Freelance Production Manager Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Care of Chan is looking for a passionate, disciplined, and rigorous Production Manager who loves to create community and conviviality. The Production Manager oversees the project management of our events, ensuring that events are executed through our systems, processes, philosophies, and methodologies. We welcome applicants who think two steps ahead, who excel at stakeholder centricity, leadership, budgeting, and logistics, and who are currently planning which five new NYC restaurants they are going to try next. Depending on a candidate's experience and expertise, this role will be dedicated to either our Resy partnership - the leading restaurant discovery and reservation platform - or a portfolio of clients across the fashion, lifestyle, entertainment, and hospitality industries.

Responsibilities:

• Manage the team responsible for the day-to-day execution of select Agency events and productions. Ensure that all account events and productions are executed to Care of Chan's exacting standards and protocols.
• Lead event budgeting protocols for projects, including generating estimates, guiding clients through budgets for approval, and wrap + reconciliation (including QBO cross checks). Begin the budget process during the proposal phase by collaborating with the new business and programming teams, setting guardrails, and identifying and sourcing vendors that bring the events' creative vision to life. Provide guidance on what is in-budget and what would require incremental spend.
• Use project management tools and systems to set critical paths for the Production team, propose timelines, and track deliverables for all events and productions.
• Ensure that internal and external approval milestones are established, communicated, and followed.
• Oversee the end-to-end project management documentation for event success, including the creation and upkeep of production workbacks, approval timelines, collateral trackers, Asana boards, and post-mortem tools.
• Lead and manage contractors assigned to various roles across active productions (for example, Senior Producers and Associate Producers).
• Provide oversight of all of our systems and processes to ensure that the project is executed by contract staff to Care of Chan's standards. Coach and give feedback to the team to foster their growth and development.
• Oversee the negotiation and scope fulfillment of vendor, talent, and freelance staff scopes. Ensure that scopes are fully executed as agreed upon by project wrap.
• Attend events and oversee their execution with an eye for the highest standards of service and hospitality.
• Foster relationships with key vendors and people in the food, beverage and lifestyle industries.
• Support with Production Department infrastructure updates as needed. For example, writing and revising templates, training materials, and reports.

Requirements:

• 5 years of production experience required, producing a wide variety of productions, ranging from large-scale custom experiences to small-scale turnkey events, preferably in the food, fashion, design, and/or entertainment sectors. Candidates must demonstrate a strong understanding of experiential marketing production elements, including but not limited to budgeting, logistics, contracting, vendor categories and management, venue capabilities, onsite execution, and other core production execution principles as needed.
• 2 years people management experience required.
• Prior Agency experience required.
• Must live in the NY metro area: our team is required to be in the office three days per week, and proximity to NYC event sites is required
• Willingness to travel; many of our events are in key markets across the country (travel approximately 20% of the time)
• Confidence to present and communicate with senior clients and Executives as necessary. Possess exceptional written and oral communication skills.
• Perseverance through ambiguity.
• Proficiency in Google Suite, Excel, Slack, and other project tools such as Asana, Docusign, Adobe Suite, etc.

Our Standards:

• Integrity and Accountability: We value honesty, transparency, and responsibility, especially when it's hard.
• Clear, Considered, and Respectful Communication: We aim to communicate clearly, directly, and with respectespecially when things are hard or moving fast.
• Reliability, Consistency & Teamwork: We respect each other's time, work, and growth by showing up, following through, and acting with awareness of how our work impacts others.
• Curiosity: We evolve how we work by staying curious, adapting to change, and actively seeking better ways of working.
• Love of food and drink, and appreciation of the international restaurant community is a must.

This role is a hybrid position, based in the New York metro area. Our team is required to work from our office in Lower Manhattan three days per week, in addition to onsite event requirements (willing to travel approximately 20% of the time).

About Care of Chan:

Care of Chan is a premiere event production agency, specializing in memorable food events and purpose-driven experiences that create meaningful and impactful connections. We've been called community organizers, connectors, ringleaders, restaurant mavens, social chairs, and party planners. We bring people together over ideas, in real life, and over food whenever possible.

Employees of Care of Chan are offered competitive salaries, PTO and benefits packages, in addition to regular R&D trips to our favorite restaurants. We are in the hospitality business, after all!

The base salary range for this role is $78,500.00 - $97,800.00.

In accordance with NY law, the range provided is Care of Chan's reasonable estimate of the base compensation for this role. The actual amount may be higher or lower, based on non-discriminatory factors such as experience, knowledge, and skills.