Project Management Lead / Group Account Director

Dreaming big is in our DNA. Brewing the world’s most loved beers and creating meaningful experiences is what inspires us. We are owners, empowered to lead real change, deliver on tough challenges, and take accountability for the results. We are looking for talent that shares these values, that is ambitious, bold & resilient. We want talent that is looking for fast career growth, cross-functional experiences, global exposure and robust training & development.

About draftLine

We’re a bunch of strategists, creatives, producers, and marketers gathered from all over Europe revolutionising the way we do marketing in our company, AB-Inbev (or in the UK Budweiser Brewing Group). Our mission is to unleash creativity by making more culturally relevant and future proofed work from within for the beer brands we have in our portfolio, such as Stella Artois, Budweiser, Corona, Leffe, Camden and Goose Island to name a few.  In fact, we have more than 500 different brands across the globe.

Based out of our central London office, with its own production studio and rooftop bar, we will work hand in hand with global and local marketing teams to develop top notch creative work.

The role:

There has never been a more exciting time to work on some of the most famous beer brands in the world within an agency. Because it’s all-in house. All the perks of agency life, but none of the client / agency politics. We’re all one family.

Having only launched 2 years ago we have now become the lead Creative partner agency for some of the world’s most famous beer brands, including Budweiser, Corona & Stella Artois. We’ve already achieved great things in such a short space of time. As we now continue to grow (at a rapid speed), we’re looking for exceptional talent who can take us to the next level and beyond.

We are looking for an experienced and ambitious Project Management Lead with Group Account Director experience within a creative agency. At draftLine we challenge the agency status quo, so you should have a future thinking mindset and be able to think outside the box. You’ll have experience working with multiple global brands across multiple markets, being able to work in close partnership with the creative, strategic, production and media teams, as well as the brand teams and external partners/agencies.

The role will involve reporting direct into our Head of Operations & Finance. Working closely with our Managing Director on high profile campaigns delivered by our European Marketing Directors, across all platforms. Everything from ATL, BTL, Shopper, PR Activation and Digital (you name it, we’ve probably dipped out toes in it).

You will be expected to take charge and self-sufficiently run your projects and support your team. This role definitely suits a self-starter who is comfortable juggling multiple work streams, is keen to learn, can comfortably talk about, defend and sell creative ideas.

You will be responsible for leading, developing and inspiring your team of talented Senior Project Managers, Project Managers and Junior Project Managers (ranging from Account Execs to Senior Account Director level), supporting them to run their projects and being the first point of escalation and issue resolution.

With high levels of responsibility and regular access to senior Directors within ABI, this position will provide an excellent opportunity to learn and create some of the best work in the business.

Key responsibilities:

• Build and own relationships with key / senior stakeholders such as EU /Global Marketing Directors
• Work closely with department heads in draftLine to assure smooth processes led by the PM team (full marketing funnel, media integration, pulse, publisher).
• Prospect and onboard new ABI brands (partners) (ex. Brands recently acquired/new partnership, ZX brands, etc.
• Actively monitor and track draftLine Targets & North Stars, opening gaps and influencing achievement
• Lead draftLine senior brand meetings, covering budgets, forecast, resource, SOW and yearly plans
• Planning & monitoring Charter roll out to all EU brands – assuring consistent implementation by the PM team Constant improvement and analysis of WOW improvement, working closely with Workfront
• Consultant and team, assuring dL EU is lighthouse on operations and Workfront management
• Oversee a team of Project Managers, including support with end to end delivery of all projects when needed, and being the escalation point to the brand directors
• Supervise tracking of overarching budgets and finances with the PM team and their brands, such as retainers, forecasts and reconciliations with the support of the Finance Executive - Ensuring brand teams are always notified of any overspend / issues in a timely manner
• Manage and develop your Project Management team
• Lead high profile & complex projects / campaignsWork together with Marketing teams on brands 1YP and translate it into workload planning for draftLine

Qualifications, skills and Experience

Education:

arketing, Design, Business, University degree Level desirable.

Skills:

• Relationship management experience with ability to interact and influence efficiently across various stakeholders in different geographies, at all organisational levels
• Being able to push back, we’re all employees working together
• Resilience and ability to influence, while inspiring your team and other stakeholders
• Ability to work well within in a team and autonomously
• Organised, meticulous about keeping promises and meeting deadlines, with excellent attention to detail
• You are able to identify and be comfortable with ambiguity and on a changing environment
• Excellent time management skills, High energy and able to multi-task, with a real ability to quickly prioritise across a number of projects confidence to contribute actively to strategic and creative discussions and reviews, and demonstrating good, balanced judgement throughout
• Creative flair
• Strong commercial acumen & financial / budget management
• Strong knowledge of marketing principles & integrated communications, including , full marketing funnel and Sales strategies
• Able to identify continuous improvement opportunities through evidence backed decisions
• Strong communicator with impeccable standard of written, spoken and presentation English
• Excellent presentation skills, able to convey a clear message (storyline building), making complex matters easy for understanding
• Strong skills in Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, PowerPoint)
• Ability to work under pressure on a fast paced environment

Experience:

• Significant experience in a Creative Agency including managing a team and range of campaigns across all media
• Experience in a Creative Agency as Group Account Director or similar role
• Experience working on cross agency briefs and being part of a lead agency
• Experience in managing finances of campaigns, providing weekly updates to your brands
• French, Italian or Dutch speaking is a plus

 Must haves:

• Pro-active and capable of leading & developing process without instruction
• Start-up mindset with a ‘can do’ attitude and not afraid to make the role your own
• Process orientation
• Role is based in London when we return to the office pending government guidance

What you get in return

• Competitive salary package
• Being able to step out of the agency status quo
• Awesome brands
• An opportunity to input and change the agency for better
• Learn and teach new skills 18-month fixed term contract with automatic extension depending on performance
• Ab InBev pension & bonus scheme
• Monthly social events
• Free beers in our rooftop bar (when we are back to the office)
• A space in our dynamic and ambitious team