Resource Specialist - 1 year contract at Publicis · Toronto

Company description

Publicis is an omni-channel communications agency with over 600 employees across our Canadian operations. The office is the largest in our industry in Canada and boasts talent across various disciplines of marketing and advertising expertise. Publicis carries a balanced split of Canadian, U.S. and Global clients for which we are Agency of Record. Publicis supports a range of D&I actions through our Driving Change team as well as giving back to the community through a long-standing participation in the Out of the Cold Program. With a strong, active and familial culture, Pub United is the agency’s social club, hosting events as wide reaching as Curling, Trivia Nights and more.

Overview

The Resource Specialist plays a critical role in ensuring the effective planning, allocation, and utilization of talent across ThePub and the Publicis Production Hub (PPH) in Canada.

Working closely with Production, Project Management, Account, and Finance teams, this role is responsible for balancing capacity, demand, and skill requirements to support high‑quality delivery for local and cross‑border client engagements.

This is a hands‑on, operational role focused on supporting a multidisciplinary team spanning Creative, Production, Technology, and QA, with responsibility for managing both internal resources and, from time to time, external freelance partners to address delivery needs—ensuring teams are set up for success while maintaining visibility into utilization, risks, and opportunities.

Responsibilities

Resource Planning & Allocation

• Own day‑to‑day resource planning and allocation for production and delivery teams within ThePub / PPH Canada.
• Assign resources based on skills, availability, scope, and delivery timelines, balancing client priorities and team health.
• Partner with Accounts, Project Managers and Production Leads to understand ongoing and upcoming demand.
• Proactively identify capacity risks, over‑utilization, and delivery constraints, escalating as needed.

Capacity Forecasting & Utilization

• Maintain accurate visibility into capacity, utilization, and projected workload across teams.
• Support short‑ and mid‑term forecasting, including ramp‑ups, ramp‑downs, and role transitions.
• Track and report on utilization trends to support workforce and delivery planning.
• Support redeployment opportunities across accounts when appropriate.

Stakeholder Collaboration

• Work closely with Project Management, Production, Account, and Creative/Delivery leads to ensure resourcing aligns with client commitments.
• Partner with Finance and Operations to support accurate staffing assumptions for scopes and planning.
• Act as a trusted point of contact for resourcing discussions, prioritization decisions, and trade‑offs.

Freelancers & Vendors

• Coordinate the use of freelancers and external vendors to address short‑term demand spikes, specialized skill requirements, or timing constraints.
• Partner with Account, Project Management, and Production Leads to ensure external resources are onboarded efficiently and aligned to scope, timelines, and delivery standards.
• Maintain visibility into external resourcing to support planning, continuity, and cost awareness.
• Support smooth transitions between freelance/vendor resources and internal teams as demand stabilizes.

Process, Tools & Reporting

• Ensure consistent use of resourcing tools, trackers, and dashboards (e.g., Float, Smartsheet or similar).
• Maintain accurate resourcing data to support reporting, audits, and leadership reviews.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of resourcing processes, governance, and ways of working.

Team Enablement & Growth

• Support onboarding and offboarding from a resourcing perspective, ensuring smooth transitions.
• Partner with Leads to identify skill gaps and development needs.
• Promote transparency, fairness, and sustainability in resource decision‑making.

Qualifications

• Minimum 3+ years of experience in resource management, capacity planning, or operations within a creative, production, or agency environment.

• Strong understanding of production workflows and delivery models.

• Experience managing multiple projects, teams, and competing priorities.

• Highly organized, analytical, and detail‑oriented with strong problem‑solving skills.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, with the ability to build and maintain reports, trackers, and analysis to support resourcing, utilization, and planning.

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management capabilities.

• Experience with resource management or project planning tools (e.g., Smartsheet, Float, Jira).

• Experience coordinating freelancers and/or external partners is an asset.

Additional information

Transparency matters to us. The salary range for this position is $70,000-$75,000 per year. Actual compensation within this range will be based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and applicable certifications. This range reflects what we reasonably expect to offer based on current market data.

We use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of our hiring process, such as reviewing applications or analyzing resumes. These tools assist our recruitment team but never replace human decision-making. We believe in a human first approach, where your experience and potential are recognized by people.

Publicis Canada is committed to building a diverse workforce representative of our community. We encourage and are pleased to consider all qualified candidates, without regard to race, colour, citizenship, religion, sex, marital / family status, sexual orientation, gender identity, aboriginal status, age, disability or persons who may require an accommodation, to apply. If you require a specific accommodation please contact Human Resources.