Project Manager - Publishing

Social-First Project Manager

Leading Digital Publisher | Outside IR35 | £280-£350 per day | London

About the role

I'm working with a leading digital publisher and media business that is looking for an experienced Project Manager to join its Creative Solutions team on a freelance basis.

The business is currently in a particularly busy period, with a strong pipeline of branded content and campaign work across travel, automotive, social and events. As the team continues to evolve towards a more social-first way of working, they're looking for a confident Project Manager who can help keep campaigns moving from sign-off through to completion.

This is first and foremost a Project Management role. You'll work closely with Creative, Sales and wider teams to deliver campaigns across multiple platforms, while bringing an understanding of social-first content and production.

We're particularly interested in people who understand the publishing/media environment and can bring that experience into a fast-moving, increasingly social-first team.

What you'll be doing

Pre-sale / planning

• Work with Sales and Creative teams on campaign proposals and pitches, providing practical input around production feasibility, timelines, resource and delivery.

• Help shape realistic project plans, timings, workflows and budgets.

• Provide a Project Management perspective on social-first campaign ideas and executions.

• Identify potential delivery challenges early and work with the wider team to find solutions.

End-to-end campaign delivery

• Take ownership of projects from sign-off through to completion, ensuring campaigns are delivered on time, to budget and to the required standard.

• Build and manage detailed project plans, timelines, milestones and workflows across multiple concurrent campaigns.

• Manage client and agency communications, lead status calls and ensure everyone is clear on responsibilities and deadlines.

• Work closely with Creative, Production, Sales, Editorial and other internal stakeholders to keep projects moving.

• Manage feedback and changes, resolving issues and escalating where appropriate.

• Coordinate production activity, including shoots, talent/creator requirements, briefing and production schedules where required.

• Develop clear and efficient workflows that allow the team to deliver consistently at pace.

• Monitor campaign delivery and ensure agreed KPIs and client requirements are met.

• Work with Data teams to support campaign reporting and ensure clients receive clear, useful updates and analysis.

What we're looking for

We're looking for someone who can come in, get up to speed quickly and run with things.

You'll ideally have:

• Proven experience as a Project Manager within a publisher, media business, creative/social agency, production company or branded content environment.

• Strong experience managing multiple projects and stakeholders simultaneously.

• Excellent project planning, organisation and workflow management skills.

• Experience delivering social-first and/or branded content campaigns across multiple platforms.

• A genuine understanding of the publishing/media landscape.

• Confidence managing clients, agencies and internal stakeholders.

• The ability to identify problems early, find solutions and know when to escalate.

• A calm, confident and proactive approach - we're looking for someone who doesn't need constant hand-holding.

• An understanding of production processes, with the confidence to work closely with Creative and Production teams.

• Experience working across platforms such as TikTok, Instagram/Meta, YouTube and Snapchat would be useful.

• Experience with talent/creator management, shoots or video production would be beneficial.

The personality bit is important

This team needs someone who can hit the ground running.

You should be comfortable asking questions, challenging something when it doesn't look right, speaking up when there is a problem and taking ownership of finding a solution.

You don't need to know everything on day one - but you do need the confidence to figure things out.

The work

The team is currently delivering a broad mix of branded campaigns, with a particularly strong focus on travel, alongside automotive, social-first campaigns and upcoming events.

The work is fast-paced, varied and increasingly social-first, so this would suit someone who enjoys working across different campaign types rather than doing the same thing every day.

Contract & working pattern

• Outside IR35

• £280-£350 per day, depending on experience

• Freelance contract

• ASAP start

• Ideally 3 days per week in the London office

• 1 day per week will also be considered for the right person

The opportunity

This is a great opportunity to join a busy, high-profile digital publishing business at a time when its Creative Solutions team is growing and increasingly shifting towards social-first content.

If you're a confident Project Manager with publishing/media experience, strong campaign delivery skills and the ability to come in and genuinely take ownership, we'd love to hear from you.

Sphere Digital Recruitment is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.