ZEAL Creative
Senior Project Manager
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Senior Project Manager – 3-month FTC
London - Hybrid
A bit about us
We are ZEAL, a brand activation group that helps fast-moving brands grow faster by turning apathy into action in the moments that matter most.
Powered by our ZEAL-EQ process, we create powerful emotional engagement, unlock hidden shopper buying triggers and give brands the ‘cheat codes’ to win in their key retail channels.
Born in Manchester, we are an independent group with 150 people across Manchester, London, Singapore and Los Angeles, delivering integrated activation across shopper marketing, experiential, partnerships, PR, social, influencer and digital.
We work with leading global brands including Nestlé, Carlsberg Britvic, Suntory, Kraft Heinz, Kellanova, Arla, Bacardi, Essity, Froneri, Weetabix and Revlon.
Our work has been recognised across the industry, including three consecutive IPM Agency of the Year titles (2023–2025), FMBE Brand Experience Agency of the Year 2026, and the Campaign Experience Awards’ Best Integrated Campaign (2025). We have also been shortlisted for Independent Agency of the Year at the Campaign Agency of the Year Awards 2025 and are proud to be listed in Campaign’s Top 100 Best Places to Work.
Role in summary
In this newly created function, you’ll provide immediate support through both on the ground with live projects and, helping us establish best practice in Project Management at ZEAL while utilising your sharp commercial focus to improve recoverability, utilisation and delivery predictability, while reducing hidden costs and enabling the agency to scale.
Acting as a trusted partner to both clients and internal teams including strategy, creative and design, you will own project finances, resource planning and capacity management – ensuring your projects are delivered on time, within budget and with the most effective resourcing.
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What you’ll be doing:
- Lead end-to-end delivery of projects from initial scoping and project kick off, through creative development and delivery.
- Build and maintain project documentation including timelines, resource plans, scopes of work and status reports.
- Manage project momentum by identifying risks early and ensuring actions and decisions are clearly communicated, improving delivery predictability across all projects.
- Plan and manage resourcing in collaboration with traffic management across creative, strategy, and design, improving utilisation and reducing over- or under-servicing.
- Act as the primary operational interface between Client Services and Traffic, creating efficient, joined-up resource planning across the agency.
- Coordinate with traffic management to balance workloads and manage budgets effectively, freeing Client Services to focus on strategic client leadership and growth.
- Identify opportunities to improve efficiency through tools, systems and emerging technologies, supporting the agency's ability to scale.
- Manage third-party costs including estimates, purchasing and invoice approvals. Track project profitability and use insights to refine future scopes, processes and delivery models, improving recoverability and reducing hidden costs.
- Maintain full visibility of scope changes and out-of-scope requests, ensuring additional work is identified, costed and billed promptly to protect recoverability.
- Lead post-project reviews to inform continuous improvement.
- Provide support and guidance to the wider team, with the ability to get stuck into ad-hoc tasks needed across multiple projects to fulfil client needs.
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What you’ll bring to the role:
- Proven experience as a Project or Senior Project Manager in an agency environment.
- The ability to manage multiple projects while maintaining a high level of detail orientation.
- Experience working under pressure delivering on tight deadlines with the ability to adapt quickly and diligently to last-minute changes.
- Confident client management skills, able to establish trust quickly as one of the client's key agency partners.
- Incredible attention to detail on project finances, with the ability to speak confidently and accurately on the commercial picture at all times, with a track record of improving recoverability and utilisation.
- Expertise in project and traffic management software, ideally ClickUp or similar.
How we reward you:
- 24 days holiday (plus Bank Holidays)
- Contributory pension scheme
- Annual company bonus scheme
- Private Medical Insurance
- Life Assurance
- Continuous learning and development
- Enhanced parental benefits
Additional benefits:
- The last Friday of every quarter is a ZEAL Day off
- Christmas closure
- Work from home budget to help you achieve your dream set up
- Dog friendly offices
- A wealth of social events from our seasonal gatherings to our quarter review get togethers
Interested? Click 'apply' to share your CV or reach out to talent@zealcreative.com. No recruiters, please.
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