Project Manager - PR & Influence

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Department : PR & Influence
Location : London (Sea Containers)
Contract type : Fixed term (12-months)
Full Time/Part time : Full Time
Reporting into : Operations Directors

About Ogilvy:

Ogilvy UK's PR practice won large agency of the year at the PR Week awards. Ogilvy was ranked the number one UK agency at D&AD and was the only UK agency to win a Glass Lions at Cannes. Ogilvy was also nominated network of the year in Cannes Lions, Campaign, Effie Awards EMEA, London International Awards, The One Show and WARC Rankings.

Our vision is to inspire brands and people to impact the world. To create big ideas that make a significant contribution to the planet, society, and the bottom line. We believe in today's world this is the best way for our clients to achieve sustainable growth. We achieve this by breaking down the barriers that restrict talent and ideas.

Which is why our teams work fluidly across 5 capabilities: Advertising, Consulting, Experience, PR & Influencer, and Health. This allows us to not only operate but innovate at the intersection of capabilities and talent. We believe impact and magic lies at this intersection. Ogilvy scales this by seamlessly connecting and accessing the deep cultural expertise of 132 offices in 83 countries.

The result is multifaceted ideas for our clients that drive impact and are born from the intersection of platform x culture x technology.

We call this Borderless Creativity.

The Role:

We are looking for a highly organised project manager with a strong interest in operations, to manage and provide support for an account portfolio in the PR and Influence team, while assisting the wider team with operational success. The team portfolio includes clients such as Coca Cola, Canon, Bacardi, Google and Johnson and Johnson.

Contributing to Ogilvy's founding values: you will be excited about being part of our success. You will thrive when faced with new challenges and will constantly strive to improve the way things are done for our clients.

Solid skills and experience in project management fundamentals are a must (budgeting, planning, developing statements of work etc.) and managing operational success within an agency environment - managing forecasting and resourcing. However, we are also after an individual with an appreciation and understanding of the public relations creative process, strategy, data, media, and production- as well as the people skills to foster a team culture.

What are we looking for:

• Oversee operations and project delivery across several PR&I major client teams, supporting the team with all commercial and resource management
• Support client teams to analyse and identify better ways of working, ensure processes are being followed and identify operational improvements
• Excels at managing expectations and resolving project-related issues
• Work in collaboration with Account Leads on creation, and updates to statements of work, staff plans and project budgets. Proactively identifying and solving issues and mitigating risk
• Working in partnership with the commercial accountant on each major account to achieve commercial targets - attend commercial meetings with client teams to ensure revenue forecasts, cap plans and resource needs are accurate
• Support account team and others to share our delivery process with clients and adhere to it
• Preparing and reviewing scopes of work and proposal development for consistency and accuracy
• When required, take an active role in project delivery and be responsible for delivering projects on time, within budget and to quality
• Monitor project costs and timeframes against budgets and milestones, proactively managing exceptions to ensure delivery to plan and budget
• Work with team to identify project risks and issues, ensuring effective mitigation and risk strategies are implemented
• Monitor budgets and work with the business to avoid overburns - Running weekly burn reports, providing analysis and support with servicing levels
• Resource Management to plan proactively including resource trackers and capacity plans across departments
• Provide regular training for the team on operational and finance processes
• Support team with financial administration such as raising POs, vendor creation and job number creation and working with Finance on issues relating to invoices / payments / budgets / vendors

A Bit About You

• Strong interest in project management and operations management
• Experience of having adapted a delivery process around client needs
• Strong organisation skills; responsive to colleagues for overall efficiency and effectiveness
• Attention to detail
• Ability to build strong relationships with peers, external clients, and suppliers, and can achieve results under challenging circumstances
• Ability to make sound commercial and financial decisions, quickly understand problems, propose solutions, and manage client situations
• Ability to stay calm under pressure and to have a focused and positive approach, and be self-motivated, self-driven and comfortable working independently if required
• Strong client service ethos, with a commitment to quality and the will to constantly drive improvements. Commitment to high standards of excellence and integrity
• Possess good business acumen and sound judgment. Must be able to be collaborative, supportive and adopt a team-based approach. Will be eager to provide insight and receive feedback
• An accomplished communicator who gains confidence of the business whilst being experienced at operating at all levels.
• Negotiates well, actively listens and makes compelling arguments. Can build strong relationships both with clients, peers, and business counterparts
• Demonstrate a proven experience of managing teams and delivering across a wide range of multi-channels, including PR, branding, web dev & social
• Ideally has proven experience of working on a fast-paced account

Practitioner Skills

• Negotiation skills - achieves the best possible outcome in every negotiation in which you take part. Anticipating, defusing, and resolving conflict between colleagues and clients
• Resource forecasting (across departments) - helps the company forecast resource requirements for the coming months by project
• Expert methodology selection - advanced knowledge and application of the company's project delivery framework. Knowledge and application of industry best practice
• Knowledge of client methodology - the ability to deliver a project using a client's delivery methodology and reporting standards
• Presentation skills - the ability to contribute to and deliver considered, concise and relevant presentations to colleagues and clients.
• Knowledge of the company's services offering and interdependencies - sound knowledge of all the company's service offerings

Managerial Capabilities

• Stakeholder management - ability to successfully manage multiple suppliers, partners and clients to ensure the best outcome for both client and the company
• Budget and financial management - ability to set, monitor and deliver projects and tasks within agreed financial parameters. Ability to understand, interpret and report on all financial aspects of the role
• Mentoring - supports and encourages team members and colleagues across the wider business to manage their own learning

Leadership Attributes

• Thinks strategically - evaluates risks

• Inspires creativity and innovation - stimulates team creativity
• Drives results - holds self and others accountable to high performance standards
• Builds teams - proactively addresses performance issues and takes appropriate action
• Exhibits professional excellence - maintains composure under pressure
• Builds relationships - manages the needs of diverse stakeholders
• Communicates effectively - effectively persuades others to support ideas
• Champions change - builds commitment to change

How we help you Thrive:

• 25 days annual leave + 1 Volunteer Day
• Bupa Healthcare

• Enhanced Maternity, Adoption and Shared Parental Leave
• We have a Flexible Working Model with core working hours: 10am - 4pm
• A 1.5:1 Matching Pension Structure
• Wellbeing and Health: Up to £25.00 per month towards physical or online exercise class membership, Unmind membership, LifeWorks tool and annual eye tests and development budgets and Wellbeing incentives and activities throughout the year
• Season Ticket Loan and Cycle to Work Scheme
• Life Assurance

Our ambition is to attract the very best diverse talent to Ogilvy, and to be the employer of choice in the UK. We want everyone to feel welcome when they join us, and once they're here, for them to want to stay with us, grow their career, and to feel they belong with us.

We are an equal opportunity employer and we're committed to creating an inclusive, welcoming environment for anyone who wants to work at Ogilvy . We believe that for creativity to flourish, everything about how we work must have diversity at its core. Your race, colour, ancestry, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, or veteran status have no bearing on our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know and we will do everything we can to accommodate.

At Ogilvy, our people are at the heart of what we do: a creative agency that sparks game-changing ideas across culture and business through collaboration, integrity, and a celebration of self-expression.

We believe in building powerful teams with purpose. This means hiring and nurturing talent across all races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, sexual orientation, and gender identities - and we relentlessly curate transformative initiatives that make our commitment to fairness, and equity a reality.

Our ultimate mission is to leave a positive impact on the world, creating a better future for all, while supporting and uplifting the global communities we serve. This is central to our mantra of Borderless Creativity.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.