Project Manager

Shapiro+Raj; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Shapiro+Raj in Chicago seeks a Project Manager to oversee operational and financial execution of customized research projects, both AI-based and traditional. You will work closely with research, operations, vendors, and clients to keep studies on time, on budget, and well-coordinated, ensuring high-quality deliverables.

The role requires strong execution, financial diligence, and the ability to manage complex workflows with minimal supervision.

Qualifications

• Strong executional reliability and ownership.
• Financial diligence and project-tracking discipline.
• Judgment to adapt processes for unique projects.
• Ability to leverage AI/automation to improve work.
• Effective vendor and cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Run projects against objectives, keeping team aligned on status.
• Lead setup, scheduling, vendor coordination, and workflow management.
• Define engagement plans with clear milestones and decisions.
• Act as day-to-day client contact with proactive status updates.
• Manage recruitment, fieldwork logistics, and data quality.
• Monitor budget, commitments, and costs; flag variances early.
• Coordinate among research, operations, vendors, and clients.
• Maintain accuracy across trackers and shared files.
• Apply approved AI tools to reduce admin work and surface risks.
• Close projects and capture lessons learned.

Skills

Execution reliability

Budget tracking

AI-enabled workflows

Vendor coordination

Cross-functional collaboration

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 escalation 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
• 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