Project & Traffic Manager

Foundry512; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Foundry512 in New York is seeking a Production/Traffic Lead who owns the project board and coordinates across writers, strategists, and clients. You ensure the board reflects reality and every item has a clear owner and deadline.

You traffic work from brief to delivery, provide timely client updates, lead rituals, and escalate issues early with actionable plans.

Qualifications

• Experience running traffic, project management, studio/production management, or account coordination inside an advertising, media, marketing, or creative agency.
• A track record of keeping projects, teams, and clients on schedule across many concurrent jobs.
• Fluency with project management and collaboration tools, and a clear point of view on how to keep a board honest and current.
• Excellent written communication, especially the ability to write a clear, professional client status update.

Responsibilities

• The board reflects reality and is current by a set time every day.
• Traffic every job from brief to delivery: sequencing work, handing off at the right moment, protecting deadlines, and unblocking issues.
• Draft and send client status updates on a fixed cadence, even when news is minimal or none.
• Run recurring rituals (status meetings, standups, kickoffs) and ensure the team is prepared and aligned.
• When something slips, lead with an early, actionable plan and options to leadership.

Skills

Traffic management

Project coordination

Client communication

Organization

Job description

The Role

You are the person who always knows where every job is, who has it next, and whether it will land on time, and you keep the board, the clients, and the team moving without anyone having to ask.

This is a hybrid of two disciplines that most agencies split apart and both suffer for it: project management (owning timelines, scope, and delivery) and internal traffic coordination (owning the flow of every job through the shop, from brief to final delivery). We are looking for someone who thinks in production pipelines, not just task lists. If you have ever been the person who quietly held a team together because you were the only one who knew the real status of everything, this is your role.

To be clear about our world: we mean internal traffic, the flow of work through the agency. This is a coordination and operations role, distinct from ad trafficking or ad ops. Familiarity with how media campaigns get built and delivered is a plus, but the core of this job is orchestrating people and work, not tagging campaigns.

What You Will Own

The board reflects reality. Always.

You own the source of truth for what is happening across every active project. The board is current by a set time every day, not “when there is a moment.” Anyone on the team, at any hour, should be able to open it and know exactly where things stand. Stale, minimal, or vague status is the one thing this role does not tolerate.

Work moves through the shop on schedule.

You traffic every job from brief to delivery: sequencing the work, handing it to the next person at the right moment, protecting deadlines, and spotting the bottleneck before it becomes a missed date. You know what is due, what is at risk, and what is blocked, and you unblock it or elevate it the same day.

Clients are informed on a predictable cadence.

Every client gets a status update on a fixed rhythm, whether or not there is dramatic news, so no client is ever left wondering. You draft these clearly and send them on schedule. Silence is not an option in this seat.

The team is coordinated, not siloed.

You run our recurring rituals (status meetings, standups, kickoffs) and you are present and prepared for them, not a name in the corner of a call. You make sure the writer knows what the strategist decided, the strategist knows what the client asked for, and nothing falls into the gap between two people who each assumed the other had it.

Deadlines land.

You manage scope and timelines so that deliverables go out the door on time and at the quality our clients pay for. When something is going to slip, leadership hears it from you early, with a plan, not after the fact.

A Week In This Seat

• Every morning: the board is reconciled with reality before the day starts. You know the day’s at-risk items before anyone asks.
• Throughout the week: you traffic work between team members, chase what is due, and clear blockers as they appear.
• On a fixed cadence: client status updates go out on schedule, every account, no exceptions.
• At every ritual: you are in the room, prepared, and driving. Kickoffs, standups, and status meetings are yours to run.
• When something slips: leadership hears it from you first, early, with options.

This Role Is Built On Trust

We are a hybrid agency, which means a lot of this work happens when no one is looking over your shoulder. We manage this seat by outcomes, not by activity. That freedom only works with the right person in it: someone conscientious to the point of being genuinely uncomfortable when a loose end is left hanging, who follows through without being reminded, and who would rather over-communicate than let a client or teammate be surprised.

If you need to be chased to do your job, this is not the role for you. If you are the kind of person others rely on precisely because you never drop the thing you said you would carry, keep reading.

Who You Are

• Agency-bred. You came up inside an ad, media, creative, or production shop, and you understand how a job actually moves from brief to delivery. You can narrate that flow in your sleep.
• A natural traffic mind. You track many moving pieces without losing any of them. You are the person who always knows the status.
• Relentlessly communicative. You close loops. You keep clients and teammates informed by default, not on request.
• Detail-obsessed and deadline-driven. Small things do not slip past you, and dates are commitments, not suggestions.
• Self-directed. You own your work fully and deliver it whether or not anyone is watching.
• Calm under pressure. When timelines compress and things get loud, you get more organized, not less.

Experience We Are Looking For

• Experience running traffic, project management, studio/production management, or account coordination inside an advertising, media, marketing, or creative agency. We care far more about your command of agency workflow than the exact title you held.
• A track record of keeping projects, teams, and clients on schedule across many concurrent jobs.
• Fluency with project management and collaboration tools, and a clear point of view on how to keep a board honest and current.
• Excellent written communication, especially the ability to write a clear, professional client status update.

Nice to have: exposure to media planning, buying, or campaign delivery; experience in a hybrid or distributed team; familiarity with the difference between internal traffic and ad ops.

A note on background: if your experience is entirely in software or tech project management (sprints, tickets, scrum) without agency production exposure, this specific role is probably not the right fit, and that is okay. We are hiring for a workflow discipline that is particular to how agencies produce work.

Logistics

• Location: Hybrid, based in either our Austin, TX or New York, NY hub. This role requires reliable in-hub presence for key projects and collaboration. While this can be a remote position, because of occasional meetings, it is not considered a fully remote position.
• Type: Full-time.
• Reports to: Agency leadership.