Freelance Senior Program Manager

Syneos Health Communications; United States; On-site; USD 76,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401k Company match

Flexible PTO

Job summary

Syneos Health Communications is seeking a Senior Program Manager to serve as the primary point of contact for a defined set of clients. You will guide the studio from intake to delivery, ensuring client satisfaction and alignment with project goals.

The role requires 5-8 years in program management or studio/agency settings, with hands-on print production knowledge, strong leadership, and excellent communication skills.

Qualifications

• 5-8 years of experience in program management, delivery operations, or studio/agency environments.
• Hands-on experience in print production and studio workflows.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Proven team leadership and personnel development experience.
• Ability to operate effectively within an integrated, networked service model.

Responsibilities

• Acts as the studio’s lead representative, ensuring client expectations are met.
• Guides intake and triage, assigns resources, and coordinates milestones.
• Develops project estimates, timelines, and budgets; tracks progress and risks.
• Oversees deliverables and ensures alignment with scope of work.
• Maintains knowledge of creative development and print production processes.

Skills

Program management

Client handling

Print production knowledge

Team leadership

Stakeholder management

Job description

Description

You are organized, driven, and thrive in an ownership role. The Senior Program Manager serves as the primary point of contact and gateway into the studio for a defined set of clients, including Syneos Communications agencies and Syneos Health Clinical departments. Acting as a holistic business partner, the Senior Program Manager ensures the studio delivers on client needs and expectations. This role is accountable for ensuring overall client satisfaction. The Senior Program Manager reports directly to the Director, Program Management.

The Senior Program Manager is responsible for defining project parameters, contributing to creative ideation sessions, and participating in tactical recommendation brainstorming. Once project parameters are aligned between the client and the studio, the Senior Program Manager leads and oversees the project from start to finish, including budget development, timeline creation, and management of deliverable routing. The Senior Program Manager should possess deep knowledge of the creative process and have experience with print production.

This role partners closely with the studio teams and serves as the primary lead for one of our internal communication teams, ensuring that work is routed appropriately to necessary stakeholders. The Senior Program Manager ensures that the Creative team is fully integrated into the workflow and redirects relevant projects to them as needed.

Client and Business Management

• Serves as the studio’s lead representative, ensuring client expectations are consistently met.
• Builds, maintains, and nurtures strong relationships with key stakeholders across disciplines.
• Acts as an advocate for the studio by continually building organizational awareness of its value, including coordinating capability presentations, and proactively promoting and recommending studio services as appropriate.
• Handles challenges professionally and navigates disagreements diplomatically to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.
• Represents the studio in new business opportunities.
• Acts as the primary escalation point for quality issues, workflow gaps, or performance concerns, and partners with studio leadership to address concerns related to studio performance, personnel, or potential client issues.
• Responsible for hiring, training, and managing a team of direct reports, including conducting annual performance reviews and supporting career development.

Intake

• Serves as the gatekeeper for all incoming projects, ensuring requests are clearly defined and include all necessary information (e.g., confirmed budgets, links, assets, requirements).
• Directs projects to the appropriate team or discipline lead (Content Production, Technology, etc.) who will assign resources accordingly.
• Represents the studio holistically during key milestones, including triage and intake meetings, project status meetings, project planning, scoping discussions, and RFP processes.

Execution

• Develops project estimates, timelines, and resource plans based on a deep understanding of program management and client partnership trajectories.
• Manages the day-to-day workflow of deliverables in alignment with the approved scope of work.
• Defines the "how" and "when" of project delivery and empowers teams to meet shared expectations and goals.
• Oversees and manages project budgets through regular tracking, reporting, and proactive problem‑solving.
• Maintains deep knowledge of the creative development process and print production workflows.

Key Competencies

• 5-8 years of experience in program management, delivery operations, or studio/agency experience
• Strategic and inspiring leader
• Strong ability to manage multiple clients, projects, and priorities while proactively anticipating issues
• Anticipates and resolves issues with a proactive, solution‑oriented approach; skilled at de‑escalating situations and making confident decisions
• Brings hands‑on experience in print production
• Skilled at fostering strong team morale and creating an environment of open and honest dialogue
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Client‑facing professional with broad understanding of studio services
• Strong presentation, sales, and marketing capabilities
• Keen creative eye for quality control
• Team management experience
• Ability to operate effectively within an integrated, networked service model

The anticipated hourly rate for this position is $55.00 - $65.00 but may vary based on various factors such as the candidate's qualifications, skills, competencies and proficiency for the role.

At Syneos Health Communications, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace. If your past experience doesn’t align perfectly, we encourage you to apply anyway. At times, we will consider transferable skills from previous roles. We also encourage you to join our Talent Network to stay connected to additional career opportunities.

Boldsky Creative Studio supports more than 12+ Syneos Health marketing and communication agencies as well as direct‑to‑customer engagements. We function as the agencies' creative execution and production arm, implementing their creative vision. As part of Syneos Health, our agencies - consisting of leading brands and experts in advertising, branding, public relations, managed markets and medical communications - are engaged in every point of influence in health, providing real‑world insight into markets and audiences in ways that no other partner could.

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Syneos Health companies are affirmative action/equal opportunity employers (Minorities/Females/Veterans/Disabled)

At Syneos Health, we believe in providing an environment and culture in which Our People can thrive, develop and advance. We reward and recognize our people by providing valuable benefits and a quality‑of‑life balance. The benefits for this position will include a competitive compensation package, Health benefits to include Medical, Dental and Vision, Company match 401k, flexible paid time off (PTO) and sick time. Because certain states and municipalities have regulated paid sick time requirements, eligibility for paid sick time may vary depending on where you work. Syneos Health complies with all applicable federal, state, and municipal paid sick time requirements.