Senior Project Manager

Detroit, MI (Hybrid)

$60K/yr – $140K/yrSenior Level6+ years expFull time

Posted 4 days ago

Job Summary

Own end to end project governance for complex retail marketing programs, balancing scope, budget, and cross functional collaboration to keep launches on schedule.

  • Lead governance and lifecycle management of marketing programs
  • Coordinate cross functional teams and stakeholders
  • Track budgets, risks, and milestones to protect timelines

Job Description

Responsibilities

  • End to End Project Governance & Lifecycle Management
  • Develop, maintain, and enforce master project schedules, milestones, and critical paths for complex retail marketing programs.
  • Manage project scope, track deliverables, identify key dependencies, and proactively mitigate risks or bottlenecks to keep launches on schedule.
  • Own the project margin by tracking out of scope requests, managing budget burn rates, and enforcing commercial governance.
  • Establish centralized status dashboards, project documentation, and reporting cadences to keep senior leadership and cross functional teams informed.
  • Cross Functional Facilitation & Stakeholder Coordination
  • Serve as the primary operational point of contact across internal brand teams, creative agency partners, third party vendors, and corporate account leads.
  • Lead recurring project status meetings, align competing priorities, and foster collaborative communication across all contributing groups.
  • Balance team bandwidth and resource allocations across parallel initiatives to maintain high output without sacrificing accuracy.
  • Monitor team utilisation and capacity, ensuring junior execution tasks are delegated appropriately to protect senior strategic time.

Requirements

  • Experience: 6+ years of project management experience within a marketing agency, corporate marketing department, or retail communications environment.
  • Portfolio Management: Demonstrated success in managing complex, multi track marketing portfolios and driving cross functional accountability.
  • Core Technical Skills:
  • Expertise in enterprise project management tools (e.g., Smartsheet, Asana, Monday.com, Jira).
  • Familiarity with digital asset management (DAM) platforms, automated proofing tools, and print and fulfillment workflows.
  • Core Competencies:
  • Exceptional organizational, scheduling, and risk mitigation skills.
  • Proven ability to manage project budgets, track resource burn, and control vendor costs.
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to manage up, down, and across matrixed teams.
  • Meticulous attention to detail regarding legal disclaimers, brand standards, and production specifications.

Benefits

  • We offer a competitive benefits package, click WPP Benefits for more details.
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VML

3.5 Glassdoor

VML is a global powerhouse born from the unification of Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R — two of the world's most powerful and accomplished creative agencies with complementary capabilities and geographic strengths. We have an industry-unique opportunity to provide our client partners with a fully integrated offering across brand experience, customer experience and commerce practices — powered by deep data and technology experience. For more information, visit www.vml.com.

Founded in 2024
New York, New York, US
33K employees (8,368 in marketing)
67% recommend to a friend
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Salaries

Posted range

$60K/yr – $140K/yr

Taken straight from the job posting.

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Senior Project Manager

VML · Detroit, MI · Hybrid