Project Manager
About Us
PhotonFiction develops immersive extended reality (XR) experiences that help organizations bring training, learning, and interactive applications to life.
We are looking for an experienced Project Manager to lead client-facing XR development projects and strengthen our delivery practices as we grow.
About the Role
You will own the end-to-end delivery of assigned XR projects, serving as the primary client contact from kickoff through release. Working across Product, Design, Development, and QA, you will bring structure, clarity, and accountability to projects while keeping delivery aligned with scope, timelines, budgets, and quality expectations.
You will typically manage concurrent client projects. You will track project financials, identify variances, and provide forecasts and recommendations to the Director of Operations.
This role suits someone who enjoys working at the intersection of technology, creative production, and client delivery. You should be comfortable building processes while delivering projects in a growing company.
What You’ll Do
Lead XR Project Delivery
- Manage XR development projects from discovery and kickoff through prototyping, development, testing, deployment, and client handover.
- Define project scope, milestones, deliverables, dependencies, and acceptance criteria with clients and internal leads.
- Coordinate cross-functional teams, including XR developers, designers, 3D artists, and QA.
- Build realistic project plans that account for technical constraints, content production, hardware requirements, and team capacity.
- Facilitate planning sessions, stand-ups, demonstrations, status meetings, and release coordination.
- Coordinate client reviews, user acceptance testing, feedback, and sign-off against agreed requirements.
- Work with technical leads to plan device testing, deployment readiness, and handover requirements.
Own Client Communication
- Serve as the primary point of contact for assigned client accounts.
- Translate client objectives into clear requirements and actionable delivery plans with support from internal specialists.
- Set expectations and communicate progress, risks, decisions, and changes throughout each project.
- Lead constructive conversations about scope, feasibility, timelines, and delivery trade-offs.
- Manage escalations with clear context, options, and recommendations.
- Maintain visibility into client satisfaction and account health.
Manage Scope, Risk & Project Financials
- Monitor delivery against statements of work, contracted hours, budgets, and agreed timelines.
- Track project spending, hours consumed, remaining effort, and forecasts.
- Report financial and delivery variances to the Director of Operations, with recommended corrective actions.
- Identify scope changes, document their impact, and coordinate the appropriate review and approval process.
- Proactively manage dependencies across software development, 3D asset creation, client-provided content, hardware, and testing.
- Surface technical and delivery risks early, working with team leads to establish mitigation plans.
Improve Delivery Practices
- Keep project plans, documentation, decisions, and status reporting accurate and current in Jira, Confluence, and other PMO tools.
- Apply and improve PMO standards, templates, and workflows.
- Identify practical ways to improve delivery efficiency, consistency, and visibility.
- Support responsible use of AI-assisted development and production workflows, using project data and team feedback to inform decisions.
- Maintain a calm, solution-oriented approach during periods of change or challenge.
What You Bring
- 5–8 years of experience managing software, interactive media, application development, or digital delivery projects.
- Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent projects in a client-facing environment.
- Demonstrated ownership of client relationships, including expectation setting, escalations, and difficult conversations.
- Experience coordinating multidisciplinary technical and creative teams.
- Strong planning, organization, and prioritization skills.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to explain technical constraints and delivery trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders.
- Proficiency with project management and collaboration tools such as Jira and Confluence.
- Working knowledge of project financials, including budget tracking, hours consumed, and forecasting.
- Ability to identify risks early, resolve issues proactively, and escalate with sound recommendations.
- Experience working with AI-enabled development teams and AI-assisted delivery workflows.
- A practical, data-informed approach to decision-making.
Additional Assets
- Experience delivering virtual reality, augmented reality, or mixed reality projects.
- Familiarity with Unity or Unreal Engine development workflows.
- Understanding of 3D asset production, animation, interaction design, and real-time application development.
- Experience coordinating headset deployments, device testing, or hardware-dependent projects.
- Experience delivering immersive training, simulation, or enterprise learning applications.
- Experience in an agency, consultancy, or client-services environment.
- Familiarity with statement-of-work-based delivery and contracted-hours models.
- Exposure to Agile or hybrid delivery methodologies.
- Experience improving project management processes in a growing organization.
What Success Looks Like
- Projects meet agreed scope, timelines, and quality expectations, with changes identified and managed early.
- Clients remain informed and confident in delivery through clear expectations, regular demonstrations, and timely escalation of concerns.
- Project forecasts are reliable, and budget or schedule variances are visible early enough to act.
- Project plans, documentation, and reporting accurately reflect delivery progress.
- Technical and creative teams have clear priorities, responsibilities, and acceptance criteria.
- XR experiences are tested against agreed functional, device, and user requirements before release.
- Delivery practices become more consistent and effective as the company grows.
Why Join PhotonFiction?
- Lead immersive technology projects with practical, real-world applications.
- Collaborate with technical and creative teams across XR development and interactive design.
- Help shape delivery processes in a growing company.
- Work closely with clients and leadership, with direct influence on project outcomes.
- Bring your judgment, initiative, and ideas to a role with meaningful ownership.
