Senior Project Manager - MEA

THE ROLE:

We are looking for a Project Manager on a fixed-term basis to support the Project Management team within VIRTUE. The person will need to be a driving force and accountable for upkeep of the gold standard in project management across The MDLBEAST XP Conference - a three day music conference to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in December 2021.

This role requires extensive experience and knowledge in delivering live events and conference production and an aptitude for overseeing and project managing the wider team. They will be required to work closely with heads of departments across the business to solve production challenges, alongside troubleshooting operational hurdles as they arise. They will also need to have the foresight and drive to adapt and develop new processes and approaches during their time with VIRTUE as the project requires.

Experience

• 5+ years in agency production / project management environment

• Experience delivering live music events and conferences end-to-end

• Expert in project management processes and risk mitigation across all potential channels

Nice to Haves

• Experience working in the Middle East, more specifically Saudi Arabia with good working knowledge of Riyadh venues, suppliers, restaurants and culture

• Basic understanding of Arabic - verbal and written communications

• Understanding of Covid’s impact on live events; operationally and supporting on the internal process to manage this

• Conference programming experience

Core Skills

• Understand project deliverables and deadlines - absolute clarity on the approved project and the hours and deliverables sold

• Support and motivates the team, taking accountability for their actions and checking in on them on a daily basis

• Client communication and meeting management both virtually and IRL

• Act as a go between for all project participants and teams

• Supports in managing the project team’s workload and absorb stress where relevant

• Oversee the quality of the team they manage

• Work into existing agency processes and drive new ways of working when appropriate

• Work into the legal team as required in contract review and negotiation

• Ensure that quality control is upheld on all key project deliverables, and that there is an audit trail to fall back on if required

• Capable of building partnerships with third parties that strengthen creative and external production output

• Regularly report into the Senior Project Manager, highlighting any deadline challenges or strain on resources

• Coordinates key approvals with project stakeholders (internally and client-side)

• Talent liaison and communication in pre-production and onsite

• Create and manage project documentation including but not limited to; project timelines, action log, briefing documents, travel itineraries, production schedules, action logs, status sheets, event management plan, client agendas and meeting notes

• Coordination of the teams diaries

• Ability to work across Google Docs and Slack

Personal attributes

• Is a strong and positive force within the team

• Highly organized, detail orientated and able to prioritize

• A natural problem solver with an optimistic outlook

• Can remain calm and focused under pressure, working to tight deadlines

• Is firm but fair in judgement; pushes back when scope creeps or suggested budgets are not realistic whilst understanding the constraints of other departments

• Personable, working effectively with a variety of different people

• Flexible and able to adapt quickly to the demands of challenging and unusual projects