Product Manager - Freelance

Product Manager - Freelance (possible Temp to Perm)

Location: NYC - Hybrid

SUMMARY

At VML, we are a beacon of innovation and growth in an ever-evolving world. Our heritage is built upon a century of combined expertise, where creativity meets technology, and diverse perspectives ignite inspiration. With the merger of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson, we have forged a new path as a growth partner that is part creative agency, part consultancy, and part technology powerhouse.

Our global family now encompasses over 30,000 employees across 150 offices in 64 markets, each contributing to a culture that values connection, belonging, and the power of differences. Our expertise spans the entire customer journey, offering deep insights in communications, commerce, consultancy, CRM, CX, data, production, and technology. We deliver end-to-end solutions that result in revolutionary work.

About the Role

The opportunity is for a Product Manager (Freelance-possible Temp to Perm) to come in to work with the team to manage the North America product delivery through to completion and manage the scaled delivery from discovery through to multi-market launch.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary liaison between the client, internal delivery team (FE engineer, backend engineer, UX designer, and project manager), and other stakeholders.
• Own the product vision and roadmap, aligning with client objectives and user requirements, and assisting the wider agency team and the client in positioning the work alongside other client initiatives.
• Manage the team to deliver the product (multiple scaled products) against the value expectations of the client and the needs of its users.
• Stay close to user needs through discovery sessions and by conducting release reviews and capturing feedback.
• Translate client goals and user needs into actionable, prioritized epics and user stories in JIRA.
• Own decisions triangulating between feature completeness, time and quality within the constraints of team, client and user needs.
• Facilitate effective communication and collaboration across the disciplines in the team to maintain momentum, quality, and satisfaction.
• Assist the project manager in tracking and reporting on project progress against the overall delivery plan.
• Define / execute the vision, strategy and roadmap.
• Manage and prioritize features based on scope, potential for incremental improvement, and input from the CP team.
• Direct engineering, strategy and business teams.
• Collect all feedback from the user teams and translate them into product requirements, creating supporting technical architecture diagrams and associated artifacts.
• Create success metrics and continuously monitor and measure product success, iterating based on performance, use case success and investment from CP.
• Produce product roadmaps, PRDs, technical diagrams and executive overview decks for clients.
• Own creation of user stories and feature specs.
• Work cross functionally with choreograph OMS team for implementation within Connect and ensure workflow integration.
• Be a confident leader who can run and manage this small but agile team, serving as primary decision maker.

Qualifications

• 5 years of product management experience, ideally in a consultancy or agency setting.
• Proven track record delivering custom digital products.
• Robust understanding of digital advertising and adtech.
• Working knowledge of data architecture / data management principles and practices.
• Strong communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams and Agile processes.
• Proficiency in JIRA and modern product management practices.

Required Skills

• 5 years of product management experience, ideally in a consultancy or Ad agency setting.
• Proven track record delivering custom digital products.
• Robust understanding of digital advertising and adtech.
• Working knowledge of data architecture / data management principles and practices.
• Strong communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams and Agile processes.
• Proficiency in JIRA and modern product management practices.

Preferred Skills

• Experience working with cross-functional teams and Agile processes.
• Proficiency in JIRA and modern product management practices.

Pay range and compensation package

Hourly Rate Range: $75-$100 per hour