How to hire a creative project manager

How to hire a creative project manager, step by step

Here's a step-by-step creative project manager hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a creative project manager job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new creative project manager
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a creative project manager do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the creative project manager you need to hire. Certain creative project manager roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a creative project manager to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a creative project manager that fits the bill.

   Here's a comparison of creative project manager salaries for various roles:

   Type of Creative Project Manager	Description	Hourly rate
   Creative Project Manager	Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers plan programs to generate interest in products or services. They work with art directors, sales agents, and financial staff members.	$24-52
   Product Development Manager	A product development manager spearheads the development of new products within a company. Most of the time, their responsibilities revolve around conducting marketing research and analysis to determine consumers' needs, coordinating with the product development team to come up with new ideas, proposing business plans to the executives, and creating prototypes... Show more	$40-73
   Web Manager	Web Managers are responsible for managing websites for organizations. Their duties include managing website upgrades, testing for website performance, implement a strategy to increase web traffic and subscribers, troubleshooting website issues, and responding to security breaches... Show more	$25-60

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Digital Marketing
   • Creative Projects
   • Creative Services
   • PowerPoint
   • Client Facing
   • Project Management Software
   • Adobe Creative Suite
   • Graphic Design
   • Creative Process
   • Project Scope
   • Video Production
   • Design Projects
   • Creative Development
   • Status Reports

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage a team of .Net and PHP developers.
   • Manage creative team (editorial and design) copywriting, proofreading
   • Manage creative team to develop packaging, hang tags and POS assets for all products.
   • Manage migration of the defect/change request intake process from SharePoint to JIRA workflow management system.
   • Manage multiple digital and rich media advertising campaign creative, teams & lifecycles including conception, production, QA and implementation.
   • Manage leading fashion editorial photography studio, including set and lighting design.

   More creative project manager duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your creative project manager job description helps attract top candidates to the position. A creative project manager salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

   For example, the average salary for a creative project manager in Oklahoma may be lower than in Rhode Island, and an entry-level creative project manager usually earns less than a senior-level creative project manager. Additionally, a creative project manager with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

   Average creative project manager salary

   $75,415yearly

   $36.26 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level creative project manager salary

   $51,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 23, 2026

   Average creative project manager salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$103,108	$50
   2	North Carolina	$83,650	$40
   3	Virginia	$82,808	$40
   4	New York	$80,084	$39
   5	Washington	$79,448	$38
   6	District of Columbia	$77,748	$37
   7	Maryland	$77,319	$37
   8	Massachusetts	$76,342	$37
   9	Oregon	$74,117	$36
   10	Ohio	$72,691	$35
   11	Texas	$72,036	$35
   12	Utah	$70,942	$34
   13	Hawaii	$70,823	$34
   14	Arizona	$69,562	$33
   15	Florida	$69,373	$33
   16	Maine	$68,875	$33
   17	Illinois	$68,804	$33
   18	Vermont	$67,444	$32
   19	Colorado	$64,771	$31
   20	Minnesota	$64,600	$31

   Average creative project manager salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Meta	$153,871	$73.98	514
   2	Apple	$148,352	$71.32	56
   3	Amazon	$121,368	$58.35	420
   4	Kabam	$100,656	$48.39
   5	Mattel	$99,969	$48.06	10
   6	Alteryx	$96,397	$46.34	7
   7	Caterpillar	$94,507	$45.44	42
   8	BuzzFeed	$89,635	$43.09
   9	Accenture	$87,956	$42.29	986
   10	Mood Media	$87,300	$41.97
   11	Weichert	$87,011	$41.83
   12	Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc.	$86,251	$41.47	4
   13	Starbucks	$86,242	$41.46	14
   14	Carrier	$85,343	$41.03	13
   15	Brilliant	$85,047	$40.89	2
   16	Merkle	$83,621	$40.20	2
   17	Techtronic Industries TTI	$83,547	$40.17
   18	Splunk	$81,413	$39.14
   19	Allstate	$81,389	$39.13	1
   20	Matrix Service Company	$79,883	$38.41

4. Writing a creative project manager job description

   A job description for a creative project manager role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a creative project manager job description:

   Creative project manager job description example

   Headquartered in Plano, TX, Cinemark Holdings, Inc. is a leader in the motion picture exhibition industry with 500+ theatres in the U.S. and Latin America.
   Join Our Team!
   
   Do you enjoy working together as a team to accomplish major goals? Join Cinemark to utilize and expand your skills! We are dedicated to making the movie experience memorable, "One Guest at a time." Our world class talent creates a warm and friendly culture through shared values.
   
   The Creative Project Manager is a detail oriented, fast paced, critical thinker who thrives on finding ways to say "Yes, we can!" Expert knowledge of creative processes combined with strategic action plans to break down barriers and solve problems. Comfortable working with ambiguity, organizing information and being the "go-to" resource for project plans and project details.
   
   This position is responsible for leading teams to deliver projects that span across one or more marketing and corporate businesses. Responsible for delivering strategically sound, breakthrough creative on time, on budget and within scope in a fast-paced creative environment.
   
   Projects will vary from digital, print, website, social to multi-channel marketing campaigns. Role includes day-to-day project management of creative workflows, resource planning, project reporting and cross functional department alignment. Liaison between internal partners from Marketing divisions, external partners and the internal creative team.
   
   Reports to Senior Creative Project and Marketing Operations Manager
   
   A Day in the Life of a Creative Project Manager:
   Independently own full project life cycle from concept to production to final delivery for major and minor initiatives simultaneously in a very fast paced environment. Determine proper documentation, resources, scheduling, and project scoping. Ensure projects are delivered on time, on budget and meet marketing objectives and project scope. Work creatively and analytically in a critical thinking, strategic, problem-solving environment demonstrating teamwork, innovation and excellence. Identify potential roadblocks, mitigate risks on projects, develop contingency planning, and proactively engage in problem-solving. Provide status reporting regarding project milestones, deliverables, dependencies, risks and issues. Set and continually manages project and program expectations of internal and external partners. Provide leadership and motivation to team members to meet project goals, adhering to their responsibilities and project milestones. Provide strategic POV in presentations, reviews and meetings. Passionate and champion creative processes and Marketing Operations. Research best practices for continual process improvement and efficiency. Ability to translate marketing objectives to the Brand Creative team, as well as communicate creative needs to Marketing partners. Excellent communication skills to collaborate with creative, marketing partners and external vendors. Additional hours may be required.
   
   What You Will Need to Have:
   Bachelor's degree in advertising, marketing or related discipline or equivalent professional experience 5+ years project management experience from an in-house creative services or agency account/ project management role. We're looking for the right fit, not the right number of years. Experience project managing the delivery of large, complex, cross-functional creative projects. Strong understanding of the creative development process. Experience managing or working within cross-functional marketing and creative teams. Strong leadership, diplomatic and motivational skills including the ability to lead up, across and down multiple business units while being incredibly positive and collaborative. Effective relationship builder to establish credibility and form business partnerships with internal and external partners. Excellent organization and time management skills with the ability to set priorities both for yourself and for your projects. Excellent communications skills (written and verbal) with the ability to create presentations for executive leadership quickly with little advance notice. Experience managing processes, resources and schedules with proven problem-solving and resourcefulness. Proactive and decisive. Able to quickly adapt to change and competing demands through strong critical thinking and strategic problem solving. MAC proficient and skilled using MS Office applications. Must have experience managing projects in a project management software tool such as Workfront, Basecamp, Wrike, Asana, etc. Workfront preferred. Knowledge of digital creative processes and digital marketing practices preferred. Knowledge of the print production process preferred. Knowledge of Adobe Creative Cloud programs including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign preferred.
   
   DISCLAIMER: This job description is not an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, skills, efforts, requirements or working conditions associated with the job. While this is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current job, management reserves the right to revise the job or to require that other or different tasks be performed as assigned.
   
   Cinemark USA, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find creative project managers for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your creative project manager job on Zippia to find and recruit creative project manager candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as swipe files, exit five, marketinghire, american marketing association.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit creative project managers, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new creative project manager

   Once you've decided on a perfect creative project manager candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   To prepare for the new creative project manager first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a creative project manager?