[JOB] Project Director, Stamen Design (San Francisco)

Stamen is a leading design and technology studio in San Francisco’s Mission District that designs mapping and live data visualization projects. We work for and with clients like National Geographic, The Dalai Lama Trust, The Golden Gate Parks Conservancy, Facebook and CartoDB. We also maintain active collaborations with leading cultural institutions like the Museum of Modern Art, the Exploratorium and SPUR, governmental bodies like the City of San Francisco and the State of California, and we regularly engage in research projects that open up new avenues for work and play. Stamen is a passionate and committed studio that is striving to raise the bar on what’s possible in online data visualization, and have worked hard for the last 14 years to establish a flourishing practice that is full of opportunities for growth, learning and inspiration.

We are seeking a full time Project Director to manage our production flow. Our growing field of opportunities and active projects, and the ongoing explosion of interest in geographic and other kinds of data visualization, means that we are managing larger and more complicated projects across a broad spectrum of industries than ever before. We are interested in someone who can manage long-term sustainable processes to support Stamen as a close-knit community of designers and developers.

In addition, we need someone to track, coordinate and actively manage: who’s working on what, who needs to know about it, what stage is it at, what comes next, and what should we do now to make sure we’re ready? Our team is looking to be asked: what do you need, from who, in order to do the thing that you need to do? Did you get it? If not, why, and how do we make sure that it doesn’t happen again? And so on, in an overall and strategic sense as well as in a day-to-day sense. This is a position for a mid-level person who can keep their eye on the big picture and relishes getting their hands dirty in the nitty-gritty of project development, client services and strategic production.

We’re looking for someone who has:

• Deep and infectious internal motivation: You drive toward completion regardless of obstacles, and you inspire others to do the same. You know when to escalate an issue and ask for help. You do what you need to do in order to get things done.
• Done this before. We want to talk to people that you have managed.
• Comfort in a highly creative and technical environment. You have to have a good understanding what we’re designing and building. We’re OK with you not knowing much about the very specific nature of this work to start, but you’ll need to learn quickly.
• The ability to negotiate and align competing interests. The studio is full of active conversation around what to do, how to do it, what would be the most interesting, what can be done with the resources that we have, and how can we continue to operate at the highest levels of professionalism while keeping ourselves sane and happy.
• The ability to be a primary point of contact for current clients. We’ll need you to have enough experience to feel confident talking to VP-level people from name-brand clients. Our clients and partners need to feel like they’re dealing with someone who knows what’s going on and how to make things happen, someone who can make a decision right then and there and convince everyone to live with its consequences.
• A good sense for the value of things other than a strict financial bottom line. We are definitely in this for the money—but not only for the money. We want you to feel the same.

Stamen is a studio full of tinkerers who like to set up systems and see where they can be improved. Our creative process can be like throwing a stone into a pool, watching the ripples dance across the water, and picking out the ones that look the best. This applies as much to project management as it does to online mapping. The position requires a strong individual with the ability to think on their feet, who knows when to push and when to give, and who possesses excellent organizational skills and strategic vision.

If this sounds like you, and you’d like to work with a group of interesting and interested people, please send your resume and a bit about you tojobs@stamen.com; no phone calls please.