VP, Program Director

Company Description

Merkle is a leading data-driven, technology-enabled, global performance marketing agency that specializes in the delivery of unique, personalized customer experiences across platforms and devices. For more than 30 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. The agency's heritage in data, technology, and analytics forms the foundation for its unmatched skills in understanding consumer insights that drive people-based marketing strategies. Its combined strengths in performance media, customer experience, customer relationship management, loyalty, and enterprise marketing technology drive improved marketing results and competitive advantage. With 9,600+ employees, Merkle is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, with 50+ additional offices throughout the US, EMEA, and APAC. In 2016, the agency joined dentsu. For more information visit www.merkleinc.com.

Job Description

• Partner with the broader account leadership team to deliver on the account scorecard – a happy team and client, high quality and impactful work and revenue and margin goals.
• Be a leader of leaders. Manage a team of program and project directors who are managing project management teams with a wide degree of experience.
• Raise the bar of the project management team and PM deliverables through talent evaluation, training and coaching and mentoring.
• Define, articulate and execute on a cohesive vision for the Project Management team.
• Review, refine and improve systems, tools and processes related to the delivery of great project management.
• Execute multi-dependency projects and resolve critical project-based situations
• Develop comprehensive work plans, including determining scopes, developing schedules and budgets that accurately reflect scope of work
• Identify business needs for delivery support and appropriately align resources against those needs – educate teams when necessary on roles and responsibilities
• See beyond explicit assignments and identify broader, longer term opportunities or ways to improve current client deliverables
• Set clear expectations with the team for their role in delivering to the project
• Partner with clients, vendors and partner agencies in a positive, professional and constructive way to establish solid relationships
• Lead client discussions on project plans to ensure Client understands tradeoffs and approval process
• Consistently sets clear expectations for tasks and deliverables - can delegate appropriately and successfully
• Communicate scope change, resourcing and financial implications in a clear and timely manner
• Identify gaps in project plans and educate the team on finding closure
• Escalates issues appropriately, proactively and professionally at all times
• Forge strong relationships with internal clients – demonstrate ability to manage at various levels from top-down, bottom-up and across
• Successfully lead large teams to develop risk mitigation plans (when appropriate)
• Demonstrate the ability to negotiate conflict, manage differences of opinion, and communicate with difficult client/team members effectively
• Strong team builder with client and cross-capability teams, clarifying roles and expectations
• Track and maintain budgets of program to ensure agency profitability
• Partner with internal functional teams to facilitate account resource management, utilization, reporting and recruiting
• Has the ability and acumen to challenge time estimates and fundamentally understands level of effort on difficult and intangible tasks
• Communicate to large teams and across inter-departments

Qualifications

• 20 years of relevant experience within an agency or other professional services environment
• Supervisory experience of at least 5 direct reports, and teams of 15+ people
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite including MS Project
• Strong familiarity with workflow management tools such as Jira, Trello and the like
• Strong presentation and Client facing skills
• Excellent communication skills as it relates to work flow steps and internal processes
• Strong organizational, and follow-up skills
• Strong personal accountability
• Strong attention to detail with the ability to multitask
• Accountability and flexibility with the ability to work in a fast-paced environment
• Exhibits strong listening skills and the ability to tactfully communicate position on relevant issues
• Encourages and rewards examples of teamwork and collaborative work efforts
• Demonstrates ability to define and implement professional standards for team participation, conflict resolution, problem solving, an