About the role
Studio Overview
Flying Bark Productions is a dynamic and innovative animation studio dedicated to pushing the boundaries of character animation and storytelling. The studio is a renowned independent producer of family-focused animation entertainment, creating award-winning feature films and TV series for over 50 years. Current projects include the Avatar: The Last Airbender feature film, Netflix's Stranger Things animated series, and Tales From Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan.
Role Summary
The IT Project Manager is responsible for planning, coordinating, and delivering projects across the IT Operations space and owning the enterprise operations roadmap. This is an early-career project management role, suitable for someone with a few years of experience who is organized, proactive, and keen to grow. The role ensures projects are well-scoped, well-run, and delivered without disrupting studio productions.
Key Responsibilities
Project Planning & Delivery
- Plan, coordinate, and deliver IT projects end-to-end; define scope, timelines, milestones, resource needs, and success criteria.
- Run projects day-to-day: track tasks and actions, coordinate contributors, remove blockers, and maintain schedules.
- Collaborate with the Platforms & Infrastructure Lead to plan and sequence technical delivery across desktop, systems, and infrastructure domains.
- Manage risks, issues, dependencies, and changes to scope, providing early escalation with options and recommendations.
- Coordinate project work and change activity around production needs to minimize disruption to artists and staff.
Enterprise Operations Roadmap
- Own and maintain the enterprise operations roadmap in partnership with the Director of Operations.
- Develop the roadmap to cover both IT initiatives and wider business projects (e.g., HR and business systems implementations like Employment Hero).
- Maintain the roadmap as a live document, reviewed and updated on a regular cadence, ensuring sequencing, resourcing, and dependencies are current.
- Ensure leadership has visibility of the roadmap and understands dependencies through regular communication and reporting.
- Provide portfolio reporting, including progress against plans, capacity constraints, and upcoming decision points.
Stakeholder Management & Communication
- Act as the central point of contact for project status; prepare reporting for the Head of IT Operations, Director of Operations, and stakeholders.
- Gather requirements from production, technical, and corporate stakeholders to define project scope.
- Collaborate with Pipeline Project Managers and the R&D team to align cross-team initiatives, share dependencies, and coordinate delivery.
- Communicate changes, cutovers, and rollouts to affected teams in plain language.
- Liaise with third-party vendors regarding quotes, procurement, delivery timelines, and implementation.
Process & Continuous Improvement
- Support improvements to IT Service Management practices (service desk workflows, request/incident/change processes, knowledge and asset management).
- Maintain clear project documentation, including project plans, decision logs, status reports, and closure/handover documents.
- Establish and refine fit-for-purpose project management practices for the IT team.
Requirements
Experience
- 6+ years of experience working in a technical or creative environment.
- Around 3 years of experience coordinating or managing projects, ideally within an IT, technology, or operations environment.
- Demonstrated ability to plan and run small-to-medium projects, managing scope, schedule, risks, and stakeholders.
Skills & Knowledge
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills; comfortable working with technical and non-technical stakeholders, including senior leadership.
- Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple concurrent projects and priorities.
- Working knowledge of project management tools and methodologies (e.g., Agile, Waterfall, or Hybrid).
- Sufficient IT literacy to engage with engineers on desktop, systems, and infrastructure topics.
Desirable Qualifications
- Experience maintaining a project roadmap or portfolio view.
- Exposure to business systems projects (e.g., HR/payroll platforms).
- Formal project management certification (e.g., PRINCE2, CAPM, PMP, Agile).
- Familiarity with IT Service Management concepts (e.g., ITIL practices, change management, service desk tooling).
- Experience with Atlassian Jira and Confluence (highly preferential).
- Experience liaising with vendors on procurement and delivery.
Key Measures of Success
- Projects delivered to agreed scope, quality, budget, and timeframes.
- Enterprise operations roadmap developed and maintained as a live document.
- Clear, consistent, and timely reporting and stakeholder communication.
- Project and change activity coordinated with minimal disruption to productions.
- Effective coordination of cross-team initiatives.
- Quality and completeness of project documentation and handovers.
- Positive working relationships with technology teams, production, and crew.
Benefits & Work Environment
- Location: Sydney, New South Wales (Hybrid).
- Employment Type: Full-Time Max Term.
- Industry-leading studio space in Alexandria featuring a cinema, quiet room, Zen Garden, games room, and state-of-the-art animation facilities.
- Daily breakfast provided.
- Social events including cake days, movie nights, and wrap parties.
- Active "Culture Club" and "Paws for a Cause" fundraising arm.
- Pet-friendly studio environment.
- Flexible work-from-home days.
- Access to training and career development support.
- Inclusive culture with mental health resources and free counseling via Support Act.