Associate Program Director

Adelphi Group•New York, NY

5d•$125,000 - $140,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Associate Director is a senior team leader responsible for customizing processes, managing the workflow, and optimizing the resources of all projects across their assigned account(s). This role requires active leadership across client and PM teams. The Associate Director is an active problem solver who may be assigned to manage more junior team members in coordinating the day-to-day efforts of their clients. This individual is proactive, detail-oriented, able to partner closely with many different stakeholders/departments, drives tangible change on complex clients to improve processes and incremental fee, and proactively brings agency-level solutions to the Director of PM for implementation.

Requirements

Senior team leader responsible for customizing processes, managing workflow, and optimizing resources.
Active and present leader across client and PM teams.
Active problem solver.
May manage junior team members.
Proactive, detail-oriented.
Able to partner closely with many different stakeholders/departments.
Drives tangible change on complex clients to improve processes and incremental fee.
Proactively brings agency-level solutions to the Director of PM.
Experience with project plans and estimates.
Experience creating and maintaining master project calendars.
Experience working with resourcing teams to resolve conflicting requests.
Experience ensuring project status reports are updated.
Experience tracking projects in scope tracker.
Experience providing hot sheets to key internal stakeholders.
Experience capturing notes and distributing summarized feedback.
Experience developing and owning project plans and maintaining timelines.
Experience creating detailed project plans and optimizing them.
Experience providing guidance to junior PMs.
Experience partnering with Resource Manager.
Experience determining resource needs at account and project level.
Experience thinking strategically about resource utilization and optimization.
Experience anticipating and removing obstacles for resources.
Experience facilitating cross-discipline alignment.
Experience ensuring team tracks hours appropriately.
Experience analyzing burn data at the resource level.
Experience organizing and requesting job numbers.
Experience tracking, analyzing, and mitigating risk against actual hours billed.
Experience creating SOWs.
Experience ensuring client signature/authorization before beginning work.
Experience providing monthly budget reconciliations, analysis, and proposed solutions.
Experience tracking scope delivery status and actual vs planned hours.

Responsibilities

Determine and formalize the optimal processes, work flows, tools and templates at the account level and iterate as needed
Train team on processes and ensure adherence
Identify inefficiencies and work with team leaders to resolve
Partner with functional leaders to set priorities for account
Lead internal Account-level status meetings
Interact with clients in partnership with the account leadership team
Motivate team in a positive manner engendering teamwork and creativity
Acts as consultant to Project Managers on their projects as needed
Review project plans and estimates before Project Managers deliver to Account team
Create and maintain master project calendar, looking for ways to avoid bottlenecks (staggered project timing), maximize resources and gain efficiencies across the team.
Work with resourcing team to resolve conflicting requests across projects.
Ensure updates of project status reports are updated for internal and client-facing use
Ensure projects are tracked correctly in scope tracker, alerts account team when out of scope projects arise.
Primary focus is high-priority projects.
Provide weekly (or daily depending on team preference) hot sheets to key internal stakeholders & track completion accordingly
Ensure notes are captured in internal meetings & distribute summarized feedback afterward. Ensure all team members acknowledge receipt & provide clear next steps when necessary.
Develop and own project plans & maintain timeline throughout key project stage gates. Must be able to maintain across large client portfolio.
Create detailed project plans and optimize throughout the lifecycle of the project.
Provide guidance to more junior PMs on areas of concern & guide them on how to properly juggle multiple moving pieces.
Partner closely with Resource Manager to solve agency-wide resourcing concerns.
Determine resource needs at the account and project level, working with Resource Director to fill positions and utilize staff efficiently.
Think strategically about resource utilization and optimization, taking into account client needs, as well as cross-discipline perspective.
Actively anticipate & remove obstacles so resources can focus on their tasks.
Facilitate and ensure cross-discipline alignment on task assignments, teams, communication and next steps/action items.
Make sure team knows where to track their hours and does so appropriately. Analyze burn data at the resource level.
Organize and request the opening of job numbers in advance of the work.
Track, analyze and mitigate risk against actual hours billed.
Create SOWs detailing scope items and delivery assumptions.
Ensure client signature/authorization before beginning work.
Provide monthly budget reconciliations, analysis and proposed solutions (when necessary) to Director of Project Management and Account leads, showing progress against plan.
Track scope delivery status along with actual vs planned hours per project/brand/account as applicable.