Project Manager - Digital Product

Job Purpose

SXSW is seeking a Project Manager for the Technology team who is responsible for leading the delivery of multiple concurrent technology projects from kickoff through post-project wrap. This role serves as the governance backbone for SXSW's technology initiatives, using a hybrid approach that balances Agile and traditional project management methodologies to ensure successful delivery within fixed festival launch windows.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate all Agile ceremonies and critical project meetings, including kickoffs, daily standups, sprint planning, design reviews, demos, and project retrospectives.
• Develop comprehensive project timelines, milestones, resource requirements, and dependency mappings, and break large initiatives into manageable phases with clear exit points.
• Standardize project governance documentation and artifacts, including PRDs, Airtable bases, agendas, RACI matrices, and RAID logs with clear escalation paths.
• Manage the end-to-end ticketing lifecycle by writing detailed epics, actionable user stories, and clear acceptance criteria while partnering with technical teams to estimate and allocate story points.
• Guide initiatives through the full product lifecycle, spanning requirements gathering, ticket creation, development, QA, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), deployment, and success measurement.
• Communicate regular, data-driven status updates—utilizing RAG status, burn-down charts, and milestone tracking—to keep stakeholders informed of risks, decisions, and target launch dates.
• Mitigate project delays and operational risks proactively by identifying solutions, proposing compromises, pushing back on scope creep, and escalating issues to leadership when appropriate.
• Optimize organizational processes and team workflows by leading retrospective reviews and implementing actionable improvements based on stakeholder feedback and project outcomes.

On-site Event Responsibilities

• Serve as a key on-site team player during SXSW's 15-day live event, supporting tech readiness, stakeholder communication, escalation management, and real-time problem solving.

Qualifications & Skills

• 5+ years as a technology project manager.
• Proven experience managing complex technology projects with multiple stakeholders and concurrent workstreams.
• Strong understanding of Agile, Hybrid Agile, and traditional project management methodologies.
• Use of Jira, Airtable, or other tracking tools is required.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to provide clear, concise, and timely updates to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, including expectation-setting, follow-through, and decision tracking.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, especially when managing immovable deadlines and high-visibility launch windows.
• Experience leading project ceremonies, sprint planning, stakeholder meetings, design reviews, demos, and launch readiness discussions.
• Experience writing epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, and tracking work through delivery.
• Comfortable operating in a chaotic, fast-paced, seasonal, event-driven environment with shifting priorities.
• Demonstrated ability to take ownership, drive accountability, and keep projects moving even when challenges arise.
• Experience supporting live events, festivals, media, entertainment, or other deadline-driven environments is a plus.

Physical Requirements

• Prolonged periods of sitting or standing at a desk and working on a computer.
• Ability to lift to 10 pounds occasionally, as needed.
• Manual dexterity to operate standard office equipment such as computers, phones, printers, etc.
• May require occasional bending, reaching, kneeling, or climbing stairs.

Work Location & Schedule

• The position is full-time and located in our Austin, Texas office.
• Core business office hours are from 10 am to 6 pm Monday through Friday, and we work in person.
• You must be available to work additional hours from January through March, including evenings and weekends.
• You must also be available for the March event, which will have extended on-site working hours.

Compensation

The compensation range for this role may vary based on experience and expertise, with an anticipated range of $80,000–$92,000.