Creative Project Manager
Company: Medtronic, Inc.
Employment Type: Freelance
Location: HYBRID – USA-MN Mounds View Central
8200 Coral Sea Street NE
Mounds View, Minnesota 55112
Assignment Duration: Apr 20, 2026 – Apr 16, 2027
Work Schedule: Full-time, approximately 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Onsite Expectation: 3 days per week onsite; Wednesday is required team day
Role Overview
The Creative PM will serve as a senior-level creative project leader within Medtronic’s Cardiovascular (CV) Creative & Digital Center of Excellence (COE). This freelance professional will oversee complex creative media and design initiatives from intake through final delivery, ensuring that projects are strategically aligned, executed with creative excellence, and delivered on time and within budget.
You will work closely with internal Medtronic marketing and communications partners to translate business objectives into clear creative briefs, manage cross-functional workflows, and champion the Medtronic brand across a range of digital and print channels. This role combines hands-on project ownership, resource coordination, and creative problem-solving within a highly regulated, global healthcare environment.
Team Environment
You will join a robust in-house creative organization that includes:
- 16 Designers
- 6 Project Managers
- 3 Art Directors
- 2 Team Managers
- 1 Director
The environment is collaborative, fast-paced, and quality-driven, with a strong emphasis on brand stewardship and partnership with internal clients.
Key Responsibilities
1. Creative Project Leadership & Workflow Management (?60%)
- Lead the end-to-end management of creative projects, including (but not limited to) brochures, print and digital ads, sales and executive presentations, AEM-based web pages, Eloqua emails, social media assets, and other marketing communications.
- Manage project intake, clarify scope and objectives, and translate business needs into actionable project plans and creative briefs.
- Develop and maintain project timelines, budgets, and resource plans; monitor progress and proactively address risks, bottlenecks, or scope changes.
- Coordinate with designers, art directors, copywriters, and production partners to ensure that deliverables meet quality, brand, and regulatory requirements.
- Ensure that Medtronic corporate identity and CV brand standards are correctly applied across all assets.
- Provide regular status updates to stakeholders and maintain accurate documentation within project management systems.
2. Client Partnership & Cross-Functional Collaboration (?30%)
- Serve as a primary point of contact and strategic partner for internal Medtronic clients within the Cardiovascular business.
- Facilitate discovery and planning sessions with marketing and cross-functional partners to define goals, target audiences, key messages, and success metrics.
- Act as a liaison between clients and the creative team to align expectations, recommend solutions, and ensure that project outcomes support broader marketing and business objectives.
- Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and solutions-oriented culture; help align stakeholders around timelines, priorities, and trade-offs.
- Communicate clearly and professionally to share ideas, manage feedback, negotiate timelines, and resolve conflicts.
3. Quality, Process, and Brand Governance (?10%)
- Apply Medtronic master brand guidelines and CV-specific standards to ensure consistency and accuracy across all creative outputs.
- Support and reinforce established creative processes, proofing workflows, and review/approval steps.
- Contribute to continuous improvement by identifying opportunities to streamline workflows, clarify roles, and strengthen quality control.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in communications, marketing, administration, design, or a closely related field.
- Minimum 2 years of experience in a project management role within an advertising agency, in-house creative team, or comparable creative services environment.
- Demonstrated experience managing multiple concurrent creative or marketing projects in a fast-paced setting.
Must-Have Skills & Competencies
- Proven ability to organize, prioritize, and lead projects from brief to delivery under tight deadlines.
- Strong project management and problem-solving skills, with comfort making decisions and escalating appropriately.
- Excellent client-facing and customer service skills; able to build trust and maintain strong working relationships.
- Exceptional organizational and time-management capabilities, with strong attention to detail.
- Demonstrated initiative, ownership mindset, and a collaborative, team-first approach.
- Ability to quickly learn new tools, processes, and business contexts, and adapt to change.
- Outstanding interpersonal and communication skills (written, verbal, listening, and negotiation).
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office tools, including PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and Teams.
Nice-to-Have Experience
- Experience collecting and using metrics/data to plan work, inform creative decisions, track progress, and refine approaches.
- Hands-on experience navigating an end-to-end creative production process (intake, concept, development, review, approval, deployment).
- Familiarity with a variety of content formats and channels (web, email, social, print, digital presentations) and how to tailor content for different audiences.
- Experience working in medical device, healthcare, or other highly regulated industries.
- Knowledge of project management platforms such as Infowit, Workfront, or Basecamp.
- Experience using measurement or analytics tools related to marketing or content performance.
- Comfort with cloud-based collaboration tools such as SharePoint and OneDrive.
- Experience in an in-house graphic design or creative services team.
