Project Lead

The Project Lead serves as the operational link between higher education clients and internal teams, driving the successful planning, execution, and delivery of marketing initiatives that advance enrollment, brand awareness, and student engagement goals. Acting as both a client advocate and a representative of Carnegie, the Project Lead curates an exceptional client experience by anticipating needs, prioritizing goals, and facilitating clear, consistent communication across marketing, creative, and administrative teams. As a strategic architect of the client experience, the Project Lead connects client vision to internal execution, fostering collaboration, alignment, and long-term partnerships while ensuring projects are delivered on time, on brand, and on budget.

Responsibilities:

• Client Relationship Management 
  • Build and maintain a comprehensive knowledge base of each client’s institution, goals, audiences, competitors, and market position to ensure integrated solution delivery
  • Serve as the primary liaison for assigned clients, cultivating strong, long-term relationships and anticipating client questions, challenges, and opportunities
  • Balance client needs with institutional and business priorities, elevating the quality and impact of deliverables
  • Conduct regular status updates and check-ins, mid-cycle and annual performance presentations, and strategic planning sessions, leveraging client feedback and action plans
  • Partner with Account Directors and Portfolio Leaders to plan growth strategies, support renewals, and identify opportunities for expansion
• Integrated Client Delivery Leadership
  • Provide strategic leadership on account priorities, ensuring balance of scope, cost, time, and quality, holding solution project managers and divisional team members accountable to effective delivery of solutions
  • Drive cross-functional coordination and maintain open communication to prioritize client goals, ensure brand consistency, and deliver high-quality outcomes
  • Manage client onboarding, integrated project timelines, and key delivery milestones in coordination with project managers on solution-specific deliverables
  • Initiate strategic opportunities, creative problem-solving, and adjustments to priorities and scope
  • Forecast and track project performance, profitability, and progress while supporting collaboration between department leads
  • Facilitate internal and external meetings and workshops including project reviews, approval meetings, and strategy calls that encourage engagement, alignment, and effective decision-making 
  • Embody change leadership by demonstrating successful management of process-oriented transitions and evolution
  • Drive and embrace gray zone leadership 
• Timeline and Delivery Management 
  • Track and analyze project performance, identifying patterns and optimizing delivery efficiency
  • Develop and manage project timelines, budgets, and deliverables to ensure alignment with goals and deadlines in coordination with solution-specific project managers
  • Ensure all outputs meet client expectations, brand standards, and marketing strategy, including review of creative deliverables with attention to detail, ensuring accuracy, clarity, and consistency
  • Champion internal and client processes while facilitating clear pathways toward project and client goals
  • Manage complex projects from inception to closure, balancing quality, resources, and scope, while tracking revenue performance and burn rate to ensure the overall project remains profitable and within approved budgets
• Risk and Escalation Oversight 
  • Anticipate and resolve potential client and project challenges proactively
  • Ensure timely resolution of client risks and escalate issues to leadership as needed
  • Detect and address relationship risks, maintaining strong internal and external partnerships
  • Flag potential revenue, budget, or timeline impacts to divisional leaders and project teams
  • Communicate progress and navigate delays with clear, actionable updates for stakeholders

Qualifications:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, to be utilized in multi-modal internal and client communications 
• High proficiency in account and project management tools, techniques, and processes, including Google Suite and Asana, with advanced knowledge of Google Sheets and Google Slides
• Strategic understanding of integrated marketing approaches, including how brand and multi-channel marketing solutions align and work together to achieve client objectives
• Advanced project management and coordination experience with the ability to organize and lead multiple specialized teams through established Project Manager structures, high attention to detail, timely decision-making, and scaffolded prioritization of simultaneous projects
• Experience or interest in using AI tools, with a willingness to learn how AI can impact and appropriately enhance the client experience 
• Exceptional relationship-building skills, cultural competency, and the ability to communicate effectively with diverse groups of people and roles 
• Dexterity and the wherewithal to effectively deal with ambiguity, change, and continuous process improvements
• High levels of integrity, emotional intelligence, autonomy, and self-motivation
• Due to the remote environment, effective communication and time management skills are required, as well as the ability to use/learn multiple technology platforms and switch between them on a regular basis
• Physical requirement: Must be able to work at a computer for prolonged periods

Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree
• 3-5 or more year(s) of higher education, marketing, or agency experience
• Minimum 2 years experience coordinating cross-functional teams and managing complex, multi-workstream client relationships
• PMP, Agile, or equivalent project management certification preferred

You Should Join Us!

We’re a fast-growing and innovative company, set apart by our incredible people. We’re a supportive, fun-loving group with diverse interests and talents. In addition to getting to work with fantastic people and do work you love, here are some items you can list in your “pros” column:

• Private health/dental/vision
• 401(k) with company match
• Generous holiday and PTO package
• Flexible work environment (remote, in-office, and hybrid roles)
• Half-day summer Fridays
• Fun company events and laid-back culture
• Opportunities for advancement
• Industry exposure and professional development
• Growing company with a family feel
• Entrepreneurial approach and spirit

About Carnegie

For more than 30 years, Carnegie has been a leader and innovator in higher education marketing and enrollment strategy, offering groundbreaking services in the areas of Research, Strategy, Digital Marketing, Lead Generation, Slate Optimization, Student Search, Website Development, and Creative that generate authentic connections.

Learn more about who we are, what we do, and what we care about.

 

No phone calls or unscheduled visits to the office, please. Carnegie is an equal-opportunity employer.