Constructive is a leading social impact strategy and design firm that helps advance social, environmental, and economic justice. We’re a close-knit, committed team of experts and advocates who partner with ambitious organizations to make the world a more fair, equitable, and sustainable place. Constructive’s culture is built on values that are the core of who we are—deeply held beliefs about the importance of integrity, empathy, accountability, trust, teamwork, and respect that add purpose to our lives and can be seen and felt in everything we do. If you’d like to get a feel for our culture, read our company values
here.
About the Role
We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced Lead Project Manager to join our team. As a Lead Project Manager, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring the successful execution of our projects from inception to completion. You will be responsible for managing large, high complexity projects (project timelines, budgets, and resources) while maintaining clear communication with clients and the internal design team. You will also oversee the Project Management team, providing consultative support to the team and their projects, including management of cross-functional stakeholder groups, training, and driving improvements to the overall Project Management practice. This position reports to the Director of Operations.
Your Core Responsibilities
Team Leadership: Motivate and guide the project management team to ensure successful delivery of digital projects, work with our Director of Operations to set performance metrics and track progress, provide the team with feedback, mentorship and coaching as well as identifying training opportunities that align with company goals and budgets. Additionally, you will collaborate with the Director of Operations to create a user-friendly resource forecasting process, and participate in the recruitment and training of future PM hires.
Project Management & Oversight: You will manage 3-4 complex digital projects simultaneously, overseeing the entire project lifecycle from planning to post-launch. This includes defining project scopes, developing detailed project plans with discipline leads and project team members, and ensuring that projects are delivered on time and within budget. You will be expected to proactively keep the team apprised of remaining budget within scope—checking in throughout to see how progress is aligned with available budget and by creating weekly project budget summaries. You will also lead retrospectives at the end of each project phase, capturing learnings, and working with Directors and leadership to help implement practice improvements.
Risk Management and Problem Solving: Identify potential project risks and develop mitigation strategies. This includes managing changes in project scope and addressing any issues that arise during the project lifecycle. You will also be responsible for ensuring project health—financially, to agreed upon scope, and from a client experience perspective, elevating concerns to appropriate Directors and Executive Director as needed.
Client Management: Act as the primary point of contact for clients, managing client meetings, providing follow ups and updates, and ensuring client satisfaction. You will be charged with building healthy, collaborative, and long-term relationships with clients on projects you manage, working with our Client Services Lead to explore new opportunities for deeper areas of partnership and value that are aligned with clients’ unmet needs and Constructive’s areas of expertise. You will also be responsible for elevating any client or project issues to our Client Services Lead and work with them to resolve any conflicts that may arise.
Quality Assurance: Participate in quality assurance by reviewing all deliverables, ensuring projects deliver on agreed-upon scope, and are up to studio standards and reasonable client expectations.
Change Management: Design and implement change strategies that maximize adoption and minimize resistance, integrating these strategies into overall project plans. You will engage with Directors and discipline leads to communicate the benefits of changes, provide necessary support, and ensure alignment with project and company goals. Additionally, you will identify potential risks associated with changes, develop mitigation strategies, and continuously monitor the change process, making adjustments as needed to ensure a smooth transition and successful project outcomes.
Experience & Skills Needed to be Successful in the Role
Experience:
- 3-5+ years managing medium to large scale technical/digital projects, preferably in an agency setting
- 2+ years working with a management or leadership team to implement and manage change
- 1+ years managing a team of project managers
- Experience with sprint planning and agile methodology an asset
- Project Management Certification a plus!
Hard Skills:
- Technical skills: Advanced knowledge of software development and system architecture. A strong understanding of the design process, as well as digital technologies and platforms, including: Research and discovery, strategy, UX, visual design, WordPress, Drupal, etc.
- Planning & Organization: Create and execute on project plans and schedules with a high degree of success. Exceptional organizational skills.
- Risk Management: Ability to identify, assess and mitigate project risks, and develop contingency plans.
- Tools: Advanced knowledge of Asana, Harvest, Harvest Forecast, Google Suite (Google Sheets)
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Resourceful problem Solving: Ability to independently resolve 75% of issues without involving leadership.
Soft Skills:
- Change Management: Ability to successfully introduce process and practice-level changes and gain buy-in from leadership, directors, and staff.
- Collaboration: Ability to work well with project teams as well as discipline directors.
- Communication: Excellent communication skills including the ability to explain complex concepts simply, listen actively, and foster collaboration.
- Adaptability: Be open to new ideas, constructive criticism and changing project needs.
- Empathy: Ability to foster deep connections with the team, enhance communication, resolve conflicts and build resilience.
- Holistic perspective: Can see the big picture and the small details simultaneously.
- Accountable with a problem-solving mindset: you take responsibility for your actions and present ways to make improvements.
What We Offer:
We do our best to make sure everyone at Constructive is taken care of with a great mix of salary, benefits and perks, opportunities for professional growth, and a healthy dose of time off. We expect this position to have a base salary between $95,000 - $105,000 based on experience and value-added skills. In addition, we offer profit sharing, bonuses, and robust PTO, and great company benefits:
- Health Insurance: Medical, Dental, and Vision
- Defined Annual Profit Sharing Plan
- 401K With Up to 4% Company Match
- Discretionary Performance-based Bonuses
- 3 Weeks Paid Vacation
- Paid Holiday Break (Christmas Eve through New Years)
- Paid 1/2-day Summer Fridays (Approx 16/year)
- Open Wellness Days
- Stipends for Professional Development, Home Office, and Co-working Space
- New Client Bonuses (3% of First 12 Months of New Work You Proactively Bring In)
- Monthly Virtual Happy Hours & Games
- A Super-Aligned Team That Loves Showing Up for Each Other
- Feeling Great About Your Work Making the World a Better Place
Our Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
We believe strongly that diversity is one of our greatest strengths—that the more perspectives we bring to the mix, the better we are as people and the better partner we are for our clients. So, in considering if Constructive is a good fit for you, know that all we care about is that you’re qualified to do the job, share most or all of our values, and want to be here. These are the things we’ll be evaluating for every applicant—and if you meet those and add to our diversity, all the better.
Interested? Great!
What happens next?
If we feel like there’s a good fit, we’ll reach out to you to start the interview process. Here’s what it will look like:
- Experience Interview (~30 minutes)
- Focussed Interview (45 mins - 1 hour)
- Final conversation and questions (30-45 minutes)
- Reference Interviews