Store Development Project Manager (Freelance)

Company Overview: MacKenzie-Childs is a leading home furnishings retail company known for its unique design, high-quality products and exceptional customer service. We specialize in offering a wide range of kitchen, entertaining, décor and furniture items that cater to various styles and preferences, ensuring our customers find exactly what they need to make their homes joyful and stylish.

Position Summary:

MacKenzie-Childs is seeking an experienced Freelance Project Manager to lead the execution of a high-profile branded environment initiative from concept through completion. This individual will serve as the central project management lead, driving schedules, coordinating crossfunctional teams, managing external partners, and ensuring the successful delivery of a complex, design-driven project. The ideal candidate is highly organized, proactive, and experienced managing multiple workstreams simultaneously. They excel at bringing together creative, operational, and technical teams while maintaining project momentum, identifying risks early, and ensuring all deliverables are completed on schedule and within budget. This role requires a strategic project leader who is comfortable driving accountability across stakeholders, and overseeing every phase of project execution.

Essential Job Duties and Responsibilities: (Additional duties may be assigned)

Project Leadership & Governance

• Lead all phases of the project from concept approval through final installation and postlaunch review.
• Develop and maintain the master project schedule, including milestones, dependencies, critical paths, and key deliverables.
• Establish project governance, meeting cadence, communication plans, and reporting structures.
• Facilitate regular cross-functional project meetings and ensure timely follow-up on action items
• Prepare status reports highlighting progress, risks, budget impacts, and upcoming milestones
• Proactively identify schedule risks, resource constraints, and execution challenges while developing mitigation strategies.
• Drive accountability across internal teams, consultants, vendors, and external partners.

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Serve as the primary project management lead coordinating activities across multiple business functions, including: Visual Merchandising / Store Development, Creative Marketing, Product Development, Retail Operations, Finance, External consultants and fabrication partners
• Ensure all project dependencies are clearly identified, communicated, and actively managed throughout the project lifecycle.

Budget & Vendor Management

• Track project budgets, commitments, purchase orders, and forecasted expenditures.
• Coordinate vendor selection, bid reviews, production schedules, and contractual deliverables.
• Manage relationships with fabricators, manufacturers, installers, consultants, and service providers.
• Monitor project expenditures and escalate budget variances or schedule impacts as needed.
• Maintain detailed project documentation, contracts, change orders, and financial tracking.

Design & Construction Coordination

• Coordinate design development milestones and stakeholder review sessions. Manage project documentation including drawings, floor plans, specifications, and production packages.
• Ensure timely approvals throughout design, fabrication, and installation phases.
• Coordinate production schedules with fabrication partners and installation teams.
• Support permitting, compliance, and site readiness activities as required.
• Oversee installation sequencing and punch-list completion to ensure project quality standards are achieved.

Procurement & Production Management

• Coordinate procurement schedules for fixtures, furniture, graphics, finishes, and custom production elements.
• Track manufacturing timelines and shipping schedules.
• Manage production reviews and quality control throughout fabrication.
• Ensure all project components arrive on schedule and are installation-ready.

Communication & Reporting

• Maintain comprehensive project documentation and meeting notes.
• Develop weekly project status reports for executive leadership.
• Monitor project health through schedule tracking, issue logs, and risk registers.
• Provide clear communication across all stakeholders to ensure alignment and timely decision-making.

Supervisory Responsibilities: None