Kaiwhakahaere Kaupapa | Project Manager or Senior Project Manager

Other agencies call it account management. Here you own the client, the strategy and the work.

At Hemisphere, we create work that helps people live healthier, safer and better lives.

We're a proudly Aotearoa owned, independent full-service agency with offices in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington and Tauranga Moana. We work with organisations tackling some of Aotearoa's biggest challenges — health and wellbeing, social change, community outcomes — alongside a range of commercial clients. We're looking for a Kaiwhakahaere Kaupapa (Project Manager) to join our client service team, in either office.

The opportunity

You own the client relationships and the strategy behind them on the clients assigned to you. You own the plan that turns that strategy into finished work, and you hold the standard for how it gets made. Creative, media and digital all sit together, and you're the person who keeps the three of them pointed at the same outcome.

This isn't a traffic role. You know your client's business well enough to spot when a brief doesn't fit them, and you're confident enough to say so.

You'll work alongside a Client Service Lead, and often directly with our Kaiarataki (Managing Director) on where a client is heading. Our Pae Ārahi, Te Awanui Reeder, is alongside you from the start of a job, not brought in at the end for a cultural check.

We're hiring at both Project Manager and Senior Project Manager. Apply once and we'll place you where you actually sit.

As a Kaiwhakahaere Kaupapa (Project Manager) you own work end to end, build direct client confidence, and work the harder calls through with your Client Service Lead. As a Senior Kaiwhakahaere Kaupapa (Senior Project Manager) you take the biggest and most complex jobs, set the quality standard others follow, and develop the people around you.

Tell us in your covering letter which one you're going for, and why.

One day you're writing a brief and getting it signed off before a single idea gets made. The next you're presenting creative with its costs, catching an over-servicing problem three weeks before it shows up in the numbers, or briefing a Kairuruku Kaupapa (Project Coordinator) through their first real job. You’ll be great at:

• Owning a job end to end — scope, timeline, budget, resourcing and risk.

• Holding a client relationship directly, including when the news isn't good.

• Writing a brief that genuinely briefs people.

• Spotting a risk early and arriving with a fix already in mind.

• Running several jobs at once without dropping any of them.

• Quality control. If it isn't right, it doesn't go.

• Bringing coordinators and interns on, because that's part of the job here.

What you'll bring

• Enough account service or project management experience to own work from brief to finish and hold a client relationship yourself. We look at your judgement and the range of what you've owned, rather than years served.

• Knowledge of advertising, marketing and behaviour change, and a working understanding of media.

• Commercial awareness — you understand how scope, hours and margin connect.

• Confidence and strong communication, written and spoken.

• The ability to stay calm and effective under pressure, and excellent timekeeping.

• An appetite for new business. You want to be in the pitch.

• A commitment to growing your knowledge of te ao Māori and to Tiriti-dynamic practice.

• Enthusiasm for the industry, and a sense of fun.

Our work is grounded in a Tiriti-dynamic approach.

You may already bring experience living and working within te ao Māori. If you do, that's fantastic, and reo Māori will really level up your application. If you don't, we're equally interested in hearing from people genuinely committed to growing their understanding and capability. You'll have talented people around you, and we expect everyone at Hemisphere to keep learning.

What matters most is respect, openness and a willingness to engage. Reach out to our Pae Ārahi, Te Awanui Reeder, if you want to know more.

Our values

• Whakapuāwai (growth) — we flourish as individuals, a collective and a community

• Auahatanga (creativity) — we dream, express and achieve in everything we do

• Whanaungatanga (connection) — we learn, understand and complement each other to deliver together

• Manaakitanga (respect) — we give and receive support, generosity and kindness

• Whakaihiihi (passion) — we bring enthusiasm and the drive to be the best we can be

The work we do — and don't

We don't sell alcohol, we don't promote gambling, and we don't market fast food. Our creativity goes towards work that helps people and communities. If that's the kind of work you want your name on, we'll get along.

Why Hemisphere

Because the work matters, and because you'll get to run it properly.

You'll work with smart, kind people who look after each other and hold a high bar for the work. You'll have creative, media and digital alongside you, a Client Service Lead backing you, and room to grow — this role has a clear next step, and we'll tell you exactly what it takes to get there.

How to apply

Tell us about a job you owned. What it was, what went sideways, and what you did about it. That tells us more than a list of clients.

Send your CV and a covering letter via Seek. Find out more about us at hemisphere.nz, and about our partner Big River Creative at bigrivercreative.nz.