Event Project Manager in Salisbury

If you have planned events for a few years, you know the version of the job that runs on adrenaline: every project held together at the last minute, and the pressure landing on you. It does not have to work that way. Costello Production Group is built around calm, methodical delivery, and we are hiring an experienced project manager to lead the coordination and client management behind our events. The work is senior and hands-on, worked over five short, consistent days: 9:00 to 15:30, Monday to Friday, every week.

Costello Production Group is a UK event production company. We deliver conferences, awards, hybrid broadcasts and brand events for corporate clients and event agencies, from the initial brief through to live delivery, with one team and one process. Our whole business exists to make event production feel uneventful: no surprises, no chaos, no firefighting. The audience remembers the event, not the production. We get there by being calm, transparent and reliable, by doing things the right way rather than the easy way, and by improving a little with every project rather than chasing shortcuts.

This role holds that standard. The calm a client feels on the day is built by the person running the plan behind it. That person is you.

The core of the role is the operational spine of our events:

• Booking crew and coordinating freelancers
• Raising and managing purchase orders against job budgets
• Managing clients between and around events

Around it sit proposal work with the production team, case study write-ups, and a defined secondary role supporting our marketing and lead generation. This is not the events job you may have had before. You would not be firefighting someone else's poor planning, and you would not be the person left holding every risk on the day. We already have a mature process, well-built templates, and technical production managers who lead delivery on site. You would be joining a system that already works, with the authority to lead projects, not rescuing a broken one.

We are not looking for someone to sit inside our process in silence, either. It works well, and we keep it that way by giving the experienced people who run it a real say in how it develops as we grow. Your perspective on the project side would carry weight.

The role covers:

• Crew booking and freelancer coordination: matching the right people to each job and confirming them in good time.
• Purchase orders: raising and managing POs against job budgets, keeping spend tracked and accurate. This needs attention to detail and a structured approach.
• Accommodation and travel: arranging travel and stays for crew and equipment.
• Client management: keeping clients informed and well looked after between and around events, clearly and professionally.
• Proposals: preparing proposals from our existing templates and helping shape ideas with the production team.
• Case study write-ups: turning delivered events into clear, accurate write-ups.
• Supporting marketing and lead generation (secondary): a clear, defined part of the role. Helping with content and copy, compiling material for our marketing agency, and learning and helping run our outbound and sales-funnel process so lead generation keeps ticking over through busy delivery periods.

The balance between these shifts through the year. Some weeks are heavier on delivery, others on planning and proposals, depending on how busy we are.

This is a secondary part of the role, not the main event, and it does not require design or video editing skills. What matters is that it keeps running. You would be trained on our outbound and sales-funnel process and help keep it running, so lead generation continues even when delivery is busy. A defined part of each week is set aside for it, so it does not get dropped when a project gets demanding.

Being on site is a real requirement of this role, not an office job that occasionally travels, though it is not every week. Where a client is significant or an event calls for it, you would be there leading your own work: running your part of the delivery, managing the suppliers and crew you have booked, and being the client's point of contact through the day. Our technical team leads the technical delivery on site. Your ownership sits alongside theirs, on the project and client side. This is not a show-calling or technical leadership role.

In practice this is a handful of events across the year, with the majority of your time in pre-production. Event hours are paid, as set out in the working pattern below.

Who this suits:

• An experienced operator in the corporate events industry, with a track record in client-facing roles delivering live events.
• Client-presentable and confident holding senior client relationships.
• Organised and detail-focused, and composed under pressure.
• Able to work on your own initiative and manage your own week, rather than wait to be told what to do next.
• Comfortable running an established, well-documented system to a high standard, while bringing your own experience to bear on it.
• Competent with budgets and purchase orders.
• Happy to support the marketing and lead-generation side, and keen to learn our outbound and sales-funnel process.
• Comfortable with the realities of a small team: happy to wear more than one hat, and excited by the chance to grow and build with a scaling business.
• Looking for consistent, shorter days and a predictable week, without a drop in seniority.

Who this will not suit:

• Someone early in their career, or stepping across from outside the events industry.
• Someone who would ignore a working system and rebuild it from scratch.
• Anyone looking for a hands-on technical or show-calling role.
• Someone who wants pure event delivery with no involvement in marketing.
• Someone who wants a large-company structure with narrow, fixed responsibilities.

Working pattern: 30 hours a week, worked over five consistent short days: Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 15:30, with a 30-minute unpaid lunch. The pattern is the same every week. The exact arrangement is negotiable for the right person, but we would need you in the office for the majority of the week. Event days sit on top of this pattern and are occasional rather than weekly. Event hours are paid at your full-time-equivalent hourly rate for hours up to 37.5 in a week. Beyond 37.5 hours, our standard time off in lieu and weekend rules apply.

Location and our move to Bristol: We are currently based in Swindon. In March 2028 the business will move to Bristol, so you would need to be comfortable with that change of commute when it arrives.

What we offer:

• Salary of £32,000–£38,000 full-time equivalent, which is £25,600–£30,400 actual at 30 hours a week, depending on experience.
• Paid event work. Event hours are paid at your full-time-equivalent hourly rate for hours up to 37.5 in a week; beyond that, our standard time off in lieu (TOIL) and weekend rules apply.
• Employer pension contribution (3%) through our workplace pension scheme.
• 30 days' annual leave including bank holidays, pro-rated to your part-time hours (around 24 days for this role).
• Additional paid company closure over Christmas, typically from Christmas Eve to 2 January, on top of your annual leave.
• Private medical cover through Vitality.
• A shorter, more predictable working week with a defined block of time protected for the marketing and lead-generation side.
• A real voice in how we work, a supportive team, and genuine room to grow.

For the right person, performing well, there is real scope to build this into a department. We believe sustainable performance is better than burnout. Away from live projects and the events themselves, we do not expect you on call in the evenings or at weekends.

How to apply: Please send your CV and a short covering note explaining why the role suits you to . This is a direct hire. We are not working with agencies.

Equal opportunities: CPG is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from everyone, and we will make reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process on request.