Senior Manager Agile Program Manager

Publicis Groupe; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 130,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Publicis Sapient in Chicago is seeking a Senior Manager, Program Management to lead enterprise-scale transformation programs focused on marketing, advertising, insights, orchestration, and AI-driven innovation.

You will steer cross-functional workstreams, build rigorous bottom-up plans, manage governance and risk, and communicate with senior leaders while guiding distributed teams toward measurable business outcomes.

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading complex programs or large-scale transformations.
• Ability to create integrated bottom-up plans across multiple workstreams.
• Executive communication and storytelling skills.
• Experience with globally distributed teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead program management activities across one or more complex transformation workstreams.
• Establish and maintain rigorous bottom-up plans with milestones and owners.
• Provide senior client communications and governance updates.
• Collaborate across strategy, technology, marketing, and change management.

Skills

Complex program leadership

Hands-on program management

Executive communication

Integrated bottom-up planning

Risk & dependency management

Stakeholder management

Tools

PowerPoint

Job description

Company description

Publicis Sapient is a digital transformation partner helping established organizations get to their future, digitally-enabled state, both in the way they work and the way they serve their customers. We help unlock value through a start-up mindset and modern methods, fusing strategy, consulting and customer experience with agile engineering and problem-solving creativity. United by our core values and our purpose of helping people thrive in the brave pursuit of next, our 20,000+ people in 53 offices around the world combine experience across technology, data sciences, consulting and customer obsession to accelerate our clients’ businesses through designing the products and services their customers truly value.

Overview

Publicis Sapient is seeking a Senior Manager, Program Management to play a leadership role within a complex, enterprise-scale transformation program focused on reimagining marketing, advertising, insights, campaign orchestration, product innovation, and related business processes through AI and GenAI.

This individual will operate as a senior leader within the program management function, bringing structure, rigor, accountability, and proactive leadership across multiple interconnected workstreams. The role requires someone who can move comfortably between detailed program execution and senior client communication, creating clarity across a highly complex transformation environment.

Your Impact

• Lead program management activities across one or more complex transformation workstreams.
• Establish and maintain rigorous, detailed bottom-up program plans covering milestones, dependencies, risks, decisions, owners and deliverables.
• Take accountability for assigned workstreams and proactively drive activities to completion.
• Coordinate across strategy, change management, technology, marketing, media and other transformation teams.
• Manage dependencies across Publicis Sapient teams, client stakeholders, third parties and globally distributed delivery teams.
• Establish effective governance, reporting and operating cadences as the broader PMO structure evolves.
• Anticipate delivery risks and identify issues before they become escalations.
• Drive disciplined follow-up on actions, decisions, dependencies and commitments.
• Translate complex program information into concise, senior-level communications and presentations.
• Develop polished PowerPoint presentations and program updates for senior client and internal leadership.
• Partner effectively with the Program Director while independently owning significant portions of day-to-day program leadership.
• Support transformation initiatives involving marketing strategy and insights, campaign orchestration, content and asset development, media, and product innovation.
• Help connect individual transformation initiatives into an integrated program and ensure progress can be measured against intended business outcomes.
• Bring structure to areas where requirements, processes and delivery models continue to evolve.
• Provide leadership across geographically distributed teams and create clear accountability among workstream owners.
• Maintain strong relationships with client stakeholders and serve as a trusted program management partner.

Qualifications

Your Skills & Experience:

• Significant experience leading complex programs, transformations or large-scale consulting engagements.
• Strong hands-on program management capability with the ability to operate at both the strategic and highly detailed execution levels.
• Demonstrated ability to create and manage integrated bottom-up plans across multiple workstreams.
• Strong experience managing risks, dependencies, milestones, decisions and executive-level reporting.
• Experience leading programs involving internal teams, client stakeholders, third parties and globally distributed teams.
• Strong executive communication, facilitation and storytelling skills.
• Advanced PowerPoint capabilities with experience developing senior client and executive-facing materials.
• Ability to create structure and momentum in ambiguous or rapidly evolving programs.
• Strong judgment with demonstrated ability to identify risks, elevate appropriately and drive issues through resolution.
• Comfortable communicating with senior business and technology leaders.
• Strong analytical, negotiation and conflict-resolution capabilities.

Set Yourself Apart With

• Experience leading AI or Generative AI transformation programs.
• Experience across marketing, advertising, media or consumer-facing transformation.
• Understanding of marketing processes such as consumer insights, strategy development, campaign planning and orchestration, content production and measurement.
• Experience integrating multiple technology platforms, teams and processes into an interconnected operating ecosystem.
• Experience leading transformation within large consumer products organizations.
• Experience managing geographically distributed or offshore teams.
• Experience working within highly complex multi-partner or multi-agency environments.

Additional information

Salary Range: $130,000 - $210,000

The range shown represents a grouping of ranges currently in use at Publicis Sapient. Actual range for this position may differ, depending on location and specific skillset required for the work.

As part of our dedication to an inclusive and diverse workforce, Publicis Sapient is committed to Equal Employment Opportunity without regard for race, color, national origin, ethnicity, gender, protected veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion. We are also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at [e-mail] or you may call us at [phone].