Senior Program Manager, Client Experience

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Senior Program Manager, Client Experience

Role: Senior Program Manager, Client Experience

Location: New York City (hybrid)

Type: Full-Time

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At Athletics, Client Experience is intentionally designed to build trust and drive outcomes for both our clients and the agency. We believe great creative work thrives when clarity, momentum, and thoughtful structure are considered.

We’re seeking a Senior Program Manager to lead complex branding and strategic initiatives for forward-thinking organizations. This role sits at the intersection of strategic account partnership and program delivery. You are responsible for translating brand and digital engagements into structured, scalable programs while shaping client relationships that deepen over time. You protect creative excellence by building the systems, alignment, and foresight that allow it to thrive.

This role is posted at the Senior Program Manager level. Depending on experience and demonstrated scope of ownership, we may consider candidates at the Program Manager level, with corresponding adjustments to title and compensation.

You will serve as the architect of the engagement. You bring order to ambiguity, stay calm in complexity, align stakeholders around clear outcomes, and anticipate friction before it slows momentum. You operate as both a strategic thought partner to clients and a delivery leader internally, ensuring programs are creatively ambitious, commercially sound, and operationally rigorous.

Senior Program Managers are not task managers. They are stewards of long-term partnerships, accountable for client success, project clarity, profitability, and identifying areas for program growth.

Program Leadership

Lead large, multi-disciplinary branding and digital projects. Define program architecture: scope, phasing, success metrics, and stakeholder alignment.

Elevate conversations beyond deliverables, helping clients clarify priorities, navigate tradeoffs, and make confident decisions.

Client Engagement & Partnership Development

Serve as a primary point of contact and trusted advisor. Design a Client Experience that is proactive, transparent, and insight-driven (not reactive or transactional).

Identify and shape natural growth opportunities grounded in client need and program evolution.

Delivery Excellence & Risk Management

Own end-to-end execution across scope, timeline, budget, and quality. Proactively identify risks, surface tensions early, and propose solutions before issues escalate.

Ensure work is delivered to brief, aligned to strategic intent, and executed with operational discipline.

Team Leadership & Cross-Functional Alignment

Partner closely with Strategy, Creative, Technology, and the Resourcing Director to assemble and support the right teams. Create clarity in roles, expectations, and decision-making authority.

Financial Accountability

Track and report on financial health across engagements. Forecast resource needs, manage profitability, and identify efficiencies across your programs.

Process Improvement

Help advance internal tools and systems to improve clarity, collaboration, and delivery. Bring a continuous improvement mindset to the team.

Mentorship & Leadership

Provide thoughtful guidance and leadership to junior team members, supporting growth while upholding standards of excellence. Model calm, decisive leadership in high-pressure moments.

Clients seek your perspective early, not just your updates.

Programs consistently meet or exceed project health expectations.

Teams describe your program plans as clear, decisive, and enabling.

You proactively identify risks (and potential solutions) before they become client-facing challenges.

Engagements evolve into long-term partnerships (when feasible).

5+ years of experience managing branding programs in a creative agency or consultancy environment.

Proven success leading complex, high-stakes projects from pitch through launch.

Fluency in brand strategy, visual identity, and digital product design/development processes.

Strong business acumen: able to forecast, scope, budget, and communicate with clarity and confidence.

Empathy and diplomacy: able to manage client relationships and internal dynamics with nuance. You’re calm under pressure and bring a positive mindset

Excellent written and verbal communication skills; you can lead a room or finesse a slide deck with ease.

Experience working and experimenting with both traditional project management best practice tools like Notion, Smartsheet, and similar, alongside rapidly evolving AI platforms

Bachelor’s degree required; project management certifications and/or advanced degrees are a plus.

Athletics is a brand innovation studio based in NYC, working with organizations at the forefront of culture, technology, and design. We are committed to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace where creativity thrives and careers grow.

This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of creative delivery at a growing studio—balancing structure with ambition, and process with possibility.

Athletics operates in a hybrid model, with employees working in-person from our studio in Brooklyn, NY a minimum of 2 days per week. Our model has flexibility for our team built-in, including fully remote options during the summer, plus remote work week allowances in the fall, winter, and spring. Candidates should be based in proximity to NYC and able to work in-person in accordance with our policy.

Base salary $90-120K, depending on experience and skillset. Benefits for full-time employees include participation in a value-sharing plan with bonus payouts; health insurance; 401k with guaranteed employee contribution; life insurance; generous paid time off; professional development budget; weekly team meals and in-office snacks; free Citibike memberships; + additional health and wellness perks.

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