lead routine internal meetings and client status calls.
• Coordinate kickoffs, reviews, trainings, handoffs and final delivery.

Risk, scope and budgets

• Learn each assigned statement of work and understand what is included, what is not and where assumptions may create risk.
• Track hours, burn and budget status in Harvest and project systems.
• Flag scope or budget concerns early and provide the facts needed for leadership to act.
• Identify schedule risks, competing priorities and resource constraints.
• Bring a proposed next step when escalating an issue.
• Maintain change, decision and approval records.

Client communication

• Serve as a reliable operational contact for assigned clients.
• Communicate clearly about progress, responsibilities, dates and decisions.
• Learn the people behind the client organization: who influences the work, who approves it, what pressures they face and how the relationship with adeo has developed.
• Use judgment about when to send an email, schedule a conversation or involve a senior leader.
• Maintain accountability without becoming rigid or transactional.
• Help clients feel informed and supported rather than managed from a distance.

Team coordination and quality

• Coordinate work among strategy, writing, design, UX, development and external partners.
• Confirm that the right people are involved at the right stage.
• Protect adequate time for strategic and creative review.
• Coordinate delivery checks for completeness, version accuracy, approvals, functioning files and links and required accessibility or technical review.
• Support process improvements, documentation and reusable templates.
• Use AI and automation to reduce repetitive administration and improve project visibility.

What success looks like

Within the first 90 days

• You can explain the status, next decisions and principal risks of every assigned engagement.
• Project systems are current enough that the team can rely on them.
• Routine follow-up happens without the COO or founders initiating it.
• You lead status meetings and client communication with confidence.
• Problems arrive with context and a recommended next step.
• You can describe why a brand project, a website project and an ongoing communications engagement should not be managed identically.

Within six months

• You independently manage the daily delivery of an assigned portfolio.
• Clients trust your communication and follow-through.
• Leadership is involved where its judgment is needed, not because routine project management has stalled.
• Scope, hours and timing issues are visible early.
• Your organizational systems make the team's work easier rather than adding another layer of maintenance.
• You are assuming increasing responsibility for planning, forecasting and sensitive client conversations.

Experience and capabilities

• Approximately three to five years of experience in project management, production, account service, creative operations or a related role within a brand, creative, communications or digital agency.
• Meaningful experience supporting or managing foundational brand work, including research, strategy, naming, identity development, messaging or brand guidelines.
• Experience supporting or managing at least one substantial website or digital-platform engagement.
• Experience working across several clients or workstreams at the same time.
• Demonstrated ability to organize complex information and maintain accurate project records.
• Strong follow-through. You do not need repeated permission to ask for an overdue input or clarify an unclear responsibility.
• Clear, professional writing and confident verbal communication.
• Comfort working with senior colleagues and clients.
• Foundational understanding of scope, hours, budgets and resource planning.
• Fluency with project-management and collaboration technology.
• Active use of AI tools to improve personal or project-management workflows.
• Curiosity about industries, clients and work outside your immediate responsibilities.
• Experience in higher education or other stakeholder-dense organizations is valuable but not required.

A degree, PMP or Agile certification is not required. Experience supporting the right kinds of work matters more than possession of the correct collection of letters.

This role is not a fit when...

• You want a coordinator role in which someone else determines every next action.
• Your experience is limited to software product management, technical implementation or development production.
• You have no meaningful exposure to brand strategy, identity or creative work.
• You depend on one fixed project-management methodology.
• You are reluctant to follow up with senior colleagues or clients.
• You wait until a deadline is missed before raising concern.
• You treat ClickUp as a place to record what already happened rather than a tool for running what happens next.
• you need every decision resolved before taking a reasonable next step.
• You confuse flexibility with the absence of accountability, or accountability with inflexibility.

Compensation and benefits

Working salary range: $70,000-$85,000, based on relevant agency experience and the level of responsibility the candidate can assume.

Benefits include:

• Partial employer-paid healthcare
• 401(k) with employer match
• Paid holidays and flexible schedules
• Hybrid work for Baltimore-area employees
• Remote consideration for candidates based elsewhere in the United States
• Meaningful work with values-aligned organizations
• Opportunities to grow

adeo is an equal opportunity employer. Our work is better when different perspectives, experiences and ways of thinking inform the outcome.