Program Director

Who We Are:

At VML, we are a beacon of innovation and growth in an ever-evolving world. Our heritage is built upon a century of combined expertise, where creativity meets technology, and diverse perspectives ignite inspiration. With the merger of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson, we have forged a new path as a growth partner that is part creative agency, part consultancy, and part technology powerhouse. 

Our global family now encompasses over 30,000 employees across 150+ offices in 64 markets, each contributing to a culture that values connection, belonging, and the power of differences.  Our expertise spans the entire customer journey, offering deep insights in communications, commerce, consultancy, CRM, CX, data, production, and technology. We deliver end-to-end solutions that result in revolutionary work. 

Who We Are Looking For: 

VML is hiring a Program Director to lead delivery across multiple clients in the technology sector. You have social delivery experience and have lead large multi-disciplinary teams of people to successfully deliver fast-paced client solutions. This role will report to the Executive Director of Delivery. 

What You'll Do: 

• People | Partner with the Account leads to provide ongoing client satisfaction. Collaborate and guide up to 4 direct reports to resolve challenges that arise and improve process. You will oversee the development of integrated project and program deliverables across a large, cross-agency model. 

• Process | Establish and maintain project and program communications. Oversee project estimations and staffing recommendations, and optimize processes across large streams of work as needed. Ensure that calendars and deployment schedules are maintained for multiple concurrent workstreams. Consistently solve problems based on client priority shifts and concurrency challenges within team bandwidth. 

• Financials | Responsible for project profitability. Plan, track, and approve project expenses, billing, and invoices. Partner with the Finance team, in conjunction with the Account team, to develop a consistent profitability and utilization view across all workstreams. Manage resource allocation on an ongoing, weekly basis as well as monitoring project burn rates, budgets, and reconciliations. 

• Work | Provide sound leadership to ensure all projects are delivered effectively, on time, and on budget. This will be accomplished through effective oversight and leadership of direct reports to provide purpose, direction, and motivation to the team. You will act as an extra set of hands where needed to support them by flexing tactically to manage projects where needed. The partnership with the Account lead is imperative to guiding the business forward, both from a performance and growth perspective 

Who you are: 

A builder | Process-oriented and an innovator with a strong point of view and distinct voice. Ability and appetite to create and bring people together. Innate ability to marshal people and create gravity around ideas.

Open and collaborative | Our team is close-knit and supportive, and we’re working with a lot of unknowns – you must be a champion of team environments that are comfortable with ambiguity and encourage collaboration.  

Optimistic and resilient | Dig in and figure out how to work around problems. Provide a balance needed to maintain stamina and positivity. 

Ego-less | We all wear the hats that need wearing, it’s a mentality that makes the team successful.

What You'll Need: 

• 8+ years of experience in PMO leadership and delivery management in a client-facing role, ideally within an agency setting. 

• Experience overseeing a high volume of concurrent projects that are social-focused with a quick-turn cadence.  

• Experience managing projects with multiple parallel work streams and teams. 

• Experience working with integrated agency teams and external partner agencies 

• Familiarity with Agile and/or Waterfall methodologies. 

• Proficiency with project management tools