Creative Project Manager

Context

Creative Solutions is part of the Strategic Communications and Brand Team of Shell.

Strategic Communications will be a future-focused, integrated team of employee engagement, communications, and brand professionals. Driven by a clear vision of corporate and brand communications, where compelling storytelling, creative content and data-led insights combine effectively with media, campaign, and reputation strategy to grow value and build trust and confidence in Shell.

Strategic Communications is accountable for engaging our employees to drive performance delivery and for telling the story of Shell to the world; enabling the character and competency of our company to be seen and understood by priority stakeholder groups. We want them to understand our investment case, our culture, our values; to understand the things we believe, the decisions we make and the actions we take.

Where you fit in

The Creative Solutions Project Manager (CSPM): Annual Reports, delivers end-to-end project management for Shell’s integrated annual report. This role directly reports to the CS Lead, with a dotted line to the CS Project Management Lead managing the assigned business or function. You will be in-charge of seamless, cost efficient and effective end-to-end project execution for the discipline. You will be part of a dynamic community of creative specialists globally. Creative Solutions is part of the Strategic Communications and Brand Team of Shell.

The Shell Brand is an iconic, ubiquitous, and unmistakable symbol of what the Group enterprise, its businesses and its people promise to customers, stakeholders, partners, and staff. After our employees, it is our most valuable asset, independently estimated to be worth just over 50Bn USD, way ahead of our core competitors and some of the biggest brands across all sectors. It is more than a logo, as it compellingly represents why, with every touchpoint, one must Buy our products, services, and solutions but also why one must Buy Into what we stand for, especially our Purpose. This is the inspiring and energising journey that Corporate Relations Brand (CRB) will continue to drive, towards earning Trust and Preference.

Against clear briefs, our Creative Solutions unit manages and produces creatively effective content, which comply with Brand Standards and deliver incredible cost savings via disintermediation of agencies (and their fees). The team manages over 600 projects worth 100Mn USD in Shell creative content projects and has saved the group 60Mn USD in 2023 alone. With award-winning work (12 major awards in 2023), it consistently gets high ratings from its internal clients with 100% rating CS as having ‘met or exceeded expectations’ (53% rating them ‘perfect’ across all KPIs).

Creative Solutions is Shell’s go-to team for integrated content creation, design, film and experiential. CS delivers work through a combination of in-house expertise and experienced project managers who deliver projects through a roster of curated agency partners. Our in-house offer includes:

Content Engine (CE), an in-house film production team, making international award-winning content across all Shell’s businesses and functions.

Global Design Hub (GDH), creative design hub which specializes in a broad range of design scope such as effective presentations, event-specific design, brand and visual identities, spatial design, policies and standards creation, integrated comms campaigns, among others.

Seasoned experiential specialists that manage end-to-end events and exhibitions (internal and external)

A world-class roster of talent who enable excellent creative delivery through their deep subject matter expertise.

With the new CR organisation, CRB will now be integrated within Strategic Communications. This is timely and crucial as our new culture on Performance & Value demands more cohesion and coherence. This will mean Brand work will unify with and amplify the emerging Core Positioning and Narrative of Shell. It will also mean CRB can contribute to the potency and creativity of the Corporate and Business communications, leveraging its unique expertise and competencies.

What’s the role?

The focus of this role is production management of the company’s integrated annual reports. You will be responsible for the sound planning, organisation and delivery of integrated reports which are distributed to key stakeholders including investors, corporate relations shareholders, government representatives, NGOs, media and employees – across digital and physical channels. You will manage the end-to-end process per report cycle, including setting up the brief, managing budgets and timelines and managing suppliers for design, layout, proof reading, print, distribution and digital activation.

You will bring creativity, corporate communications and digital competencies to the design and production process, while always ensuring the design is in line with the company’s brand principles. With the digitisation of reports becoming increasingly important – and some reports taking a digital-first approach – you will also advise on digital implementation and social media amplification. Throughout the process you will liaise with multiple internal stakeholders at all levels of the company, meaning strong communication, collaboration and stakeholder management skills are essential.

Following delivery of the reports, you will measure the project’s effectiveness and identify best practices and improvements for implementation during the next cycle. You will also be expected to support the wider team on other creative projects, such as project managing communications and marketing collateral, effective presentations and brand assets.

Your principal responsibilities will be:

End to end project management of creating the design (print and digital) for the integrated reports.

Co-managing photographic elements of the report.

Developing production plans per report, including detailing project budgets, milestones, tasks and task owners.

Briefing the production teams and external suppliers, ensuring they are clear on all key elements of the brief.

Review and quality control at all stages of the design and production process, ensuring outputs meet the requirements of the brief, comply with brand guidelines and standards, and meet the set budget and timeline.

Liaise with internal stakeholders throughout the project life cycle to ensure awareness of progress, seek approvals etc.

Manage issues and risks within the projects in a proactive manner, implementing plans of action to keep projects on track.

Manage print production and distribution worldwide.

Budget management, supplier invoice approvals and recording processes through relevant systems.

Measure the project’s effectiveness through statistics analysis (e.g., PDF downloads) and make recommendations for future improvements.

External benchmarking.

What we seek from you

You must have:

Minimal 8 years of experience working as a project manager, ideally on annual reports in a communications, marketing or finance environment within a large organisation or fast-paced agency.

Solid experience and knowledge of working with Workiva software.

Highly organised with excellent planning skills.

Experience managing budgets and suppliers.

Proven experience working on the end-to-end production process, from design to print to distribution.

Strong PC skills and good working knowledge of all appropriate MSOffice packages including proficiency in Word.

Digital competences including in content management systems and online reporting.

Fluency in English (written and spoken).

Ability to work in virtual and multicultural teams.

Strong interpersonal, communication and stakeholder management skills.

Experience working with brand and visual identity guidelines.

Keen eye for detail.

Ability to remain calm under pressure, manage a high workload and juggle multiple tasks and deadlines, especially during peak periods of the production cycle.

A positive attitude and a willingness to support others in a large and busy team.

Knowledge and experience in other creative disciplines is also desirable: art direction, print, effective presentations, film, photography, digital and social content.

Locations

United Kingdom (expectation to be in the office based in London min 2 days a week)