Nick Soderstrom
Senior project manager & operations lead
hello@work-with-nick.com
work-with-nick.com · linkedin.com/in/nick-soderstrom
Chicago, IL · Remote (US) or onsite Chicago
- 300+Client contracts
- 18,000+Freelance hours billed
- 100%Upwork Job Success
- Top 1%Top Rated Plus on Upwork
- Since 2015Freelance
Summary
Senior project manager and operations lead with 10+ years across federal research, universities, large corporations, startups and nonprofits. I take ownership of the moving parts, projects, timelines, tools, people and processes, so leadership can stay focused on growth. Lately also shipping iPhone apps and websites by directing AI models from brief to production. Freelance since 2015.
Experience
300+ contracts in project management, operations, CRM, executive support, events and web work. Key client roles below.
Four years and 3,700+ hours supporting the SPARC Portal, an open neuroscience research platform.
- Ran the administrative side of a multi-institution research program: scheduling, tracking and follow-ups.
- Ran the program’s public communications, including social media, for releases, events and new resources.
Managed client relationships and kept orders on track from placement through delivery.
Tracked post-production on hundreds of video courses, managing timelines with professors and creatives.
- 1,000+ hours with the team from late 2020; project manager for video production from March 2023.
- Managed production timelines and flagged slippage early enough to fix it.
Guided clients from first touch through the sales and onboarding journey for a digital art platform.
Coordinated with many colleges and internal groups to keep design projects on track for nearly four years.
- Gathered requirements, chased approvals and managed revisions with college clients.
- Kept the tracking that let the team see every active project at a glance.
Scheduling and project coordination for multiple executives.
Staff role on the opening-day team of a restaurant that went on to earn a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
- Managed 20+ people across teams, led front-of-house shifts and coached staff. Previously ServSafe certified.
Skills & tools
Project & operations management
- Scoping, timelines and milestones
- Weekly reporting and async updates
- Process design and documentation
Systems & tools
- Asana, ClickUp, Monday, Jira, Trello
- Notion, Airtable, Confluence
- Microsoft 365: Planner, Teams, SharePoint
CRM & automation
- GoHighLevel, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho
- Zapier and Power Automate
- AI-assisted workflows and reporting
- n8n and Keap
Executive assistant support
- Inbox and calendar ownership
- Hiring pipelines and onboarding
- Vendor and customer follow-up
- QuickBooks bookkeeping: bills, AP/AR, reports
Webinars, events & video
- Zoom, OBS and livestream production
- Premiere Pro, After Effects, Final Cut
- Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign
AI-directed builds, web & apps
- Claude Code & Grok, prompt to production
- Astro sites, SwiftUI apps, GitHub Pages
- WordPress, Wix, Shopify updates