Associate Director, Project Delivery (Pharma Agency)

Avalere Health • Chicago, NY

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

Avalere Health is seeking an Associate Director, Project Delivery. We are looking for a candidate with a strong knowledge of agency workflow and financial management, who demonstrates strong verbal and written communication skills, and who can lead and manage a portfolio of business, team in Project Management and operational excellence. Our ideal candidate will drive a positive and collaborative working environment, and both lead and drive working relationships across agency departments, with clients, and with external partners. This role requires the candidate to have an expert ability to work independently while identifying, analyzing, and resolving problems related to agency workflow, client delivery, resourcing, and budget management. This role also requires expert decision-making skills and the ability to communicate confidently and efficiently with managers and team members across all areas of the agency. Finally, the ideal candidate will possess strong management and leadership skills and be highly organized with strong attention to detail.

Requirements

• Excellent communication, interpersonal and problem-solving skills, including those with clients and senior agency team
• Able to expertly lead and motivate multi-disciplinary project teams
• Able to expertly manage multiple projects as one cohesive program
• Excellent leadership behavior and ability to act with managerial courage to motivate and influence team
• Able to work expertly under pressure and very comfortable with change and complexity in dynamic environments
• Able to shift readily between the "big picture" and the small-but-crucial details, knowing when to concentrate on each
• Understands, provides input to and gauges the quality of the project requirements and ensures alignment of the solutions
• Able to expertly lead meetings with clients and agency team, and create/deliver persuasive presentations
• Experience in estimating, staffing and managing fee budgets more than $5MM (not including out of pockets)
• Able to persuade and negotiate solutions
• Excellent ability to apply concepts in strategy, marketing and brand management
• Excellent management skills including coaching and mentoring of APMs, PMs and SPMs
• Bachelor’s degree required
• Detailed knowledge of pharmaceutical brand marketing including broadcast, print, digital and Medical/Legal/regulatory review
• 7+ years experience in project management within a healthcare agency environment
• Expert skill level with MS Office experience, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook strongly preferred
• Expert skill level with MS Project or other project plan software (Smartsheet) strongly preferred
• Expert skill level with production tools and proprietary software (Egnyte, JIRA, Asana, Content Management Systems, online routing, etc.) strongly preferred
• Excellent knowledge of the web and related technologies including (user experience, web development, web services, integration, application management and hosting) strongly preferred
• Strong experience with both traditional/non-digital and digital campaigns (including site, digital experiences, email) strongly preferred
• Excellent experience with project methodologies, including agile, hybrid, and waterfall
• Expert project management skills and experience including: Schedule development, management, monitoring and oversight

Nice To Haves

• Masters-level degree a plus

Responsibilities

• Expertly lead and perform all aspects of project delivery from project scoping and definition to successful execution, and lessons learned; be a go-to resource for the Project Management Department and other agency department leads
• Responsible for a portfolio of accounts and associated programs acting as a delivery lead and an overall Project Management department leader
• Effective roadmap planning, problem solving and delivering to drive operational excellence and ensuring adherence to best practices in this area
• As a department leader, drive the cross-functional delivery team and liaise with managers in all departments to achieve business objectives and client satisfaction
• Enhance/create processes and procedures based on business objectives and opportunities to improve, streamline and/or automate agency workflows
• Enforce project standards and business management systems
• Lead/mentor APMs, PMs, SPMs; possibly will have direct reports
• Foster client relationships and represent agency operations and project management in client meetings and planning discussions as appropriate; may require travel to client locations
• Actively lead and contribute to launch planning roadmaps and day of approval plans to ensure operational excellence throughout client PDUFA timeframes
• Create and disseminate project burn reports and escalate/mitigate areas of risk as needed, working collaboratively with Account Management team to proactively address
• Champion the project management methodology to promote a disciplined workflow that encourages a thorough but streamlined review process that encourages teamwork, self-organization, and accountability, allows for rapid delivery of high-quality materials, and aligns with clients’ needs and agency’s goals
• Instill project management best practices approach into agency operations
• Lead the development and rollout of agency digital workflow, including conducting inter-departmental training sessions as needed to build an understanding and adaptation of the workflow
• Train, direct, and collaborates with Senior Project Managers and PM’s on the implementation of and regular adherence to agency systems and tools
• Own the estimation process and budget reconciliation process for your book of accounts, ranging from specific project scopes to holistic account staffing, working closely with VP, Director on agency staff requirements
• Assist VP, Director in training the PM group in estimating techniques, meeting the standard of accuracy and timeliness
• Collaborate with the Account team on SOW development; prepare estimates, discuss requirements, and make cost recommendations
• Consult with teams when financial issues arise and address changes in scope
• Review weekly, monthly and quarterly assignments to proactively forecast potential staffing limits. Partner with department heads to line up resources and ensure proper staff utilization
• Maintain in-depth knowledge on costs and person hours required to take a project from initiation through completion
• Prepare special analysis, and monthly financial reports as needed
• Instill a solution-oriented response among team members to client and internal challenges
• Play an active role in conflict resolution. Identifies, manages, and resolves problems before they escalate.
• Partner with department heads and senior agency staff in resolving team conflicts
• Manage and resolve staff issues related to employee performance
• Coach and mentor SPM’s, PMs - providing ongoing, constructive feedback

Benefits

• 401K plan with an employer match contribution up to 4% (immediately vested)
• life insurance
• disability coverage
• medical, dental, and vision plans
• flexible working arrangements, including hybrid and remote work
• option to work from anywhere across the globe two weeks each year
• 20 vacation days
• one personal well-being day
• gifted end-of-year holidays
• early Summer Friday finish in June, July, and August
• free counselling through our employee assistance program
• personalized health support
• enhanced maternity, paternity, family leave
• fertility policies
• continuous opportunities to professionally develop with on-demand training, support, and global mobility opportunities across the business

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level