Project Manager

Shapiro-Raj-2; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Shapiro+Raj is seeking an execution-focused Project Manager to oversee custom research projects, both AI-based and traditional, ensuring on-time, on-budget delivery. You will coordinate research, operations, vendors, and clients to keep studies cleanly aligned.

This role demands strong communication under pressure, ownership, and the discipline to follow established processes while adapting to changing conditions.

Qualifications

• Must have strong executional reliability and ownership.
• Clear communication under pressure is essential.
• Financial diligence and comfort with project tracking.
• Discipline to follow established processes and adapt when needed.
• Instinct to use AI and automation to improve work quality.
• Strong vendor and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Run the project against objectives and specifications, serving as a primary status contact.
• Lead project setup, scheduling, vendor coordination, and workflow management.
• Establish the operating plan for each engagement and keep milestones visible to the team.
• Serve as the day-to-day operational client liaison with clear expectations and proactive recommendations.
• Manage logistics across qualitative and quantitative studies.
• Evaluate progress, identify causes of shortfalls, and propose solutions.
• Own the financial health of the project: budgets, commitments, and costs; signal changes early.
• Serve as the main liaison among research, operations, vendors, and client contacts on execution issues.
• Ensure accuracy across trackers, budget documents, and file-sharing systems.
• Use approved AI/automation tools to reduce admin work and surface risk.

Skills

Execution

Communication under pressure

Financial diligence

Process discipline

AI & automation awareness

Vendor management

Job description

Shapiro+Raj is the largest certified minority business enterprise insights and inspiration company in North America. Our mission is to help Fortune 500 clients find new and different ways to grow their brands in today’s continually reshaping landscape.

Our life sciences work sits at the center of that, on the decisions that determine whether a therapy reaches the patients who need it. We combine deep therapeutic expertise, behavioral science, and advanced technology to connect the dots between what people think, feel, say, and do, delivering clarity at the speed this moment demands. Technical intelligence handles the volume. Human intelligence delivers the strategic heft.

Stella, our pharma-native AI agent, was built by our own insights consultants and is a working tool for our teams. We expect technology to amplify our thinking, not replace it.

The person who makes the research happen operationally. Parallel to the research ladder, not inside it this is an execution leadership role and should never be evaluated as a junior research job.

The Project Manager oversees the operational and financial execution of custom research projects, AI-based and traditional, working closely with research, operations, vendors, and clients to keep studies on time, on budget, and cleanly coordinated. This is not a passive coordinator role. It is an accountability role for someone who can manage details, solve problems, communicate early, and keep a project honest when conditions change.

Core responsibilities

• Run the project against its objectives and specifications, and be the person the team asks for status rather than the person who has to be asked twice.
• Lead project setup, scheduling, vendor coordination, and workflow management.
• Establish the operating plan for each engagement, and keep roles, milestones, dependencies, and decisions visible so the broader team always understands where the project stands and what happens next.
• Serve as the day-to-day operational contact for the client, creating confidence through clear expectations, current status, early warnings, thoughtful recommendations, and no surprises.
• Manage logistics across qualitative and quantitative studies.
• Evaluate recruiting and fieldwork progress against goals, identify what is causing a shortfall, and bring a recommendation rather than a problem.
• Own the financial health of the project: know the budget, commitments, and actual costs throughout the engagement, identify variance early, challenge unnecessary spend, and elevate scope or cost changes before they become margin problems.
• Serve as the main liaison among research, operations, vendors, and selected client contacts on execution issues.
• Own systems accuracy across project trackers, budget documents, and file-sharing systems.
• Use approved AI and automation tools to reduce administrative work, improve project visibility, and surface risk earlier while maintaining appropriate human judgment, confidentiality, and data governance.
• Help close projects cleanly and capture lessons learned.

How the role works here

On qualitative work the PM handles kickoffs, recruiter coordination, platform setup, daily recruitment updates, interview scheduling, and close-out. On quantitative work the PM or field manager manages the project notification flow, budget documents, kickoff coordination, sample and programmer handoffs, field monitoring, quota issues, and weekly financial reporting.

What we are looking for

Must-haves

• Strong executional reliability, and ownership that does not need chasing
• Clear communication under pressure
• Financial diligence and comfort with project tracking
• Discipline to use our established processes consistently, plus the judgment to adapt when a project creates a situation no playbook anticipated
• An instinct to use AI and automation to make the work faster and cleaner, with sound judgment over the output
• Strong vendor and cross-functional working style

Helpful experience

• Market research operations
• Qualitative recruiting or quantitative fieldwork coordination
• Budget tracking, invoices, and procurement processes