Recess Studios is a brand agency built to challenge the expected. With offices in Portland and New York, we deliver end-to-end brand solutions, foundational development, consistent application across every touchpoint, and strategic amplification that drives impact. Our multidisciplinary team imagines worlds, crafts honest narratives, and creates experiences at the intersection of culture and commerce. We prize Good Honest Work by Good Honest People, building lasting partnerships through clear standards, tidy operations, and results that exceed expectations.
JOB OVERVIEW
The Senior Project Lead owns complex projects end to end, including scope, schedule, budget, and day-to-day client communication. This role serves as a senior point of coordination across internal teams and with clients, ensuring work is delivered with clarity, efficiency, and strong financial discipline.
Senior Project Leads operate with a high degree of autonomy and sound judgment. They are trusted to manage ambiguity, anticipate risk, and guide teams through complex or high-visibility engagements. This role partners closely with Strategy, Creative, and Production, and reports to an Account Director who sets overall account direction.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Project Ownership & Planning: Own larger or more complex projects from initiation through closeout. Translate scopes into structured plans, timelines, and budgets that support both delivery and financial targets. Anticipate challenges and address risk early.
- Kickoff & Alignment: Lead internal and client kickoffs to align stakeholders on objectives, roles, timelines, and success criteria. Ensure teams are set up for efficient execution from day one.
- Client Leadership: Serve as a senior day-to-day client contact. Run meetings with confidence, manage agendas and decisions, and provide clear, proactive communication. Maintain regular status updates that surface progress, risks, and required inputs.
- Financial Stewardship: Oversee project financials throughout the lifecycle. Monitor estimates versus actuals, manage scope changes, and partner with Account Directors to protect margin and address financial risk. Support accurate and timely invoicing.
- Delivery & Team Leadership: Guide cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality work on schedule. Resolve blockers, manage dependencies, and provide direction when challenges arise. Escalate risks thoughtfully with clear context and recommendations.
- Documentation & Project Hygiene: Maintain accurate, organized project documentation and approvals. Ensure timelines, budgets, and key decisions are kept current as projects evolve.
- Project Close & Retrospective: Lead project closeout, including final deliverables, financial reconciliation, and post-project learnings. Ensure all details are resolved cleanly and insights are captured for future work.
- Cross-Functional Partnership: Collaborate closely with Strategy, Creative, and Production leaders to align expectations, sequence work effectively, and maintain momentum across disciplines.
- Process Leadership & Standards: Model strong project management practices and reinforce consistent standards across engagements. Help raise the bar for clarity, communication, and accountability within project teams.
- Account Support & Growth Awareness: Support Account Directors by providing insight into client needs, project trends, and potential opportunities. Proactively flag shifts in client sentiment and identify moments where expanded scopes or services may add value.
- Mentorship & Team Development: Provide guidance and support to Project Leads and more junior team members. Share best practices, help troubleshoot challenges, and contribute to a culture of operational excellence.
QUALIFICATIONS
- 7+ years in account management, project management, or producer roles within brand/creative/marketing
- Proven record delivering complex, multi-disciplinary work on time, on budget, to spec
- Strong financial posture: scope control, pricing basics, margin protection, change-order discipline
- Excellent client communication: clear writing, clean recaps, calm escalation, meeting facilitation
- High operational discipline: agendas before meetings, recaps after, files organized, PM tool current
- Proficiency with Keynote/Slides, Sheets/Excel, and project collaboration tools
- Comfortable running multiple projects concurrently; steady under shifting priorities
- Detail-accurate, conscientious, and decisive; willing to be constructively disagreeable to protect scope, margin, and dates
Success looks like: target margin hit per job (≥ 40%), on-time milestones (≥ 95%), KO/PO/CO/wrap compliance (≥ 95%), daily time tracking compliance (≥ 98%), clean client feedback and repeat business.
BENEFITS
- Salary: $100,000-$120,000
- through performance based incentives tied to new business and growth outcomes
- Medical, dental & vision insurance
- Life Insurance
- Competitive company Holidays
- Flexible PTO
- WFH Flexibility
- 401K w/ Company match