Director of Project Management

Overview

The Director of Project Management leads the company’s project delivery function for scenic fabrication, experiential fabrication, and event production, owning portfolio execution, client delivery excellence, and the internal operating rhythm from kickoff through closeout.

This role builds and leads a small but high-performing project management team, establishes a scalable and right-sized Project Management Methodology (PMM), and ensures projects are delivered safely, on schedule, on budget, and to the quality standards required in fabrication-driven and live-event environments.

The Director partners closely with Fabrication, Engineering/Drafting, Production, and Installation teams to ensure end-to-end alignment and predictable outcomes, while maintaining senior-level communication with clients, agencies, vendors, and contractors. This role also provides executive oversight of contract strategy, change control, risk management, and portfolio margin performance.

This position reflects best practices in scenic and experiential project management: tight coordination with internal technical design, carpentry, metal, scenic paint, CNC/sculptural, and field installation teams; and proactive relationship-building with production partners, external engineers, and vendors/subcontractors at both tactical and leadership levels.

The Director will bring modern project management principles focused on value delivery, tailoring, governance, stakeholder engagement, quality, risk, and adaptability, while thoughtfully adapting these disciplines to a lean, fast-moving organization in close collaboration with Executive Leadership, Finance Operations, and Fabrication/Production teams.

• Own the active project portfolio, prioritizing work, balancing capacity, and aligning project intake with business goals and shop/field realities.
• Establish and maintain a company-wide Project Management Methodology (PMM) that is scalable, practical, and appropriate for a small, production-driven organization.
• Implement governance rhythms such as stage gates, checklists, decision logs, standard templates, and weekly portfolio reviews.
• Define and evolve standards for scope, schedule, budget, risk, quality, procurement, and stakeholder management, informed by PMI principles and industry best practices.
• Apply “tailored delivery” approaches (predictive, agile, or hybrid) based on project type (retail build-outs, tours, one-off experiential builds) and trade capacity (carpentry, metal, scenic/paint, sculptural).

• Serve as the executive escalation point for key accounts, ensuring a consistent, high-quality client experience and driving repeat business.
• Lead contract review strategy, including scope clarity, assumptions, exclusions, schedule constraints, milestone and payment terms, and risk exposure.
• Ensure disciplined change management with top-level clients, including pricing, approvals, documentation, schedule impact assessment, and stakeholder communication.

• Provide portfolio-level oversight across the full project lifecycle, including pipeline forecasting and PM bandwidth planning.
• Advise and support the PM team through kickoff, engineering/drafting, procurement, fabrication, paint/finishing, pack/ship, installation/load-in, strike/load-out, and closeout.
• Ensure strong coordination between engineering/drafting, fabrication shop, field installation teams, and vendors/subcontractors.
• Oversee onsite readiness, including site surveys, access constraints, venue and rigging rules, union compliance (where applicable), truck pack plans, equipment readiness, and install sequencing.
• Drive quality control standards and sign-off gates for materials, fit and finish, structural integrity, safety, and client brand requirements.

• Own portfolio-level financial performance, including gross margin targets, labor utilization, forecast accuracy, and closeout discipline.
• Partner with Finance Operations to establish standards for labor planning, budget tracking,…