Senior Program Manager (Contract)
Instrument is a digitally native design and technology company built to help brands unlock their full potential. Since 2005, our 300+ team of makers, thinkers, and storytellers has partnered with leading brands like Google, Nike, Uber, ŌURA, and Eventbrite to craft digital experiences that create impact and drive results.
Unlike traditional agencies, we don’t just design—we build. Our work lives at the intersection of taste and technology, powered by curiosity, thoughtful curation, and a commitment to delivering the most fitting solution for every brief. We bring this to life across three core offerings: Brand, Marketing, and Product.
As a member of our freelance network, you’ll collaborate with our teams to bring bold ideas to life—whether launching new brands, building digital products, or shaping experiences that move people. We welcome collaborators from all backgrounds and experiences who share our curiosity, creativity, and care for craft.
We believe great work comes from diverse perspectives and shared purpose. If you’re passionate about learning, experimenting, and making work that matters, we’d love to hear from you.
Role Overview
At Instrument, we believe the future is fueled by imagination and possibility. AI will never replace the making, but it is transforming how we make. We’re at the beginning of a bold shift in how our teams create, collaborate, and deliver work, and we’re looking for an ambitious, tech-forward, creatively minded Senior Program Manager to help steward this transformation in partnership with the C-suite.
This role is fluid, cross-functional, and deeply creative. You’ll partner with the CEO and executive team to drive a strategic evolution in how Instrument works in 2026 and beyond, shaping a timeless, human-centered approach to creative intelligence while honoring the craft at the center of our agency.
If you’re looking for a neat, predictable box to check, this isn’t it. If you want meaningful impact, creative autonomy, and the chance to turn possibilities and vision into reality, we should talk.
Must be located in Portland, OR - on site required
Potential for temp-to-hire.
What You'll Drive
- Every month, you move a conversation into meaningful action.
- Every quarter, we can look back and point to real, visible change.
- By midyear, the company can feel a shift, the ideas we imagined together have become lived realities.
- Design and guide the 2026 organizational transformation, developing frameworks, pilots, and pathways that elevate our craft through AI and automation rather than erode it. You’ll work directly with the CEO, C-suite, and Head of Delivery to shape how Instrument operates in the coming era.
- Partner with design, writing, strategy, growth, production, and tech leaders to ensure new tools and workflows honor deep craft expertise and expand creative possibility. You bring a POV on AI grounded in creative application—not just theory or tools.
- Create briefs, prototypes, frameworks, and narratives that cut through noise, align teams, and make progress unavoidable. Your artifacts move work forward — they are tools of momentum, not bureaucracy.
- Your remit will shift. Some days you’ll shape long-term organizational direction; others you’ll run cross-functional sessions, resolve tension, or accelerate key business-critical initiatives. You thrive on ambiguity and create structure where none exists.
- Design simple, elegant mechanisms for visibility and accountability, light frameworks that make progress clear without turning creativity into a checklist.
- Craft crisp, compelling updates and communications that help people understand not just what we’re doing, but why it matters, connecting the dots between ambition, craft, and impact.
Who You Are
- A senior program manager (7+ years) with experience in creative, tech, product, or hybrid environments.
- A maker with systems instincts, someone who creates clarity through artifacts, storytelling, and synthesis, not just through tools.
- Hands on fluency with AI tools (ChatGPT, agents, automation workflows) and the ability to apply them to accelerate creativity and execution.
- A natural connector and translator, able to build trust across deeply creative and highly technical teams.
- Adaptable, proactive, and energized by ambiguity — you define the path, not wait for it.
- A storyteller and synthesizer who can turn disparate ideas into shared perspective and action.
- Emotionally intelligent, politically aware, and skilled at guiding tension into alignment.
- Comfortable operating at the executive level—surfacing risks early, prompting decision-making, and driving clarity that enables leaders to move independently.
Who This Role Is NOT For
- Those looking for rigidity, predictability, or box-checking.
- Someone who leads with dashboards and burn rates instead of conversations.
- Someone who prefers executing tasks over shaping vision.
- Someone who waits for direction rather than creating clarity and having a POV.
Who This Role Is For
- A creative-minded program leader who wants to lead the initiative that shapes how a modern creative company works in an era of AI.
- Someone excited to take ideas and turn them into visible outcomes — monthly, quarterly, and across the year.
- Someone who believes what we do is art, not science, and knows how to build systems that honor that truth.
- Someone with a POV and an ability to push through ambiguity and constant constant change.
- If you’re energized by shaping what creative work looks like in an AI-enabled future, we’d love to talk.
Pay Range
- The expected pay range for this role is $78-$96 per hour
- Our company has three regional pay bands that it adheres to depending on your location, we reference them as US 1, US 2, and US 3.
- US 3 is our base pay. Examples of cities in US 3 are Portland, Houston and Miami.
- US 2 pay is 7.5% higher than US 3 to meet the market rates. Examples of cities in US 2 are Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle.
- US 1 pay is 15% higher than US 3 to meet market rates. Examples of cities in US 1 are Brooklyn and San Francisco.
- If you are curious which region you are in, please apply and get connected with our recruiting team!
What’s next?
Here’s what you can expect once you apply
- We'll review your application and reach out to discuss next steps
- You'll meet with a recruiter and we’ll get to know each other a little better.
- You'll have two remote interviews with key decision makers for the role you’re interested in
- You'll get extended an offer and start!