Senior Project Manager

What does Senior Project Manager do at WPP Production?

As a Senior Project Manager, you will be a senior driver of both project delivery and operational excellence, leading complex, cross-functional projects from initiation through to delivery while continuously looking for better, smarter and more efficient ways of working.

You will partner closely with Account, Creative, Production, Technology and other specialist teams to deliver exceptional work in a fast-paced and highly collaborative environment.

Beyond managing individual projects, you will play an important role in improving the way our teams operate – identifying workflow inefficiencies, strengthening processes, optimising resources and building scalable ways of working.

You will also bring a strong understanding of the wider production ecosystem, with the ability to tap into an established network of trusted freelance talent, specialist partners and vendors to support changing project and business needs.

You are highly organised, commercially aware, solutions-driven and comfortable bringing structure to complexity. You are equally confident managing stakeholders, solving delivery challenges and challenging existing ways of working when there is an opportunity to improve them.

Key Responsibilities

Project & Delivery Management

• Lead complex, integrated projects from briefing and scoping through production, delivery and project close-out.
• Develop comprehensive project plans covering timelines, milestones, resource requirements, workflows, dependencies, budgets and key deliverables.
• Partner with Account, Creative, Strategy, Production, Technology, Media and other specialist teams to establish clear project scope, responsibilities and execution plans.
• Act as a senior point of contact for day-to-day project delivery, ensuring projects are delivered on time, within scope, within budget and to the required quality standards.
• Proactively identify project risks, dependencies and potential roadblocks, developing mitigation and contingency plans before they impact delivery.
• Manage scope changes and change requests, ensuring impacts on timing, resources and costs are clearly assessed, communicated and approved.
• Establish priorities across multiple concurrent projects and maintain visibility of overall delivery status.
• Lead project status meetings and ensure actions, decisions, risks and dependencies are clearly documented and communicated.
• Build strong relationships with internal stakeholders and agency partners, managing expectations and escalating issues appropriately.

Operations & Operational Excellence

• Drive continuous improvement across project management and production operations, identifying inefficiencies and opportunities to simplify ways of working.
• Develop and implement scalable workflows, processes, templates and tools that improve consistency, efficiency and delivery quality.
• Lead resource and capacity planning across projects, optimising utilisation and identifying resourcing gaps early.
• Maintain a strong network of trusted freelancers, specialist talent and production partners to provide flexible, scalable capability when required.
• Establish relevant operational metrics and capture project learnings to inform better planning and future delivery.
• Support the adoption of new operational tools, systems and ways of working across teams.

Commercial & Resource Management

• Develop accurate scopes, estimates and project budgets, ensuring commercial alignment throughout delivery.
• Track project burn, actuals and forecasts, proactively identifying financial risks and variances.
• Source and manage external resources and vendors, balancing capability, quality, cost and speed.
• Support commercial conversations and negotiations while maintaining appropriate procurement and quality standards.
• Identify opportunities to improve cost efficiency and project profitability without compromising quality.

Requirements

• Approximately 8–12 years of project management, production operations or integrated production experience, ideally within an agency, production company, content studio or similarly fast-paced environment.
• Demonstrable experience leading medium-to-large and complex cross-functional projects with multiple stakeholders, dependencies and deliverables.
• Strong understanding of integrated content production and creative development processes across relevant channels and formats.
• Excellent project management fundamentals, including scoping, planning, scheduling, resource management, budget management, risk management and change control.
• Strong operational mindset with demonstrated experience improving workflows, processes or ways of working.
• Ability to look beyond individual projects and identify systemic operational issues and opportunities for improvement.
• Experience in resource planning, capacity management and workflow optimisation across multiple concurrent projects.
• An established network of high-quality freelance talent, specialist partners and production vendors, ideally across the China creative and production ecosystem.
• Strong ability to source, assess and manage external talent and vendors based on capability, availability, quality, cost and project requirements.
• Commercial and financial acumen, including developing scopes, building budgets, tracking burn and actuals and managing project profitability.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to use operational data and insights to support decision-making.
• Strong stakeholder-management skills and the ability to influence across different levels and functions.
• A calm, collaborative and solutions-oriented approach, with the ability to thrive within a dynamic and highly matrixed organisation.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong proficiency in project management, collaboration and workflow platforms. Experience with tools such as Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Jira, Smartsheet or equivalent platforms is valuable.

Advantageous / Nice to Have

• A good understanding of AI, automation and emerging technology, particularly how these tools can support project management, production operations and operational efficiency.
• Practical experience using AI or automation to streamline areas such as project planning, reporting, meeting documentation, workflow management, resource planning or knowledge management.
• Curiosity about emerging technology and an ability to identify where new tools could create meaningful improvements in productivity or efficiency.
• Experience introducing or supporting the adoption of new technology, automation or AI-enabled ways of working within a team or organisation.
• An understanding of responsible AI usage, including appropriate human oversight, quality control, confidentiality and governance.