Project Manager - Web & Digital

Taoti is Looking for a Project Manager to Run Our Web & Digital Projects

The headline pretty much sums it up. We're looking for a mid-senior level project manager to lead website (and other digital) projects from kickoff to launch and beyond. This isn't an entry-level seat: we want someone who's already run real client projects, can be trusted with a good amount of autonomy, and doesn't need much hand-holding along the way. You love CMS's, especially Drupal and WordPress, and you know your way around the content admin experience well enough to speak the same language as your UX, design, and dev team. We're also looking for someone who's already leaning on AI as part of how they get things done day to day, not someone who'll need convincing.

(Sorry in advance for the long read. But this is your career we're talking about here, and the right fit is critical for both of our sakes, so please forgive the extra detail. By the way, we promise this was written and will be read by real people. No AI here. We'd appreciate it if you'd return the favor.)

The Selection Rubric

We'll make this easy for you so you know exactly what we're looking for and can tune your application accordingly (in rough order of priority):

• Above all, you need deep, hands-on experience running website and digital projects specifically in Drupal and WordPress. This is non-negotiable. If you can't speak fluently and specifically about how you've used these CMS's in real client work as a project manager, you won't make it to the next round.
  
  
• You need to be a natural leader who thrives on autonomy: someone we can hand a project to and trust to make the day-to-day calls (using our QIST principles, Quality, Innovation, Service, Teamwork, as your guide) without a lot of hand-holding. Our PMs aren't just tracking scopes, schedules, and budgets (though yes, that's part of it too); they're the ones digging in, calling the plays, and owning the outcome.
  
  
• You need to be able to absorb a curveball, maybe a client who changes their mind, a scope that got undersold, a dev team that had an off week, and handle it with some combination of serenity, courage, and wisdom: knowing what's yours to fix, what isn't, and how to tell the difference.
  
  
• You need a genuine ability to translate a client's needs into an innovative digital presence, and enough curiosity about UX, design, IA, and development to start thinking a little like each of those disciplines, even though producing that work day to day isn't your job.
  
  
• Taoti has embraced AI more than most agencies, and we want our PMs leading that charge, not catching up to it. We're looking for someone who already uses AI tools as part of their real, everyday process, for scoping, timelines, documentation, client communications, research, whatever it is, and who can help us keep rethinking how a PM does the job as those tools get better. When you apply, be specific and detailed about your process: which tools, for what, and how it actually makes you faster or better at the work.

Those are the must-haves. Nice-to-haves include:

• Experience with Webflow in addition to Drupal and WordPress
• Marketing or brand-side agency experience, as long as it comes in addition to the technical chops above, not instead of them
• Experience with non-profit, association, or government clients

The Day-to-Day

Every project has issues. Maybe sales oversold it. Maybe the client is simply impossible. Whatever the challenge, it's your job to deal with the curveballs, though not necessarily to be responsible for fixing all of them; some things are beyond your control. There's of course all the typical PM stuff too: scopes, schedules, budgets, client communications, and so on. Underappreciated but important. But the PM role at Taoti is more strategic than at most agencies. You have a lot of control over a project's destiny, and like raising a kid, success here doesn't come from big milestone moments; it comes from constant attention, small corrective actions, and steady encouragement.

Taoti puts out creative work that goes head to head with the biggest agencies in the world, but we do it with a lean team. So expect to wear multiple hats and pitch in alongside production resources like UX, creative, IA, and dev. You won't be the one designing or coding, but you'll have a lot of direct exposure to that work, and you'll start to think like some of those disciplines too. That's a good thing.

To give you a sense of the kind of work you'd be leading: about 60% of our business is web design and development (the rest is marketing, advertising, and branding), and about 90% of it is in the DC area. DC itself, across almost two dozen contracts, is our biggest collective client; we just finished redesigning all the dc.gov websites and are agency of record for DC Lottery. We're mainly a B2B shop, with a fair amount of government and non-profit/association work, and a smaller but growing commercial and B2C portfolio. We typically develop in WordPress, Drupal, and (to a much smaller extent) Webflow, but have recently been experimenting with publishing directly from Claude to production, bypassing CMS's altogether. One of the ongoing challenges of this job is making a typical CMS-driven website not look like a typical CMS-driven website. Check out our portfolio for a good cross-section of clients and project types: https://taoti.com/portfolio/

Is There Room for Career Growth?

That's one of the best parts of this role at Taoti specifically. At a larger shop, the PM hierarchy is usually big, layered, and rigid. At a smaller shop, you might have flexibility but not enough of a team to really benefit from collaboration. Taoti is the Goldilocks of creative agencies: enough structure that you know where you fit, but small and agile enough that you can help carve out a new role or niche if it makes sense. We grow the team around the people we already have, not the other way around, so your trajectory has far more to do with your own aptitude and initiative than with an org chart.

Tips for Getting on the Short List

• Stand out. When you apply, make an impression.
• We're marketers here too, and we love our marketing friends, but this role is web-specific, so hands-on experience with Drupal and/or WordPress is necessary.
• Show, don't tell, us how great you are.
• We can tell a lot from the documents someone puts together. It doesn't matter what it is, but we'd love to see something you've built.
• Talk to us about your favorite tools, and be specific and detailed about where and how AI fits into your process. We take this seriously, so vague answers won't cut it.
• Give us some insight into your general PM philosophy.
• Tell us why Taoti specifically, and what wasn't working about your last gig.
• Show us your passion and energy. We like passion and energy.
  
  

What's the Corporate Culture Like?

"Fun but focused," as one Taotian put it, is a great way to sum up our culture. We're a fun and casual shop, the kind of place where you can wear whatever, bring your dog to work, come and go as you please, and have autonomy over your own day for the most part. But we take the work seriously and believe deeply in the ethos to make meaningful and measurable impacts for our clients. All the perks and shenanigans and borderline irreverent tone are fun, but to really fit in here, you need to be committed to the work and the results it generates.

One note on culture: it's closely aligned with the brand. So maybe you should check out our brand guide: https://taoti.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/IQBWFyqPWl0pRqUKRZyLF7wkAWLUVZ7LmAWG82aRJ2DCdqk?e=mLM4hk

Pay particular attention to our values, differentiators, philosophy, and ethos. If you're the right fit here, you should find yourself nodding along as you read it. If you don't, that's okay too. We're not looking to pound any square pegs into a round hole.

Want to see what life at Taoti actually looks like? Check out our [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/taoticreative/?hl=en) or ['about us'](https://vimeo.com/289302105) video.

So, What's in It for You?

• Annual profit-sharing bonus (we take 5-10% of the company's profit at the end of the year and split it, not necessarily evenly, between the top 20-30% of performers to reward those who did the most to drive the company forward). The smallest bonus was still a five-figure amount last year, for context.
• 5+ weeks of PTO (including 11 holidays). This number goes up automatically with each year of tenure.
• 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance (50% for qualifying dependents).
• Paid family leave for men and women (including PTO plus short- and long-term disability options).
• 3% retirement plan matching (plus access to a financial advisor).
• Home buyer help (including a $1200 closing credit).
• Mobile phone reimbursement.
• Your choice of a company-supplied PC or Mac laptop.
• Charitable contribution matching.
• Tax-free metro benefits.
• A sincere respect for work/life balance.
• Money and time off allocated for professional development (also increases with tenure).
• A diverse team hailing from over 11 countries last time we checked.
• A very hip/cool/funky/quirky office space on Barracks Row, in the heart of Capitol Hill, just two blocks from the metro.

Of course, the above is a quick list. Our handbook covers all the gory details.

Job Logistics

We are looking for a full-time, W2, in-house employee. You'll report into Taoti's project management leadership and work closely with our creative, strategy, and dev leads on a daily basis. Most staff in the DC area are in the office about 4 days a week and accrue telework like PTO, so it's a rough average rather than a strict split. Client-facing roles like this one, with more on-site meetings, may lean toward more in-office time, and that can shift from project to project. Because a bad commute isn't good for you or us, we generally will not consider anyone with more than a 45-minute commute, though exceptions can and have been made. We'd need a really compelling reason to flex on that, since a tough commute is always a strain on work/life balance and happiness, regardless of what you tell us in the interview. (Note: if you live elsewhere right now and plan to relocate for this role, please say so somewhere in your application. Otherwise, you'll be ruled out on location alone.)

Our Hiring Process

We do not have a set date by when we're looking to fill this position. It will stay open until we find the right person, even if that takes months. Candidates are initially screened by our selection committee (comprised of subject matter experts and senior leadership, not an HR person, and certainly not AI) and given a score of 1-5. A 1-3 gets the polite "sorry, but you didn't get the job" canned response, usually within 2-3 days. A 4 or 5 stays in the queue for further consideration (we may reach out with specific questions or do our own internal due diligence). This part can take a while, so ironically, the longer it takes to hear from us, the better that usually is for you, since it means you're still in the mix (though if it gets to be "weeks," we do usually try to send a quick status update so you don't think we ghosted you). When we feel we have a handful of candidates we could truly envision hiring, we'll invite them in for an interview (or series of interviews), after which final selections, reference checks, and negotiations will happen. We promise to respond one way or another to all applications at some point so you get some closure, unless you didn't take our application seriously or were clearly a bot, in which case we simply delete it without further processing.

Next Steps

If you're qualified and interested, please apply on our website www.taoti.com/careers. Please note that these job ads often get placed onto other websites with their own application systems (we're looking at you Jooble!), and some sites (looking at you Indeed!) have made up random salary ranges, so if you see one of those, know it's not from us. We aren't able to respond to applications that don't come through our own website, because we use software to manage our hiring process, and without it, it would be the wild west here. So please be sure you're applying on our website.