Vice President, Project Management

Leo Burnett is a communications agency powered by its HumanKind operating system, with the belief that creativity, data and technology work together to transform human behavior and drive prosperity for clients. Part of Publicis Communications, Leo Burnett Worldwide is one of the world's largest agency networks with 85 offices and more than 8,000 employees. The global agency works with some of the world's most valued brands including Aldi, Bank of America, Campbell's, Dunkin, Firestone, Jim Beam, Kellogg's, Nintendo, Tillamook and UnitedHealthcare among others.

VP, Director of Program Management

Our Project Management team enables and executes great work in the smartest way possible. The VP, Director of Program Management is responsible for fostering creativity, driving ambiguity to clarity, striking a balance between the creative process and the realities of delivering projects on time and within budget.

The VP, Director is responsible for leading large-scale, complex projects from start to finish, including timelines, estimates, workflow, communication, resourcing, budget management and including stakeholders at the right time (including network agency partners). This role is also responsible for supervising and mentoring a team of Program Managers to ensure we deliver flawlessly across every engagement. To succeed, you will need to be a creative advocate, strive to be proactive at all times, maintain a deep project management toolkit and exercise excellent leadership skills.

You are the right person if you:

• Demonstrate grit and extreme ownership

• Exude positivity

• Aren’t afraid to share your ideas

• Meet problems head-on and view them as opportunities

• Are self-reliant and motivated

• Communicate fearlessly

Project Management Fundamentals

• Responsible for end-to-end project timelines from brief development to asset delivery, including

production (in partnership with Production lead) and partner agency milestones.

• Ensures the team is clear and aligned on feedback, recapping next steps and feedback through the project’s lifecycle.

• Drives project timelines while effectively communicating and collaborating with cross-functional

teams.

• Effectively manages workflow, establishes clear objectives and day-to-day priorities. Prioritizes

projects and milestone within own programs but also across the business.

• Possesses a deep understanding and passion for the creative process. Capable of supporting great

creative output by influencing each stage of the process.

• Builds relationships with creative teams and instills confidence in the PM partnership to drive the

best work.

• Conducts project kick-off meetings for large scale, complex or new initiatives, to review the scope of work and ensure stakeholders are aligned on the vision and timeline.

• Ensures the right people are included in meetings and project milestones.

• Manages internal and client stakeholder expectations.

• Schedules internal, project-related meetings, ensuring all resources are included as necessary.

• Keeps stakeholders informed throughout the project lifecycle, alerting the team if there are

potential risks, delays, scope creep, etc. including agency partners. This may include comprehensive

summary of internal and external meetings, discussions and agreements via weekly status reports,

daily hot sheet reports, issues tracker, deliverables lists, etc.

• Facilitates post-mortems as needed in partnership with agency or account lead team and key

stakeholders.

• Maintains strong internal and external relationships with agency and account lead teams, agency

partners and clients.

• Maintains line of sight to project flow across business; is point of escalation for project managers to resolve issues and mitigate risk.

• Provides direction and support to project managers through mentoring, day-to-day coaching and

guiding career development.

• Partners with project managers to establish and implement standardized best practices across clients and portfolios, troubleshoots outages, streamlines processes, and strategically evolves function keeping efficiencies top of mind.

Operations & Financial Management

• Has a deep understanding of agency business objectives and the role of PM in supporting those

goals.

• Strong financial literacy; deep experience developing and analyzing burn, forecast, resource

planning and other financial considerations

• Develop scope documentation, including deliverables, assumptions and estimates (top-down and

bottoms-up)

• Oversee job number creation and management process; oversee PO process in partnership with

Account Management

• 10-12 years of experience in project management at a creatively driven agency.

• Significant experience managing programs and large integrated campaigns, including broadcast

• Excellent presentation and leadership skills with a strong level of comfort presenting to senior

leadership and clients, and pushing when needed.

• Proven ability to solve complex problems, manage conflict resolution and collaborate with

others.

• Proven operational and financial acumen

• Exceeds at identifying and managing risk implications.

• Embraces chaos while having the ability to drive results.

• Working knowledge Project Management tools, including Smartsheet

Our Publicis Groupe motto “Viva La Différence” means we’re better together, and we believe that our differences make us stronger. It means we honor and celebrate all identities, across all facets of intersectionality, and it underpins all that we do as an organization. We are focused on fostering belonging and creating equitable & inclusive experiences for all talent.

Publicis Groupe provides robust and inclusive benefit programs and policies to support the evolving and diverse needs of our talent and enable every person to grow and thrive. Our benefits package includes medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401K, as well as parental and family care leave, family forming assistance, tuition reimbursement, and flexible time off.

If you require accommodation or assistance with the application or onboarding process specifically, please contact USMSTACompliance@publicis.com.

Compensation Range: $146,490 - $230,460 annually. This is the pay range the Company believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position, and the Company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. Temporary roles may be eligible to participate in our freelancer/temporary employee medical plan through a third-party benefits administration system once certain criteria have been met. Temporary roles may also qualify for participation in our 401(k) plan after eligibility criteria have been met. For regular roles, the Company will offer medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401k, and paid time off. The Company anticipates the application deadline for this job posting will be 07/06/2025.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

LI-JR2

Salary : $146,490 - $230,460