Project Manager - Web & Digital at Taoti Creative in Washington, District of Columbia

Job description

• Taoti is Looking for a Project Manager to Run Our Web & Digital Projects
• The headline pretty much sums it up. We're looking for a mid-senior level project manager to lead website (and other digital) projects from kickoff to launch and beyond. This isn't an entry-level seat: we want someone who's already run real client projects, can be trusted with a good amount of autonomy, and doesn't need much hand-holding along the way. You love CMS's, especially Drupal and WordPress, and you know your way around the content admin experience well enough to speak the same language as your UX, design, and dev team. We're also looking for someone who's already leaning on AI as part of how they get things done day to day, not someone who'll need convincing.
• (Sorry in advance for the long read. But this is your career we're talking about here, and the right fit is critical for both of our sakes, so please forgive the extra detail. By the way, we promise this was written and will be read by real people. No AI here. We'd appreciate it if you'd return the favor.)

Responsibilities

• Every project has issues. Maybe sales oversold it. Maybe the client is simply impossible. Whatever the challenge, it's your job to deal with the curveballs, though not necessarily to be responsible for fixing all of them; some things are beyond your control. There's of course all the typical PM stuff too: scopes, schedules, budgets, client communications, and so on. Underappreciated but important. But the PM role at Taoti is more strategic than at most agencies. You have a lot of control over a project's destiny, and like raising a kid, success here doesn't come from big milestone moments; it comes from constant attention, small corrective actions, and steady encouragement.
• Taoti puts out creative work that goes head to head with the biggest agencies in the world, but we do it with a lean team. So expect to wear multiple hats and pitch in alongside production resources like UX, creative, IA, and dev. You won't be the one designing or coding, but you'll have a lot of direct exposure to that work, and you'll start to think like some of those disciplines too. That's a good thing.
• To give you a sense of the kind of work you'd be leading: about 60% of our business is web design and development (the rest is marketing, advertising, and branding), and about 90% of it is in the DC area. DC itself, across almost two dozen contracts, is our biggest collective client; we just finished redesigning all the dc.gov websites and are agency of record for DC Lottery. We're mainly a B2B shop, with a fair amount of government and non-profit/association work, and a smaller but growing commercial and B2C portfolio. We typically develop in WordPress, Drupal, and (to a much smaller extent) Webflow, but have recently been experimenting with publishing directly from Claude to production, bypassing CMS's altogether. One of the ongoing challenges of this job is making a typical CMS-driven website not look like a typical CMS-driven website. Check out our portfolio for a good cross-section of clients and project types: https://taoti.com/portfolio/

Requirements

• We'll make this easy for you so you know exactly what we're looking for and can tune your application accordingly (in rough order of priority):
• Above all, you need deep, hands-on experience running website and digital projects specifically in Drupal and WordPress. This is non-negotiable. If you can't speak fluently and specifically about how you've used these CMS's in real client work as a project manager, you won't make it to the next round.
• You need to be a natural leader who thrives on autonomy: someone we can hand a project to and trust to make the day-to-day calls (using our QIST principles, Quality, Innovation, Service, Teamwork, as your guide) without a lot of hand-holding. Our PMs aren't just tracking scopes, schedules, and budgets (though yes, that's part of it too); they're the ones digging in, calling the plays, and owning the outcome.
• You need to be able to absorb a curveball, maybe a client who changes their mind, a scope that got undersold, a dev team that had an off week, and handle it with some combination of serenity, courage, and wisdom: knowing what's yours to fix, what isn't, and how to tell the difference.
• You need a genuine ability to translate a client's needs into an innovative digital presence, and enough curiosity about UX, design, IA, and development to start thinking a little like each of those disciplines, even though producing that work day to day isn't your job.
• Taoti has embraced AI more than most agencies, and we want our PMs leading that charge, not catching up to it. We're looking for someone who already uses AI tools as part of their real, everyday process, for scoping, timelines, documentation, client communications, research, whatever it is, and who can help us keep rethinking how a PM does the job as those tools get better. When you apply, be specific and detailed about your process: which tools, for what, and how it actually makes you faster or better at the work.
• Experience with Webflow in addition to Drupal and WordPress
• Marketing or brand-side agency experience, as long as it comes in addition to the technical chops above, not instead of them
• Experience with non-profit, association, or government clients

Skills

Required

• Drupal
• WordPress
• project management
• AI tools
• client communication
• autonomy
• leadership
• problem-solving

Preferred

• Webflow

Benefits

• Annual profit-sharing bonus (we take 5-10% of the company's profit at the end of the year and split it, not necessarily evenly, between the top 20-30% of performers to reward those who did the most to drive the company forward). The smallest bonus was still a five-figure amount last year, for context.
• 5+ weeks of PTO (including 11 holidays). This number goes up automatically with each year of tenure.
• 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance (50% for qualifying dependents).
• Paid family leave for men and women (including PTO plus short- and long-term disability options).
• 3% retirement plan matching (plus access to a financial advisor).
• Home buyer help (including a $1200 closing credit).
• Mobile phone reimbursement.
• Your choice of a company-supplied PC or Mac laptop.
• Charitable contribution matching.
• Tax-free metro benefits.
• A sincere respect for work/life balance.
• Money and time off allocated for professional development (also increases with tenure).
• A diverse team hailing from over 11 countries last time we checked.
• A very hip/cool/funky/quirky office space on Barracks Row, in the heart of Capitol Hill, just two blocks from the metro.
• Of course, the above is a quick list. Our handbook covers all the gory details.
• Varies by experience and location