Producer/Project Manager

Summary

Yaqeen Institute is a nonprofit organization focused on Islamic research and creative programming designed to strengthen faith and inspire contribution. The Producer/Project Manager will lead end-to-end delivery for the Heartbeat & Limited Series studio, managing schedules, workflows, budgets, vendors, reporting, and cross-functional coordination. The role will also build production systems and playbooks to support operational excellence across concurrent media workstreams.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain all production schedules and task tracking (ClickUp) across the studio's slate — weekly episodes, flagship series milestones, external deliveries, and launch dates — as the single source of truth
• Lead weekly team standups and planning sessions to track progress, keep teams organized, and ensure output is predictable
• Coordinate the handoff of content and assets between editing, animation, design, copy, and marketing through all functional stages of the workflow
• Track and prepare the studio's production checkpoints and review gates, ensuring each receives a deliberate review with the Executive Producer before dependent work or spend proceeds
• Manage task assignments, track progress, and facilitate scope adjustments as needed in partnership with the Executive Producer
• Manage day-to-day communication with external production partners and freelance contractors end-to-end, including milestone-based delivery schedules and early-warning checkpoints
• Monitor contracted delivery dates and buffers across concurrent external productions, flagging risks to the Executive Producer early
• Coordinate onboarding, briefs, and monthly work plans for freelance editors and animators supplementing studio capacity
• Track project spend against approved budgets across all productions and flag variances to leadership before they materialize
• Assemble the studio's monthly reporting package — performance metrics against KPIs, budget position, checkpoint status, and audience-insight themes — for the Executive Producer's leadership report
• Support resource and capacity planning across the studio, flagging constraints and recommending allocation adjustments
• Build and maintain the studio's production playbook: document research protocols, production workflows, delivery standards, and partnership templates as they are created, so future series inherit working systems
• Ensure documentation is usable by team members beyond the original production through structured review
• Identify, recommend, and implement process improvements across production, post-production, and publishing workflows
• Stay up to date with industry trends and best practices in production management and creative operations
• Manage stakeholder expectations by communicating project timelines, dependencies, and risks in a timely and transparent manner
• Coordinate scheduling and production logistics with scholar-hosts and subject matter experts in support of the Executive Producer's creative partnerships
• Collaborate with marketing, curriculum, engineering, and product counterparts to align release schedules, companion experiences, and promotional campaigns
• Mediate discussions to create shared ownership among cross-functional teams in order to maintain project momentum and avoid schedule interruptions

Skills

• Bachelor's degree required
• 3–5+ years of experience leading cross-functional projects in media production, creative agencies, or comparable multi-stream environments, with a proven record of delivering on time and within scope
• Experience managing project timelines, risk mitigation, and dependency management across concurrent workstreams
• Experience coordinating the efforts of editors, animators, designers, subject matter experts, engineers, and marketers
• Experience managing external vendors, production partners, or freelancers, including milestone-based contracts and deliveries
• Experience tracking spend against approved budgets and reporting variances to leadership
• Skilled in facilitating communication between creative teams and non-technical stakeholders to ensure alignment on execution, scope constraints, and delivery expectations
• Proficiency with modern project management and collaboration tools (ClickUp, Jira, Asana, Monday)
• Certifications: Project Management Professional (PMP) – PMI (Preferred)
• Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) – Scrum Alliance (Preferred)
• Experience in video production or post-production environments (episodic, documentary, or digital-first) preferred
• Familiarity with YouTube-first publishing workflows and release calendars a plus
• Familiarity with Islamic content and the standards of scholarly review it requires a plus
• Experience documenting processes or building operational playbooks a plus

Qualifications

Must Haves

• Bachelor's degree required
• 3–5+ years of experience leading cross-functional projects in media production, creative agencies, or comparable multi-stream environments, with a proven record of delivering on time and within scope
• Experience managing project timelines, risk mitigation, and dependency management across concurrent workstreams
• Experience coordinating the efforts of editors, animators, designers, subject matter experts, engineers, and marketers
• Experience managing external vendors, production partners, or freelancers, including milestone-based contracts and deliveries
• Experience tracking spend against approved budgets and reporting variances to leadership
• Skilled in facilitating communication between creative teams and non-technical stakeholders to ensure alignment on execution, scope constraints, and delivery expectations
• Proficiency with modern project management and collaboration tools (ClickUp, Jira, Asana, Monday)

Nice to Haves

• Certifications: Project Management Professional (PMP) – PMI (Preferred)
• Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) – Scrum Alliance (Preferred)
• Experience in video production or post-production environments (episodic, documentary, or digital-first) preferred
• Familiarity with YouTube-first publishing workflows and release calendars a plus
• Familiarity with Islamic content and the standards of scholarly review it requires a plus
• Experience documenting processes or building operational playbooks a plus