Strategic PMO Leader — Associate Director

EVERSANA INTOUCH; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 130,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

EVERSANA INTOUCH seeks an Associate Director, PMO to lead a frontline project management team, overseeing programs for major clients. You will drive strategic delivery, mentor staff, and ensure success across multiple projects with budget and timeline accountability.

You will shape onboarding plans, manage billability, and partner with clients on roadmaps while advancing PMO standards and risk management. This role emphasizes leadership, strategic thinking, and stakeholder collaboration.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent education plus professional experience required.
• 7+ years of relevant experience.
• Delivery and management of strategic projects and programs in an advertising agency environment.
• Ability to recognize when to step in and lead high-complexity and/or high-visibility projects.
• Program management knowledge and experience.
• Expert knowledge about how to execute all project types.
• Experience working with ambiguity and ability to mentor others in this grey area.
• Advanced risk management skills.
• Advanced stakeholder management skills.
• Advanced reporting and program-level financial management.
• Strong ability to pitch work and develop high-risk or complex estimates and timelines in a short timeframe with limited information (as delegated).
• Team building
• Strong mentor/coach
• Delegation skills
• Emotional intelligence
• Flexible
• Escalation management
• Delegation
• Problem-solving
• Ability to hold crucial conversations
• Ability to form strategic partnerships with stakeholders

Responsibilities

• Deliver and manage creative and strategic project/programs.
• Program and client-level staffing plans.
• Program and client reporting: health, status, risks, and key program milestones.
• Issue mitigation plan.
• Ensure the onboarding plan is defined and implemented.
• Responsible for billability of project management team.
• Project Coordinator, Project Manager, and Senior Project Manager performance evaluations and goal setting.
• Issue and escalation root cause analysis.
• Facilitate retrospective meeting and share results with relevant stakeholders.
• Collaborate with portfolio team on client road map and improvement plans.
• Develop direct reports and serve in a coaching and mentoring role across the team.
• Enforce process adherence and actively manage resistance.
• Monitor consistent successes/challenges and propose opportunities for process and standards improvement.
• Review project work output and provide feedback.
• Manage and prioritize team workload.
• Manage team level goals and objectives to ensure successful outcomes across clients and projects.
• Manage team escalations.
• Proactively identify program level risk.
• Oversee program health (budget, scope, and timeline).
• Demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion through continuous development, modeling inclusive behaviors, and proactively managing bias.
• All other duties as assigned

Skills

Project management

Team leadership

Stakeholder management

Risk management

Mentoring

Budget management

Client communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent education

Job description

EVERSANA INTOUCH seeks an Associate Director, PMO to lead a frontline project management team, overseeing programs for major clients. You will drive strategic delivery, mentor staff, and ensure success across multiple projects with budget and timeline accountability.

You will shape onboarding plans, manage billability, and partner with clients on roadmaps while advancing PMO standards and risk management. This role emphasizes leadership, strategic thinking, and stakeholder collaboration.