SENIOR MANAGER, CREATIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

JCPenney; Dallas (TX); Hybrid; USD 97,000 - 126,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/dental/vision insurance

Life insurance

Paid vacation/holidays

401(k) with company match

Associate discount

Job summary

Catalyst Brands is seeking a Senior Manager of Creative Project Management to lead a team of Creative Project Managers and oversee high-visibility campaigns from inception to delivery. The role partners with Marketing, Creative, and E-commerce to align objectives and deadlines, while protecting strategic intent and capacity.

The position is hybrid in Plano, TX (in-office Monday-Thursday), reporting to the Director and contributing to 360 campaigns across paid media, email, print, video, and

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading creative project management or campaign operations.
• Proven people leadership, including coaching and developing teams.
• Strong understanding of multi-channel creative development and production.
• Experience in a matrixed, fast-changing organization with shifting priorities.
• Business acumen to map timing, scope, resources, dependencies, and customer experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Creative Project Managers.
• Oversee intake, scoping, briefs, milestones, reviews, and delivery of campaigns.
• Manage complex, high-visibility campaigns across seasonal, integrated, and e-commerce initiatives.
• Connect briefs, deliverables, stakeholders, and timelines to ensure smooth production.
• Identify risks, dependencies, and tradeoffs; escalate with options and POV.
• Clarify inputs, ownership, and decisions to avoid downstream issues.
• Partner with Marketing, Creative, E-commerce, Media, and agencies to align objectives and deadlines.
• Protect strategic intent and capacity by setting boundaries around changes and approvals.
• Provide leadership presence and ensure decisions are documented and followed.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Cross-functional collaboration

Project management

Strategic thinking

Executive communication

Ambiguity navigation

Education

Bachelor’s degree in marketing/advertising/communications or related field

Tools

Workfront

Job description

Overview

Senior Manager, Creative Project Management

Plano, Texas (Hybrid- In office M-Th)

The Senior Manager, Creative Project Management is a senior operator, people leader, and trusted partner to the Creative team. This role leads and develops a team of Creative Project Managers while also directly managing complex, high-visibility creative projects from inception through delivery in support of JCPenney’s advertising efforts.

Reporting to the Director, this role provides close process oversight and governance, brings clarity to complex work, solves problems, connects activity across campaigns and functions, and raises concerns early in a fast-changing environment. The ideal candidate enjoys building strong relationships, helping teams do their best work, and creating a clear path forward when priorities or inputs evolve.

A key part of the role is connecting the dots across briefs, deliverables, stakeholders, and timelines: clarifying missing information, helping the Creative team and Creative Project Managers understand what is needed, and identifying upstream gaps before they create downstream issues in production. Projects may include paid media, email, print, video, e-commerce, collaborations, partnerships, and fully integrated 360 campaigns.

What you will do

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Creative Project Managers by setting clear expectations, providing direct feedback, building capability, and supporting their growth and self-sufficiency.
• Maintain close oversight of the creative project-management process, including intake, scoping, briefs, project setup, kickoffs, milestones, reviews, approvals, production, and delivery.
• Directly manage complex, high-visibility creative campaigns, including seasonal programming, integrated campaigns, collaborations, partnerships, and e-commerce initiatives.
• Connect seasonal creative development, integrated campaigns, planned weekly production, and exception-based work so teams understand how individual deliverables fit into the broader creative environment and customer journey.
• Maintain visibility into priorities, capacity, dependencies, risks, and cross-functional implications. Identify issues early, recommend tradeoffs, and escalates with options and a clear point of view.
• Translate changing or incomplete inputs into clear actions: what changed, why it matters, who owns the next step, what may be affected, and what decision is required.
• Help the team interpret briefs, clarify deliverables, and identify where missed steps or incomplete upstream decisions may create downstream production issues.
• Partner across Marketing, Creative, E-commerce, Media, agencies, and other business teams to clarify objectives, channel needs, stakeholders, deliverables, deadlines, and decision rights.
• Serve as a trusted Creative Project Management liaison and senior point of contact for E-commerce, connecting e-commerce priorities, site and channel requirements, customer experience considerations, and creative delivery across partner teams.
• Protect strategic intent and Creative capacity by setting practical boundaries around feedback, proofing, approvals, late changes, and stakeholder participation while maintaining strong working relationships.
• Coordinate recurring operating rhythms, status reporting, leadership updates, prioritization discussions, resource alignment, and escalation forums. Ensure information is accurate, timely, concise, and useful for decision-making.
• Jump into complex or high-visibility work when needed to stabilize a plan, facilitate alignment, resolve an obstacle, or model the level of ownership expected from the team.
• Identify opportunities to improve processes, tools, documentation, governance, and team practices. Develop and test practical solutions, follow through on results, and recommend changes through the established leadership model.
• Serve as a visible leader in meetings by asking questions, naming implications, making recommendations, and ensuring decisions, owners, and deadlines are documented and followed through.

What success looks like

The team is proactive, self-sufficient, and credible with cross-functional partners.

Project managers are increasingly confident in their judgment, communication, stakeholder management, and ability to anticipate risks and dependencies.

High-visibility seasonal, collaboration, partnership, and e-commerce work has strong project leadership, clear decision-making, and consistent follow-through from brief through launch.

Leadership has reliable visibility into what is on track, what is at risk, what has changed, and what decisions or tradeoffs are required.

The Creative team’s time is protected through clear inputs, appropriate ownership, realistic timelines, aligned stakeholders, and fewer avoidable surprises.

Processes are followed consistently where they add value, adapted thoughtfully when circumstances require it, and improved through practical feedback and measurable outcomes.

The team continues to be known as a strong, collaborative, and trusted partner across Marketing and Creative.

What you bring

Significant experience leading creative project management, integrated marketing, account management, campaign operations, or a comparable function in-house, at an agency, or in a similarly complex environment.

Proven people-leadership experience, including coaching managers and experienced individual contributors, setting performance expectations, providing candid feedback, and developing business judgment and leadership behaviors.

Strong understanding of creative development and production across multiple channels, with the ability to partner credibly with Creative leaders and translate marketing objectives into executable work.

Experience operating in a matrixed, fast-changing organization where priorities, inputs, and stakeholders may shift without a fully standardized upstream process.

Business acumen and the ability to understand how timing, scope, resources, dependencies, customer experience, channel roles, and strategic choices affect one another.

A proactive, structured approach to ambiguity. You can take imperfect information, identify what is known and unknown, establish a path forward, and keep others aligned as details evolve.

Clear, direct communication and strong executive presence. You are comfortable setting boundaries, handling pushback, and explaining the implications of delays, missing inputs, or changed requirements.

Experience with basic project and workflow-management tools; Workfront experience is preferred.

Bachelor’s degree in marketing, advertising, communications, business, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

How you will work with your leader and team

You will have clear direction and expectations, with room to determine the best path and own your work. This role is well suited to someone who brings issues forward early, provides concise updates with recommendations, and is comfortable making progress without waiting for step-by-step instruction.

You will join a positive, collaborative team that values strong relationships, shared accountability, and high-quality work. The right leader will build on that foundation by creating clarity, developing talent, encouraging thoughtful challenge, and helping the team continue to grow.

What You Get

• Enjoy a rewarding career at Catalyst, where we offer a competitive benefits package, a vibrant work environment, and the opportunity to make a difference with America's most iconic brands.
• Generous benefits: Medical/dental/vision insurance starting on day one, term life insurance, paid vacation/holidays, 401(k) Savings Plan with company match, and an associate discount across all Catalyst Brands.
• Opportunities for growth and development: We are committed to helping our employees grow their careers and develop their skills. We offer a variety of training and development programs, as well as opportunities for advancement.
• Collaborative and supportive culture: We believe in creating a workplace where everyone feels valued and respected. We encourage teamwork and collaboration, and we are always looking for ways to support our employees' success.

Pay RangeUSD $97,200.00 - USD $125,850.00 /Yr.

About Catalyst Brands

Catalyst Brands ignites America’s most beloved retail brands to make fashion accessible to all.Our portfolio features legendary department store JCPenney, as well as iconic specialty retailbrands Aéropostale, Brooks Brothers, Lucky Brand, and Nautica.Established in 2025, when JCPenney and the former SPARC Group combined, Catalyst Brandstoday operates 1,800 retail stores, shop-in-shops, and eCommerce platforms throughout theU.S. and Canada.It also serves leading wholesale accounts in North America and beyond.For more information, visit catalystbrands.com