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Group Program Director
Dubai Edelman – Project Management / Full-Time / Hybrid The Edelman Project Management team is passionate about finding smart ways to deliver great work. We sit at the center of our business, collaborating with best-in-class teams to ensure Edelman ideas make an impact in our clients’ real worlds. From cars to consumer goods, fashion and retail, financial service, food and beverage, luxury, technology or healthcare – we are fanatics about integrated project management and enable our creative, strategy and account teams to deliver smart and brilliant programming for our clients.
This is an exciting opportunity for a solutions-oriented, go-getter who wants to become a leader within a forwardthinking, integrated global team of project managers. We want passion for the work that we do. We want someone who is unafraid to ask questions, is willing to challenge the norm and is eager to be the best in the business. At Edelman, our Group Program Directors have deep experience in integrated project management. They are the leaders who oversee the project management operation, the definition of assignments and the flawless delivery of work for multiple large portfolios of clients that span geography. They are recognized as the go-to’s for our most senior leaders to activate exciting and high-profile integrated work - and to ensure a calm, solutions orientated, one team approach in everything we do.
Edelman Group Program Directors are responsible for providing operational structure and overall delivery oversight on integrated projects. Serving as the overall program management lead across multiple portfolios of accounts, they oversee a teams of project managers and project leaders who lead schedules, deliverables, priorities and teams towards flawless execution. They are a strategic core team leader and counselor to Account and Specialty leads in program management, project delivery best practices and financial health. Group Program Directors are also leaders within the Project Management team, reporting to the Global Head of Project Management. As such, they are responsible for guiding career development and fostering an inclusive, growth-minded team culture. + Lead Project Management on a high-profile client portfolio globally, which will consist or either one top client of large scale or up to 4 smaller top clients (to be decided by PM leadership).
+ Partner with account and specialty leads in the annual planning and forecasting process. This means drawing upon knowledge of Edelman’s full official offering list and all of Edelman’s specialty pools to ensure that all plans are grounded in the work and the specialists best place to deliver it.
+ Own the intake of new work and the evaluation of new briefs within assigned portfolios, facilitating onE Team integrated triage to identify the offerings being sold, and with them the specialties required to collaborate on scoping and budgeting.
+ Partner with global PM leadership and regional operational leadership to implement the approved global vision for project management and contribute to the future evolution of the discipline within Edelman.
+ Own and manage project definition in scopes and staff plans with account leads and specialty teams within their portfolios, producing/overseeing indicative pricing and detailed budgets that match a description of deliverables and actual work effort.
+ Use approved Project Management tools in SmartSheet to establish portfolio dashboards and reports to report on financial health, live work and performance against KPIs. Also use SmartSheet to facilitate project and respirce requests.
+ Independently own the delivery of multiple large, complex programs independently and with support from PM leaders and more junior project managers.
+ Serve as an escalation point to manage risks and provide solutions-oriented consultation to integrated team leads, proactively looking around corners, controlling project scope and the change control process, and collaborating with leads to strategically identify and implement win-win solutions.
+ Partner with Finance and Account teams to ensure clients are profitable, fees are appropriate, forecasts are accurate, and SOWs are approved.
+ Ensure ongoing portfolio and project health reporting where financial and non-financial KPIs are reported on to client, specialty, and geo leadership.
+ Drive client discussions related to delivery strategy, scope, Edelman capabilities and budget.
+ Partner with Resource Management to forecast current and future staffing requirements on assigned portfolios in based both on annual planning and individual project SOWs.
+ Establish workflow and best practices on integrated businesses that enable teams to efficiently deliver against program goals.
+ Ensure quality checks and consistency of all outputs across all project deliverables
+ Ensure flexibility in approaches to fit client, creative and business needs, while managing change and the exploration of various budget/time scenarios to elevate work.
+ Contribute to project operations and “the work behind the work” – prioritizing of new project opportunities, establishing flexible frameworks and best practices with new teams, and providing input on PM team assignments.
+ Manage and mentor Project Management team members, including resolving project escalations, setting and managing performance goals, coaching individual career growth paths, and balancing workloads. This will include the delivery of at least one training to the full global PM community every year.
+ Balance a sense of urgency with a calm and confident leadership at all times.
+ A 4-year degree or equivalent work experience
+ 12+ years of project management experience in an integrated marketing/PR agency or related industry
+ Mastery of large, complex project delivery on integrated programs, from planning through execution
+ Demonstrated ability to motivate teams, foster career development and oversee performance of junior team members
+ Fluency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and Smartsheet (or other similar project management tool) is required.
+ A self-reliant multi-tasker, with the ability to work calmly and efficiently in a fast-paced environment
+ A strategic mindset, with a knack for critical thinking and creative, head-on problem solving
+ A bias for action and the unshakeable ability to confidently lead projects and teams through ambiguity
+ A people leader with a “get things done” and positive mentality
+ A passion for the art and the science of creative problem solving and operational excellence
+ A strong and fearless communicator, with the ability to navigate conflict resolution and influence teams to a desired end goal
+ A positive role model for fostering individual career development and an inclusive team culture
