Freelance Creative Project Manager Jobs in Michigan

The Breakdown:

Project Managers at Burton play a critical role in bringing our company strategies to life. Marketing Project Managers are responsible for organizing and leading the completion of projects in a timely fashion within Burton's marketing roadmap, utilizing collaboration, clear communication, and effective stakeholder management. PMs must understand the requirements for project success and help drive cross-functional teams to completion.

This freelance Project Management role will focus on project execution workflows and creative execution and delivery. This position requires a positive, unbiased, confident, collaborative attitude and an ability to adapt processes in an organized and detail-oriented mindset.

This role requires strong partnership with our Creative and Content teams throughout the creative development and production process. The PM will support project execution by ensuring clear project and resource plans, alignment on creative deliverables, and effective cross-collaboration and stakeholder management. The ideal candidate has 5-7 years of experience managing marketing or creative campaigns, is comfortable running day-to-day project execution workflows, collaborates well with cross-functional teams, and is organized and an efficient communicator.

What You Get to Do:

Project & Resource Management

• Establish clear project plans, monitor schedules, and maintain project documentation
• Ensure effective communication to project teams and stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle
• Oversee project milestone planning and ensure project team accountability to milestones
• Guide project teams from project planning through close
• Lead regular project team standups to facilitate work completion, decision making, and risk assessment
• Anticipate and communicate project risks and recommend mitigation strategies
• Track project progress and provide accurate status updates and reporting
• Organize and motivate internal and external creative teams for seamless execution and delivery
• Contribute to resource planning and task prioritization
• Coordinate with the Marketing Operations PM team to ensure project timing and resource plans align with the broader portfolio
• Manage external vendor and freelance relationships to ensure quality and timely deliverables

Creative Execution & Process Optimization

• Contribute to optimizing creative execution workflows to ensure scalability and efficiency across projects
• Support the maintenance of tools and processes that enable collaboration, accountability, and transparency for project teams and stakeholders
• Contribute to creative quality by supporting adherence to brand guidelines and production readiness through quality control processes
• Support change management by monitoring tool/process adoption, identifying roadblocks, and recommending improvements

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with creative and marketplace teams to define project objectives and drive execution
• Serve as a trusted operational partner by ensuring clear communication, alignment, and accountability across functions

What You'll Bring to The Team:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience
• 5-7 years of project management experience, particularly in schedule creation and management
• Experience working with Marketing and/or Creative teams preferred
• Experience with Microsoft Teams, Smartsheet, or similar PM tools preferred
• Demonstrated ability to work both independently and as a member of a team
• Ability to self-motivate, adapt, prioritize, and multi-task in a fast-paced environment
• Ability to positively influence others and take responsibility for outcomes
• Strong communication, organizational, and multi-tasking skills, with a positive, people-oriented attitude
• Capability to develop and present succinct status summaries and reports for stakeholders
• Desire to obtain and implement feedback on a regular basis
• Ability to manage and distill large amounts of information
• Creative thinking and ability to approach problems from many angles

Core Capabilities That Would Help You Succeed in This Role:

• Project Planning & Execution
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Creative Execution & Delivery
• Stakeholder Management
• Risk Management & Problem Solving
• Resource & Capacity Planning
• Quality Control & Brand Stewardship
• Adaptability & Resilience
• Organizational & Communication Excellence

How Your Success Will Be Measured:

• On-Time Project Delivery
• Effective Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Creative and Campaign Execution Quality
• Team and Stakeholder Satisfaction

Engagement Details:

• 6-month Temporary position; ~20 hours a week
• On-site Mon-Thurs. Remote work on Friday is preferred.