Performance Science Jobs in Chicago, IL (NOW HIRING)

Axial1 is seeking a highly organized and proactive Project Manager within the agency's paid media organization, supporting SEM, Paid Social, Display, and Affiliate teams in service of a large client account.

The Project Manager will be a key operational partner that is responsible for ensuring strategic initiatives are executed on time, within scope, and with clarity across the media team. The Project Manager will operate at two altitudes: day-to-day, managing intake, prioritization, and execution across the client's paid media programs; and strategic, partnering with leadership to shape testing roadmaps, resourcing, and long-term account planning.

Key Responsibilities

Project Planning & Execution

• Develop and maintain project plans across campaign launches, testing pilots, optimization programs, and quarterly cycles.
• Traffic and manage client-initiated timelines, working between both client and internal PM systems (Workfront and Monday.com) to keep intake, prioritization, and milestone tracking aligned across platforms.
• Help translate strategic priorities into actionable deliverables and timelines.

Operational Coordination

• Partner with channel leads (SEM, Paid Social, Display, Affiliates) and external agencies to align resources, creative readiness, and testing roadmaps.
• Support weekly performance meetings; summarize key actions and ensure timely execution of follow-ups.
• Conduct post-launch retrospectives and document learnings in shared repositories for organizational knowledge.

Process & Governance

• Maintain standard operating procedures that enable scale, quality, and consistent campaign delivery.
• Partner with media performance/analytics resources to ensure performance data, spend tracking, and ROI reporting are aligned and reliable.
• Identify opportunities to apply AI tools to streamline reporting, status updates, and recurring PM workflows, improving speed and consistency without sacrificing quality.

Client & Vendor Coordination

• Serve as the operational liaison between client teams and agency, tracking deliverables and campaign milestones.
• Maintain the integrated media operations calendar (testing, creative refreshes, and optimizations) across Workfront and Monday.com.

Reporting & Communication

• Support the preparation of executive-ready project and performance updates, highlighting trends, risks, and resource allocation.
• Manage stakeholder communication plans to ensure alignment and transparency across leadership and partners.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, or Business (PMP certification preferred, but not required).
• 4-6 years of experience in project or program management, preferably in a performance marketing or media agency environment.
• Familiarity with paid media operations (Search, Social, Display, and Affiliate) and associated performance metrics.
• Hands-on experience with project management tools; proficiency in both Workfront and Monday.com strongly preferred.
• Comfortable incorporating AI tools into daily workflow (e.g., drafting status updates, summarizing meetings, optimizing workflows) to increase efficiency and output quality.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to simplify complex initiatives for executive audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced, data-driven environment.
• Comfortable operating across both tactical execution and strategic planning, adjusting altitude based on audience and need.

Axial1 is a full-service performance marketing firm that utilizes advanced analytics, powered by AI/ML, to activate all performance drivers and channels. From search and social to commerce and display and beyond – our proprietary data-driven analytics enable clients to move from data to insight to performance more effectively and efficiently across the entire path to purchase.

Axial1 believes in a diverse environment that encourages original thinking about our business. We embrace differences of opinion and diversity of thought as they help us challenge and refine our solutions. Axial1, as a best-in-class performance marketing agency, welcomes big ideas, and believes they can come from anywhere.