The Traffic Manager / Flow Commander

Okay, so… to be totally frank, this is a brand new position, hot off the press. 📰

So with that in mind, let’s start this job post off with a quick disclaimer: we’re a small company, and as such, things change…quickly. With this being a shiny, new position, things will probably be changing even more rapidly than the norm. It’s likely that what’s written here is going to evolve over time (a short amount of time), based on the needs of our team. So, first and foremost: if you’re the type of person who’s going to get irritable with changing priorities and tasks 🤬 then the truth is you might not like this role.

To put this in Pixar-ese: If you’re not a Joy or a Bing Bong, this probably won’t be a super-great fit for you.

via GIPHY

In terms of how we see this role fitting into our current company structure, let’s go a bit deeper into the current setup. Right now, our Account Management department has 6 different teams and each team has a few account managers. Each team manages a bunch of campaigns and clients. One of the core challenges, as we have scaled, is that it’s hard to know which team has the capacity to take on more campaigns…

…. or which team is running out of resources and needs help…

…. and what important deadlines are coming across different teams that we need to pay attention to.

We need a way (or in this case, a person who comes up with a brilliant way) to prioritize across different teams to make sure our resources are properly aligned to deliver the best results to our clients.

So this job’s main responsibilities will be to work behind the scenes of the account management team…

1. Keeping things moving
2. Keeping things organized
3. Ensuring things don’t fall through the cracks
4. Solving all of the issues above

This role is perfect for someone who is an excellent project manager 🧩  who can handle many moving deadlines, 👀 identify bottlenecks, doesn’t mind getting their hands dirty in different aspects of the projects, and is driven by results.  🥈

What you’ll do:

✅ Traffic inbound campaign requests, coordinate necessary team resources, and prioritize projects in the queue to meet deadlines and stakeholder expectations.

 🗓 Set up proper timelines and walk back schedules for every project and ensure that all stakeholders are aligned.

🤼  Meet with the different project teams on a weekly basis to check the status, identify any potential issues, and figure out solutions to these issues to make sure the project deadlines are met. And in some cases, depending on the situation, identify new deadlines and update the rest of the team.

👩‍🏫 Manage workflow with internal teams and external clients to ensure all necessary briefs, campaign materials, and creative assets are received and distributed correctly.

🕺Proactively collaborate with the account management teams to ensure all action items are accomplished in a timely manner, troubleshoot and resolve issues as needed, taking each project through to completion.

💰 Be responsible for the proper allocation of budgets to influencers per campaign and meet with the project teams to ensure the team is aligned. Meet with the sales team on a regular basis to ensure client goals will be met.

👂 Participate in client calls and keep track of upcoming projects, needs, and opportunities.

👩🏽‍💻 Coordinate budgeting and invoicing in partnership with Finance. Track POs and link billable tasks within an internal dashboard to ensure payments.

😺 Support internal team needs including meeting facilitation, reporting, and training.

Bachelor’s Degree required

– 5+ years of agency experience, ideally with a focus on campaign management and digital media execution.

– Understanding of paid media platforms and media/creative workflow.

– Exceptional attention to detail and relentless dedication to problem-solving.

– Thrive in collaborative, fast-paced environments with a proactive work approach.

– Highly organized, detail-oriented, and able to work independently.

– Strong verbal and written communication skills with a high level of responsiveness.

– Proficient in Excel or Google Sheets.

– Must have project management experience in an agency.

– Past experience in a Traffic Management type of role – as described in this job post – preferably, at an agency.

Here is a fun visual breakdown of the qualities and characteristics (related to this role) that we find important when hiring. (There are more qualities listed below that we feel are more global… these are specific to the Strategist role.)

• We provide the usual benefits: 👩🏽‍⚕️ Medical, 🦷 Dental, and 👁 Vision. (The medical insurance is through Aetna, which is really pretty good.)
• We just started doing 401K’s (with a pretty sweet match, too)! Yay!
• We are all remote now, thanks to COVID-19… so that might be a perk if you hate commuting.
• If we ever decide to have an office again, you can be darn sure it’ll be super cool-looking and dog-friendly! 🐶
• We’re a small company without the typical corporate hoops… People who perform well end up advancing quickly.

• We’re a team of 50.
• We’re growing.
• We’re about as scattered as a team can be… East Coast, West Coast, the middle of the country… a bunch of us are in Canada, 1 in Ukraine, 1 in Russia… we like to keep our options open in terms of company retreat locations.
• About half of us are really funny.
• We’re currently working with some pretty amazing brands: Famous Footwear, Zenni Optical, KISS, Lenox, a big chain of malls (I don’t think I’m allowed to say who), a big toilet brand (again… I don’t think I’m allowed to say who, but you probably sit on this brand every morning), Honest Co., Hershey, Yelp… just to name a few.

We’re a pretty down-to-earth bunch, so if you’re interested in applying, in lieu of an elaborate cover letter, you can email me at atul@theshelf.com, and include bullet points with the info requested in the next section…

• The job you are applying for.
• A link to your Linkedin profile.
• What job site sent you our way.
• Your location.
• Your phone number.
• A rundown on how experienced you are with the influencer marketing space… Have you worked with them? Have you done client work in the influencer space? Stuff like that.
• A summary of why you feel like you’d be good for this role.
• A note about your agency experience, if you have any (and why #agencylife is for you). Or, if you don’t have agency experience, why you thrive in this sort of fast-paced environment.
• Please let me know what sort of salary you have in mind. I’d hate to waste your time if you’re wanting a salary that’s beyond the realm of possibility for us.
• Not required, but would be super helpful: Include a deck or proposal you’ve worked on which demonstrates your style of strategic, outside-the-box thinking. This would actually be pretty great to see before we talk with you. If you do decide to include a sample deck, you can obviously delete sections and/or brand names that are confidential. (Honestly, I wouldn’t waste time with this if the role doesn’t sound like it’s right up your alley.)

Tips on how to get your application noticed (assuming that’s what you’re shooting for):

• Applications that are submitted using a job site (instead of being emailed to the above email address) will not be considered.
• Please don’t have typos. (#FunLittleTip: Install Grammarly. It’s a game-changer.)
• It would be great if you could try to sound cool. We write in a colloquial, one-with-the-people-while-still-being-basically-grammatically-correct style. And while this style of writing is not a requirement, keep in mind that we receive a decent number of applicants every day, and 90% of those applications are boring AF. The ones that have a fun “voice” and quirky writing style immediately stand out. In a good way.
• Lastly, put yourself in the shoes of the person in charge of interviewing… What do you think that person would want to hear? Talk about that stuff and leave off anything that isn’t super relevant.

Generally speaking, a lot of you will probably find this job post in line with your skill set, and I bet a lot of you probably have the skills necessary to perform the requirements of this role. But… the characteristics that define what it’s like to actually work with you are also very important to us. Think of these requirements more in terms of culture-fit requirements:

🕺 Our company has a very fast-paced environment. It might feel disorganized from time to time because we’re also a small company. We need each employee to be the type of person who can go with the flow. Who can adjust quickly. Who is able to embrace chaos with open arms when it decides to waltz through the door.

🏎 Due to the aforementioned fast-paced environment, you should be the type of person who is able to execute quickly… within time constraints. WHILE still maintaining quality. We don’t ask for the impossible. But what we don’t want to see are projects that are slapped together and riddled with issues when we’re in a time crunch. Instead, we’d like to see people make adjustments and figure out how to make it work. We’re looking for resourceful people who approach projects with that there’s-more-than-one-way-to-skin-a-cat attitude.

📈 I’ve never interviewed anyone who has said that they have bad work ethic… but there’s a big difference between people who show up and do what gets assigned to them, and those who take initiative… Those people who take pride in their projects and who go above and beyond because they have that drive for personal achievement and growth. We don’t want to micro-manage. We want to work with self-motivated people who are neurotic about quality.

✅ People who don’t proofread drive me nuts!

👿 While I feel like I shouldn’t have to mention this, we’ve worked with people in the past who ran around like a bunch of crazed loose cannons… yelling at coworkers, constantly complaining, deploying the cold-shoulder on a regular basis… passive aggressive. So if you’re not a nice person… that won’t really work for us. We really need everyone to exude positivity.

👂 You need to be receptive to feedback. This is a quality that we find candidates have trouble self-assessing. But try hard, because we give feedback when needed. We’re too small of a company to just let people do whatever they want to do. (Side-note… no one loves feedback. That’s fine. I don’t either really. But will you take it nicely? Will you incorporate it? Are you going to be passive aggressive while doing it? Have you ever been told not to “cut off your nose to spite your face”? These are questions you should ask yourself).

😺 Influencer marketing is constantly changing, so we’re looking for people who are curious and eager to learn. Let’s say, for example, a client mentions in passing how they’re doing whitelisting on Instagram (and we’ll assume you don’t know what that means). Are you going to just nod your head and say you understand it when you don’t? Or, are you going to jot down a note, do some research, and become a whitelisting expert for the next client conversation? Because we need the latter.

👩🏽‍💻 If you’re working remotely, you need to actually be working. No one likes a freeloader.

👆🏾 Are you ambitious? It’s not a requirement, but if you are… there’s lots of room for career growth. Plus, we like to hire our managers from within the team, so there is a very clear path to the next level (if that’s of interest to you).

Here at The Shelf, we truly believe it’s our differences that have allowed us to come together and form such a cohesive and all-encompassing whole. Our mission as a company is to help our clients stand out amongst the crowd… to be different and impactful. And since we’re a team made up of diverse people with all different backgrounds and experiences, we’re able to do this naturally. 🙋🏽‍♂️🙋🙋🏾‍♀️🙋🏼‍♂️🙋🏼‍♀️🙋🏾‍♂️🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏾

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class.

I could honestly go on and on (because I’m long-winded, in case you couldn’t tell that by now), but I’m going to stop here. The point is, you gotta have the chops AND play well with others. And if you’re giddy already, feeling like this job description is just so dead-on-b*lls accurate for you, perfect! We can’t wait to hear from you.

If you’re lacking a skill or two but still feel pumped, feel free to mention it in your cover letter. We’re a small company that’s big into personal growth and supporting up-and-coming go-getters!

It’s also worth noting right here that we have our hands full running campaigns, guys. So, we will only contact those candidates who are most likely to be a good fit for the role. We’ll respond quickly when that’s the case. But if you don’t hear from us, please don’t feel slighted. Rally on – there’s a role out there that’s probably a better fit for your awesome skillset.

Oh, and one last thing… Please add the word Toggle to your subject line when applying so that I know you read this entire post.