Lead Project Manager, Creative

About Athena

Athena is a creative place for leaders, risk-takers, creative thinkers and boundary-pushers. We partner with organizations looking to transform their presence, reputation, and performance. For over ten years, we’ve delivered business insights, marketing strategies, and brand activations for leading organizations in industries ranging from telecommunications to major league sports.   

Our people make Athena, Athena. They’re what help set us apart from traditional ad agencies and consultancies. As a Philadelphia Inquirer Top Workplace for three years running, we take pride in fostering a work environment where passion meets excellence. Our people are solutions-oriented individuals who eagerly roll up their sleeves to make work that works while sharing a couple of laughs along the way.    

About the Position

Athena is looking for a Lead Project Manager, Creative to join our team.

We’re looking for a highly organized, solutions-driven leader to support our client-facing Creative team within the Brand & Digital Communications team for a major telecommunications client. This role oversees creative project intake, team resourcing, optimizes project workflows, leads project managers, and ensures high-quality execution across the board. 

What you'll be responsible for:

Creative Operations & Project Management 

• Evolve and maintain best practices for project intake, briefing, planning, and creative delivery across all creative work
• Create and refine tools and templates to improve workflow consistency and reduce friction across projects
• Support project managers with creating timelines, deliverables tracking, scoping, risk management, and troubleshooting 
• Act as a go-to resource for the creative team on workflow, prioritization, and cross-functional coordination 
• Help PMs navigate client dynamics - supporting with communication, expectation-setting, and escalation as needed 

Creative Team Resourcing 

• Manage weekly resourcing workflows and team assignments across all active creative projects 
• Monitor capacity, flag risks early, and balance workload based on availability and skill set
• Collaborate with creative and account leads to prioritize and assign work 

Team Management & Coaching 

• Manage and mentor a small team of creative project managers, and provide organizational support to the Senior Director, Creative
• Work closely with the Senior Director, Creative to routinely identify resourcing roadblocks and reassess priorities
• Provide ongoing feedback, support professional development, and help the creative team operate at a consistently high level of output
• Personally lead a select number of high-profile creative projects - especially those that are cross-functional, fast-moving, or strategically important to the business 
• Model strong client partnership- bringing both strategic thinking and a calm, solutions-oriented presence to external conversations 

Platform & Process Oversight 

• Serve as a point person for our project management tools, ensuring systems are optimized for team needs 
• Lead process improvements that make our creative operations smoother, smarter, and more scalable 
• Support onboarding and training of new PMs and creative team members on tools and workflows 

The skills and experience you should have:

• 5–7 years of experience in creative operations, project management, or resourcing within an agency or in-house creative team 
• Proven experience leading project teams and owning senior-level client relationships 
• Familiarity with creative workflows across digital, print, video, and social 
• Experience resourcing cross-functional teams and leading department-wide prioritization conversations 
• Strong communication skills and the ability to navigate multiple stakeholders with care and clarity 
• Comfort with project management tools (e.g., Airtable) and experience implementing or scaling operational systems 

It's a plus if you have:

• Experience building or scaling creative operations in a growing organization 
• Experience mentoring other project managers or developing training programs 
• Experience working within Airtable
• A calm, collaborative presence—even when things get messy 

• Medical/Dental benefits including of 1K Health Reimbursement Account
• Matching 401K
• Generous PTO policy
• Substantial Parental Leave Policy
• Hybrid Work Environment

Candidates must be willing to work hybrid (4 days on-site) in our Philadelphia, PA office.

Curious about your career path at Athena? This role is within a rapidly growing creative department and the right candidate can excel, produce great work, and have an immediate impact on Athena’s creative product culture and growth.

We strive to keep our application process open, easy, and as painless and transparent as we can make it. We need team members like you to join us. Ready to apply? Let’s get started.

Athena is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other basis prohibited by law. If you are an individual with a disability and need assistance in applying for a position, please contact us at 866.299.6040 or at AthenaGlobalAdvisors.com.