Senior Print & Packaging Project Manager

The Senior Print & Packaging Project Manager will lead a high-volume global packaging programme from client brief through production, review, approval and final delivery. The role will act as the senior day-to-day client partner, translating complex requirements into clear and actionable work for ICP’s Studio and specialist production teams.

The successful candidate will combine deep print and packaging production knowledge with strong client judgement, commercial awareness and the confidence to manage priorities, challenge unclear or unrealistic requests and escalate risks early. The role will work closely with ICP’s Studio, quality and automation teams, drawing on flexible project support and specialist expertise as required by workload and scope.

Key Responsibilities

Client leadership and partnership

• Act as the senior day-to-day ICP contact, building trusted relationships across the client’s marketing, packaging, production and operational teams.

• Become deeply familiar with the client environment, seasonal programme, stakeholders, approval routes and internal ways of working.

• Lead client briefings, cross-functional meetings, status reviews and key decision points.

• Manage expectations clearly and confidently, including where late inputs, conflicting direction or scope changes affect timing, cost or delivery.

• Consolidate client direction and ensure ICP receives an agreed source of truth rather than competing instructions.

Print and packaging production leadership

• Lead the full project lifecycle for high-volume, detail-heavy print and packaging programmes.

• Provide expert advice on packaging production, print specifications, artwork adaptation, colour management, reprographics, substrates, finishes and production risk.

• Translate complex briefs and data into clear production plans, deliverables, schedules and review stages.

• Ensure work is built to specification, brand standards, market requirements and agreed quality gates.

• Confirm that the packaging inputs required for production are complete and accessible, including imagery, templates, regulatory content, translations and multi-market requirements, while maintaining clear boundaries around responsibilities retained by the client.

• Oversee versioning, approvals and final delivery across ICP and client platforms or DAMs.

Planning, prioritisation and risk

• Own seasonal planning, milestones, dependencies and delivery readiness.

• Balance competing requests and make clear priority decisions with the client and ICP teams.

• Identify missing or contradictory information before work enters production and agree the resolution path.

• Escalate delivery, scope, resource and commercial risks early, with practical options and recommendations.

• Protect sustainable working practices by ensuring urgent requests have clear trade-offs and consequences.

Ways of working and workflow improvement

• Work effectively with available project, production and specialist support, using additional capacity where justified by workload, programme peaks or agreed scope.

• Retain ownership of the client relationship, commercial decisions, priorities and final project accountability, while ensuring work is distributed sensibly across the available team.

• Create clear handoffs into Studio, translation, QC and other agreed specialist teams.

• Document key decisions, assumptions and exceptions so knowledge is not held by one person.

• Contribute to process improvement and help embed automation that reduces repetitive briefing and reconciliation work.

Commercial and account management

• Prepare estimates, monitor scope, track budgets and support reconciliation and invoicing.

• Identify additional or out-of-scope activity and ensure it is surfaced commercially rather than silently absorbed.

• Contribute to account planning, process reviews and proposals for improved services.

• Provide concise reporting on programme status, risks, workload and financial performance.

Experience and Skills

• Substantial experience leading print and packaging production within a creative production agency, brand, studio or comparable environment.

• Demonstrable success managing complex, high-volume and fast-moving packaging programmes for international brands.

• Strong technical understanding of print, packaging artwork, colour, reprographics, production specifications and pre-press processes.

• Experience managing multi-market, multi-language and localisation requirements.

• Excellent client-facing judgement, including the confidence to challenge assumptions, clarify ambiguity and negotiate realistic priorities and timing.

• Highly organised and able to manage extensive briefs, spreadsheets, trackers, assets, approvals and concurrent deliverables without losing the strategic picture.

• Commercially aware, with experience in estimates, scope control, budget tracking and reconciliation.

• Comfortable working in client-controlled systems and becoming embedded in a client environment while maintaining clear ICP governance and boundaries.

• Advanced Excel capability and confidence with workflow, approval and asset-management platforms. Experience with automation or structured-data workflows is highly desirable.

• Clear, calm communicator with strong leadership, problem-solving and stakeholder-management skills.

What Success Looks Like

• The client has a trusted senior partner who understands the programme and provides clear leadership.

• ICP Studio teams receive complete, actionable and prioritised briefs.

• Conflicting information and risks are resolved early rather than discovered during production.

• Routine coordination is managed through clear processes and flexible support, avoiding dependency on one individual and reflecting the agreed division of responsibilities between the client and ICP.

• Late changes and additional scope are visible, managed and reflected in timing or cost.

• Automation and improved workflows reduce manual checking while preserving human judgement and quality.

• The account operates sustainably through peak seasons without relying on exceptional personal effort.