SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER

JOB DESCRIPTION // SENIOR PROJECT MANAGERProject & Account Leadership • Lexington, KY (Hybrid) • Full-Time, Exempt ABOUT COOMER LLCCoomer LLC is an independent creative agency based in Lexington, Kentucky. We believe that progressive brands can change the world for the better, and be the source through which we shape culture and create impact. Through a curated network of independent contributors, we offer world class creative, media, social, and design that is led by strategy and planning from our core team. Our purpose is to assemble the right talent, at the right time, for the right projects, and create the best work of our careers for our select group of brand partners and their consumers. Join us!POSITION SUMMARYThe Senior Project Manager is the operational leader of the agency — the person who turns strategy, concepts, and creative ambition into work that ships on time, on budget, and at a standard we’re proud to put our name on.This is not a task-tracking role. You will own how work moves through COOMER: how teams get built, how timelines and dependencies are structured, how bottlenecks get spotted before they become fires, and how quality gets protected all the way to client delivery. You’ll lead our project management function, mentor our junior PMs, and flex into account leadership where relationships and growth require it.Put plainly: when this role is working, we are able to architect teams and lead at a higher level — not just manage the creative team day to day — because we have the work, the people, and the clients moving with confidence.WHAT THIS ROLE UNLOCKSWe are hiring this role to change how the agency operates. Success looks like:Leadership gets its bandwidth back. Our CEO and Executive Creative Director step out of directly managing the creative team and into architecting teams, strategy, and growth.Projects have a single owner. Every active project has a clear plan, a clear team, a clear timeline, and one person accountable for it moving.Bottlenecks get eliminated, not escalated. Risks are surfaced early enough to solve quietly, instead of late enough to cost us a weekend.Quality is systemized. Nothing reaches a client without a real QC pass — for craft, for accuracy, and for whether it actually answers the brief.Clients trust our process. Our partners feel the difference in how organized, proactive, and confident we are — and that trust turns into more work.Project Pacing + Billing Sync. Our team feels confident that projects are on-schedule, and in-sync with initial scopes and billable hours tracked to projects and phases. People play to their strengths. Gaps get identified and filled so every team member — staff and contractor — is doing what they’re best at.ABOUT YOUYou are a builder of order. You can walk into a fast-moving, high-creative environment and quickly see what’s missing — the dependency nobody mapped, the approval nobody chased, the resource nobody booked — and you fix it without drama. You don’t mind asking questions, but confident in your resourcefulness to proactively review, critique, share feedback, and keep the conversation moving. You are as comfortable running a production schedule as you are on a client call. You speak up. You have opinions about how work should flow, and the diplomacy to implement them. You can give a designer clear feedback, tell a client no in a way that strengthens the relationship, and rebuild a timeline on the fly when the brief changes on a Wednesday.Most importantly, people like working with you. Clients ask for you by name. Contractors answer your calls. That soft-skill gravity is as central to this role as any system you’ll build.CORE RESPONSIBILITIESProject Leadership & DeliveryOwn end-to-end delivery of concurrent projects across brand, campaign, content, social, production, and web workstreams.Lead project kickoffs: translate strategy and creative direction into scopes, deliverables, milestones, and owner-level accountability.Run internal status, production, and hot-sheet meetings that end with decisions and clear next steps — not open loops.Develop and track project budgets, hours, and burn; flag scope creep early and manage change orders with the account lead.Serve as the escalation point for the project management function, and mentor junior PMs toward independently running full projects.Systems, Timelines & DependenciesOwn Asana (and our connected tools — Slack, Google Workspace, Quickbooks Invoicing) as the single source of truth for what’s happening and what’s next.Architect project templates, task structures, dependencies, and automations that scale across account types and repeat engagements.Build integrated timelines that account for creative rounds, client review windows, production lead times, vendor SLAs, and media/print deadlines.Maintain a live master view of agency capacity — who is on what, through when — across staff and our contractor network.Hold the team accountable to the system, so status is visible without anyone having to ask for it.Leverage Claude (AI) to fully-vet your plan or better format data, but not to replace your expertise and talent. It’s a tool in your toolbox, not a replacement for your gifts. Bottleneck Prevention & Risk ManagementPressure-test every plan for the failure points before work begins: approvals, assets, legal/brand review, vendor capacity, shoot logistics.Monitor critical path daily and intervene early — reallocating resources, resequencing work, or renegotiating dates before a deadline is at risk.Run post-mortems on projects that slipped, and convert findings into standing process improvements.Keep leadership informed with clear, unvarnished status: what’s green, what’s at risk, and what decision you need from them.Creative Quality ControlOwn the QC gate before anything goes to a client: check work against the brief, brand standards, specs, copy accuracy, and deliverable checklists.Build, update, and polish client-facing presentations — ensuring decks tell a clean story and look like they came from Coomer.Partner with the creative team to protect the integrity of the idea through production, revisions, and delivery.Maintain deliverable specs, naming conventions, file organization, and final asset handoff standards.Team Building & ResourcingAssemble the right team for each project from our staff and curated contractor network — matching talent to the work, not just to availability.Source, onboard, brief, and manage freelancers and production partners; negotiate rates, scopes, and timelines.Identify where team members are stretched outside their strengths, and restructure assignments so people are doing their best work.Maintain relationships with our contributor bench so we can staff up quickly and confidently.Account Leadership & Client PartnershipServe as a primary day-to-day client contact on assigned accounts — leading calls, presenting work, and managing feedback with confidence.Build genuine client relationships rooted in responsiveness, clarity, and follow-through.Translate client feedback into actionable internal direction (and push back constructively when feedback works against the strategy).Think about accounts holistically: understand client business goals and how individual projects ladder into them.Identify organic growth opportunities — scope extensions, new workstreams, proactive ideas — and partner with leadership to pursue them.Flex up to lead accounts when needed, filling gaps across the account team so nothing goes unowned.QUALIFICATIONSExperience6+ years in project management and/or account management within an advertising, marketing, digital, or creative agency environment.Demonstrated experience managing multiple concurrent projects and cross-functional teams of designers, developers, producers, and strategists.Proven fluency with project management platforms — Asana strongly preferred (Monday.com, Trello, or similar considered).Experience managing scope, schedule, and budget against client expectations, including with remote and freelance teams.Client-facing experience: leading meetings, presenting work, and owning relationship health.Familiarity with agency workflows across creative development, content and video production, digital/web, and media.SkillsExceptional organizational and time-management skills; genuinely energized by structure.Strong written and verbal communication — confident presenting to clients and direct with internal teams.High EQ. You read a room, defuse tension, and build trust quickly.A sharp eye for detail and quality; you catch the thing everyone else missed.Calm, solution-oriented, and decisive under pressure and shifting priorities.Proficiency with Google Workspace and collaborative tools (Slack, Figma, etc.).EducationBachelor’s degree in advertising, marketing, communications, business, or a related field preferred. FIRST 90 DAYSA clear picture of what winning looks like early:Days 1–30: Audit every active project and account. Meet the team and key clients. Document where work is actually getting stuck.Days 31–60: Rebuild Asana structure, templates, and dependencies. Establish the status and QC cadence. Take ownership of delivery on assigned accounts.Days 61–90: Own the master capacity view. Run client relationships independently on assigned accounts. Deliver a bottleneck report with recommended process changes — and leadership is measurably out of day-to-day creative management. COMPENSATION PACKAGE$65,000 - $85,000 annual salary dependant on experienceIdeally, this role operates on a hybrid schedule out of our Lexington office, but we are open to a fully remote arrangement for the right candidate.Occasional travel for shoots, client meetings, and offsites.Bonus / profit share opportunityA perks and benefits package valued at an additional 10k (not including bonus / profit sharing)100% Employer matched 401k, up to 5% of salaryGenerous paid time off – 20 days – in addition to 11 Federal holidays8 weeks paid parental leaveEnd of year office shut down (1 week) to rest & rechargeProfessional Development: Access to online learning (MOOC), conferences (ex.: AdAge Gen Z Summit, etc.), friendly peers, mentoring, and opportunities to have a seat at the table with great client partnersFully paid insurance premiums (health, dental, eye) through Anthem PPOCoomer LLC is an equal opportunity employer. We value people from all walks of life and believe a diverse, equitable, and respectful work environment results in a better culture and allows us to do our best work.