Assoc. Director, Project Management

Walk the halls of SSW and you'll find a rather spirited and passionate group of people. It's a stimulating assembly of professionals—writers, managers, strategists, art directors, planners, analysts and developers.  

We believe the only way to move people to live healthier, happier lives is to create ideas that move them emotionally. Never powered by reason alone, people – whether they’re consumers, caregivers, doctors or payers – are motivated to take action by emotion. Only when people feel something will they be willing to do something.  

For decades, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness has provided consumer and professional marketing, strategic consulting and medical education to pharmaceutical and wellness brands. Today, we're dedicated to continuing that legacy by raising the bar and crafting award- winning work online, on-air, in print and in-office. Going beyond addressing simply the absence of illness, our vision is to inspire a healthier, happier world. Together, we strive to help brands thrive in today’s culture of wellbeing by leveraging the power of Wellness IntelligenceSM. 

The Associate Director, Project Manager is the team’s project management lead, ultimately responsible for the delivery of high-quality deliverables that power client satisfaction, meet business requirements, and balance client and agency economics. The Associate Director leads a multi-skill (ie online and offline) team of project managers. This person owns project definition, scope monitoring, budgeting & timing at the brand level. Career-manages a team of direct reports. 

Knowledge  

• Ensures that the project management team utilizes a flexible project management approach that adheres to established processes, yet remains open to novel ways of getting the work done 

• Leads large teams to drive complex programs/campaigns to completion based on scope and budget.  

• Talent Development: Hire and retain highly-capable people while fostering diversity and career development 

• SOWs: Accountable for the development, accuracy and maintenance of all team SOWs  

• Client finances: Collaborates (with Business Manager if available) to provide accurate and realistic cost-to-complete estimates and forecasts for assigned projects and brands 

Strategy 

• Resource allocation: Reviews all projects across account to determine resource and skill requirements; partners with Resource Management to drive resource allocation management; ensures the right resources are cast to the need  

• Process improvement: Proactively identifies opportunities to adjust processes for efficiencies 

• Quality Control: Structures and leads project status reviews; leads cross-team post-completion review 

• Informing: Partners with account team to provide appropriate communication directly to clients in an effort to clearly manage expectations 

• Risk Management: Leads large teams to develop and manage risk mitigation plans 

Tactics and Execution 

• Agency Cost Management: Vigilantly seeks to optimize both agency services and internal resources  

• Management: Responsible for the career development of others 

• Execution: Prioritizes work in progress (WIP) with production and account teams to pull work forward and break bottlenecks 

• Vendors: Point of escalation for vendor management concerns 

• Scope Definition: Scopes and estimates complex, multi-channel engagements   

Relationships 

• Internal Relationships and Team Leadership: Collaborative business partner to team capability leads 

• Client Relationship: Client-facing lead on issues related to production and project management    

• You’re comfortable being client facing  

• You have strong conflict management skills 

• You have knowledge in Microsoft Office including Excel 

• You have advanced knowledge of digital projects 

• If you have knowledge of broadcast/video production it’s a plus! 

• If you have knowledge of digital project routing systems it’s a plus! 

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.