Senior Associate, Client Operations/Project Management

Company Description

This is a hybrid role, requiring three days in-office each week. If you are contacted for an interview, your recruiter will discuss specifics with you, inclusive of any necessary reasonable accommodations.

About Spark Foundry:

Spark Foundry is a global media agency that exists to bring HEAT – Higher Engagement, Affinity, and Transactions – to brands. By combining flawless media fundamentals with aggressive innovation, Spark inspires consumers to pay more attention, to care more about our clients’ brands, and to buy more products and services from them.

Balancing the nimble spirit of a startup with the powerhouse soul of Publicis Media, Spark Foundry delivers the best of both worlds to a client roster that spans some of the world’s best and most beloved brands and companies. We combine boutique-caliber insights and service with the buying clout and first-look access of a global leader, bringing the heat to challenger brands that want to act like giants, and to giant brands that want to act like challengers.

With a bottom-up culture that celebrates diversity and aims for all voices to be heard, Spark has become a magnet for the industry’s best talent, with one of the best retention rates in the industry. And by applying a whole-person approach to professional and personal development, Spark develops a workforce that is well prepared for today’s challenges, and also poised to create meaningful careers in the years to come. 

Because we know that heat arises the intersection of complementary forces, our professionals come from myriad disciplines and backgrounds: data, analytics, and insights, content and creative production, communications and strategy, finance and marketing, and sociology, psychology, and other liberal arts disciplines.

Job Description

Overview:

The Senior Associate, Project Management is an integral role within the Spark Foundry team. Our Project Management team enables and executes great work in the smartest way possible.  We are passionate about transforming ideas into results as we constantly negotiate, organize and understand the ever-changing landscape of marketing and technology.

To help with this, we’re looking for an outstanding Senior Associate in Project Management – a producer with a passion for using collaboration, the creative process and emerging technologies to deliver on business needs for our clients. As a Senior Associate, you will help develop and execute the plans that allow our teams to create exciting work. To succeed, you will need to be a media advocate, strive to be proactive, have a passion for technology, maintain a deep project management toolkit and exercise excellent communication skills.

Role Objectives:

• Supporting the Project Management Associate Director in addressing client needs, requests, and feedback; guiding large teams – planning, investment, operations, and analytics - in process and timeline development and scoping of work, ensuring that timelines and scope are adhered to
• Both supporting large initiatives and also leading smaller projects independently
• Keeping clients and internal teams moving in the same direction; communicating, managing, and ensuring that clients adhere to agreed upon timelines for digital creative development and delivery
• Anticipating the needs of your projects, heading off potential pitfalls, flagging risks, and keeping communication clear and constant to ensure success for the team
• Actively seeking and sharing knowledge with your project teams and within the Account Management & Project Management capabilities
• Partners with client and internal cross-capability team members to ensure documentation for clients is “client-ready” prior to any client meetings while actively participating in both internal and client meetings

Qualifications

• The candidate must have 2+ years of experience in Project Management, preferable in a media agency or advertising agency; retail experience preferred but not required
• Working knowledge of enterprise and project management tools (JIRA, MS Project, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, SmartSheets); advanced MS Excel skills preferred
• Strong analytical, organizational, and written and oral communication skills; solid ability to write clearly, speak professionally, and convey complex technical concepts to a non-technical audience
• Strong critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills; demonstrated ability to “manage up”, multitask, advocate for best path forward, and keep key stakeholders aligned to goals
• Proven history of meeting deadlines in a fast-paced environment; flexible and able to adapt on a constantly-changing account
• Hands-on problem solving abilities and a “can do” positive approach (someone who is a both a thinker and a doer)
• Able to w