Project Manager Creative Team

Division and Unit Overview

The mission of the ACS Communications Division is to provide news and ACS information and to communicate the vital role of chemical professionals and the chemical sciences in solving critical global challenges and improving everyday life. Its strategic objectives reflect the responsiveness of the Division in fulfilling the vision, mission, and values of ACS and meeting the needs of the changing chemical enterprise. Web Strategy & Operations serves our constituents by delivering and evolving powerful online channels as we strive to provide the best web experience in the world of chemistry.

Position Summary
This position requires demonstrated experience and expertise in Project & Program Management within a User Experience (UX) setting. The ideal candidate should possess a strong understanding of UX principles and have the technical proficiency to engage in discussions regarding complex user experience-focused solutions with leadership in Web Strategy & Operations. The incumbent will be responsible for overseeing and managing creative projects, ensuring their successful execution from translating business requirements, facilitate ideation, and drive technology implementation. Acting as a bridge between our creative team and stakeholders, this role plays a crucial part in delivering high-quality outputs aligned with project timelines and objectives. The incumbent will actively collaborate with various teams within the organization as an integral member of the Design team in Web Strategy & Operations.
 
Major components of a workday include providing program/project management and documentation support for creative design projects, collaborating with content team, technology teams & the society’s business unit stakeholders in planning, scheduling, facilitating of creative project meetings, discovery sessions, demos, and design implementation to ensure successful project delivery. The incumbent will work under the general direction of the Senior Manager of Digital Design/Development.

Here is what you will be doing:

• Provide project planning and management support for Creative and Technology Projects; Familiarity with Agile and Lean UX methodologies.
• Plan, schedule, and collaborate with stakeholders to define project scopes, objectives, and deliverables. Develop comprehensive creative briefs, project plans, including timelines, milestones, and resource allocation.
• Ensure creative projects are delivered within scope and timeline constraints through active monitoring of project progress, track tasks, and proactively identify and address potential roadblocks.
• Facilitate effective communication between team members, stakeholders, and clients to ensure alignment in driving a successful project outcome.
• Proactively identify and solve the most complex problems that impact our creative mission.
• Manage and prioritize concurrent projects, at various project stages of planning and development.
• Strong analytical thought process and ability to interpret findings and present actionable recommendations.
• Uphold and enforce brand guidelines and creative standards across all projects.
• Review creative outputs to ensure alignment with project objectives and stakeholder expectations.
• Participates as an active member of design brainstorm sessions, design roundtables, and project planning meetings.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders, understanding their needs and objectives while balancing the user needs.
• Manage stakeholder expectations, balancing their requirements with project constraints and resources.
• Proactively identify opportunities for collaboration and improvement, ensuring business units satisfaction.

Desired Skills & Experience
 

Required

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (e.g., Design, Communication, Technology) or 4+ years of equivalent work experience.
• Minimum 4+ years of experience working as a Program/Project in a creative, technology or marketing environment.
• Strong organizational and time management skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with diverse stakeholders and teams.
• Solid understanding of user-centered design process, design principles, usability principles/techniques and project management methodologies.
• Familiarity with various UX research tools, Agile and Lean UX methodologies
• Excellent documentation skills; creating and maintaining project requirements, roadmaps, risks, etc.
• Attention to detail and a commitment to delivering high-quality work.
• Flexibility and adaptability to evolving project requirements and timelines.
• Ability to work with minimal supervision.

Highly preferred

• Prior experience in leading design and user experience projects.
• Ability to gather and analyze data to drive decisions.
• Experience with the Atlassian Software & Collaboration Tools is highly preferred, specifically JIRA & Confluence to track and document project work.
• Please submit a resume, cover letter, and examples of past professional work or open source contributions or personal projects that display your skills across the user experience/design areas.

This position will be primarily based in the Washington D.C. office. ACS employees work a hybrid work schedule, consisting of working onsite, three days per week. ACS employees are in the office on Tuesday and Wednesday with the third in-office day scheduled in consultation with the manager. While always welcome to work in the office, employees may work the other two days of the week from a location of their choice. New employees are immediately eligible for this hybrid work arrangement. ACS offers relocation assistance, if applicable.

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