Associate Director, Project Management

Real Chemistry

13h • $108,000 - $120,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

At Real Chemistry, making the world a healthier place isn’t just an aspiration—it’s our everyday reality. Our drive to transform healthcare is informed by our blend of deep scientific expertise, human-centred creativity, and AI-driven insights, fostering a unique environment where innovation thrives and our people are impact-obsessed. As a global agency, we provide a full suite of services across healthcare communications and marketing to our clients, including top players in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.
Our #LifeatRealChem culture is rooted in our people—we believe we are best together and are committed to excellence for both our clients and colleagues. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting your career, if you share our passion for healthcare and connection, we invite you to explore our opportunities.
Discover your purpose. Embrace innovation. Experience #LifeatRealChem.
Job Summary:
Real Chemistry is looking for an Associate Director, Project Management to join our growing team!
The Associate Director of Project Management is responsible for the successful delivery of projects across a large portfolio of multi-faceted integrated projects, throughout all phases of a project’s life cycle, from initial scope to final delivery. They will ensure operational effectiveness through the management of delivery systems, financial systems, project management systems and resource allocation processes.
This person should have experience and proven ability in planning, staff management of various levels of project managers, and executing large end to end integrated campaigns involving various media partners, multi-functional in-house teams as well as outside vendors. They will understand the roles and responsibilities of each department’s team member on the project. They will work with a disciplinary team of specialists to ensure delivery of digital projects (website/email, banners, app/social/VR), print projects (factsheets, infographics, brochures), branding projects (key messaging, logos, style guides), social activation projects (influencer, social campaign ideation, events, social posts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter), creative campaigns projects (AI, photoshoots, illustration), conference projects (booth, displays, leave-behinds) and on occasion new business pitches.
The right person for this role will have to be Excellence driven, have an Accountable With An I mentality and will be solution-oriented, providing recommendations to the team when challenges arise.
This is a hybrid role, based in any of our US offices—including New York City, Lambertville, Boston, Chicago, Carmel, or San Francisco—or remotely within the US, depending on team and business needs.

Requirements

• 7+ years of project management experience working in a creative advertising agency.
• 3+ years of experience managing a team of project managers.
• Understanding of client profitability management, scoping, and budgeting; has financial understanding accounts of $5mm+ in revenue
• Working familiarity with healthcare industry-specific processes, including MLR processes.
• Familiarity with platforms such as Workfront, Outlook, Veeva, Adobe, Box, OpenAir, JIRA.
• Experience in executing integrated digital marketing campaigns and have a comprehensive understanding of digital, social, and print marketing channels.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment while maintaining a positive attitude.
• Ability to communicate clearly and concisely with technical and non-technical teams across multiple businesses; excellent written, verbal, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to identify and solve difficult challenges and be able to reach out to the correct SMEs for assistance.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with an ability to reason quickly combined with concise cross-functional collaborating and communication skills - verbal and written.
• Demonstrated understanding of project interdependencies (can identify, address, and carry through inputs and information from one project across all other projects within the program).
• Must be highly organized with a proven track record of leading multiple projects and accounts simultaneously.
• Comfortable consulting and interfacing with clients and have a proven track record of earning client trust and
• Experience managing or mentoring at least two direct reports.
• Excellent time management skills
• Flexible with always evolving processes.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working on Agency of Record (AOR) healthcare projects/accounts for pharma brands.

Responsibilities

• Oversee and manage project managers to ensure excellent project delivery that is on time and within budget
• Ability to develop the skill sets of project managers to work in an integrated manner
• Responsible for the billability targets and resource allocation of direct reports
• Foster an environment of growth and opportunity within the PM department and agency. Examples include developing training decks and leading team trainings.
• Supporting updating processes & team job descriptions
• Interviewing, be a part of the hiring consensus process, and training new project managers
• Oversee program(s) of ~$6MM+ in revenue
• Ability to estimate new business scopes and opportunities
• Develop and review detailed staff plans based on information provided by SMEs as well as reviews staff plans from junior level project managers for accuracy of hours and assumption
• Partner closely with Team Leads and Finance to effectively drive profitable margins on the accounts
• Responsible for ongoing analysis and dissemination of financial information such as project burns as it pertains to the program(s)
• Understand agency systems and processes for operational effectiveness as well as to help onboard new project managers
• Manage larger-scale, cross-pillar and/or “high-profile” project(s)
• Partner with department leaders and resource management to create cross-functional teams that can deliver the best integrated solutions for our clients
• Understand project interdependencies and can identify, address, and carry through inputs and information from one project across all other projects within the program
• Partner closely with the Account team and other key team members during the planning phase of projects to help guide on timing, feasibility of project and identify any barriers that may delay the initiation of the project/program
• Identify delivery-related risks and develop mitigation plans in collaboration with account business leads and respective subject matter experts
• Keep teams updated by sharing information (via timelines, hot sheets, status sheets, status meeting, burn reports, project retrospective reports) on a regular basis through the appropriate channels

Benefits

• Real Chemistry offers a comprehensive benefit program and perks, tailored to your region. Globally, this includes offices in our key markets with free snacks to keep you running all day long, generous holiday and paid time off, options for private medical, dental, and vison plans, and support in saving for the future.
• Other perks include mental wellness coaching and support and access to more than 13,000 online classes with LinkedIn Learning.
• Learn more about our great benefits and perks and search specific offerings in your region at: www.realchemistrybenefits.com.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees