Production Manager

The Production Manager is responsible for empowering the people of Great State to create successful products and services by ensuring they are allocated to projects in the most efficient way possible. Ensuring that all projects are fully and correctly resourced allows Great State to create quality output supporting the Client Services and Delivery teams in maintaining and growing existing client relationships.

Alongside resourcing responsibilities, the Production Manager supports the wider agency and management team in various aspects of operations such as process development, business intelligence and reporting.

Responsibilities: 

The Production Manager will be a pivotal part of the delivery and operations team. They will need to be able to lead and influence to effectively deliver the following responsibilities: 

Manage resource allocation with Heads of Department and Delivery Leads across all projects.

Ensure how resource is allocated enables employees to create quality, profitable, well controlled and governed projects.

• Manage the recruitment and monitoring of freelance staff including contract management.
• Manage and report out of hours support costs on a monthly basis.
• Ensure employees/contractors allocated are appropriate to that task, considering individual’s skills, experience and training.
• Support employee wellbeing through governance around how their time is allocated, considering appropriate ability and time to do the best and most professional job they can.
• Manage our timesheet completion process.
• Report various business information such as utilisation on a monthly basis supporting the Chief Operating Officer.
• Streamline processes to ensure they are efficient and automated where appropriate.
• Attend billings meetings to provide clarity around forecast billings versus resource bookings.
• Create reports for the weekly operations meeting. 
• Continually drive new methods, technology and approaches and feed learnings back into Great State.
• Be a positive influence across the company encouraging a more “what's the best we can do” attitude.
• Be a visible advocate, internally and externally for all of the above aspects.

Key Responsibilities:

• Coach multi-disciplinary delivery teams to deliver projects and products and identify ways to improve project delivery
• Develop relationships with your clients and work collaboratively with the Great State London and Bristol teams
• Lead the collaborative planning process with the team and the client’s Product (or Project) Owner to define the roadmap and requirements for projects, and collaborate with the team to translate these into user stories which are clear and actionable to the team and client
• Create and develop commercial project scopes and Statements of Work, estimates and timelines
• Manage project commercials and financials following internal processes and governance, reporting and escalating risks
• Working with the AD or Delivery Lead, identify wider commercial opportunities – i.e. additional scope to the existing project or new opportunities that may come up in discussions with client
• Agree appropriate tools for managing the project delivery, team and communications (internally and with the client)
• Facilitate team ceremonies including stand ups, planning, demos and retrospectives
• With the Production Manager, ensure that the correct capability and capacity are available for the team
• Understand technical approach, constraints, dependencies and risks
• Manage any third-party relationships and dependencies
• Ensure that all product deliveries are delivered to the appropriate level of quality, ensuring that the process is followed with regards to ISO compliance
• Actively participate in sharing and applying skills and knowledge to bring about best practice and innovation

The successful candidate will:

• Have at least five years in a similar role; digital agency experience preferred (ability to work at the pace of an agency). 
• Be a self-starter, able to take ownership of the various aspects of the role. 
• Be proactive and show initiative. 
• Have excellent communication and relationship building skills. 
• Be calm under pressure and able to deal with change. 
• Be authoritative and decisive. 
• Have strong commercial acumen. 
• Have excellent problem-solving skills; an analytical and objective mind. 
• Have excellent time management and attention to detail.
• Have a passion for digital and the application of technology.

We offer all the usual fun benefits associated with a digital agency plus flexible working hours, the ability to work from home and 27 days holiday, plus bank holidays. We welcome fresh opinions and strive for an inclusive environment.

If this role suits you down to a tee, apply now.

Great State is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. We also take affirmative action to offer employment and advancement opportunities to all applicants, including minorities, women and individuals with disabilities.

To apply, please email careers@greatstate.co with your CV and a short cover letter. If you'd prefer a more informal conversation in the first instance, please get in touch using the same email address.