Senior Director, Program Manager - North Star

RAPP Chicago is looking for a Senior Director, Program Management - North Star to join our award-winning Program Management team.

WHO WE ARE:

We are RAPP – world leaders in activating growth with precision and empathy at scale.

As a global, next-generation precision marketing agency we leverage data, creativity, technology, and empathy to foster client growth. We champion individuality in the marketing solutions we create, and in our workplace. We fight for solutions that adapt to the individual’s needs, beliefs, behaviors, and aspirations.

We foster an inclusive workplace that values diversity and emphasizes personal well-being.

HOW WE DO IT:

At RAPP, our fearless superconnectors help to create value from personal brand experiences by focusing on three key areas: connected data, connected content and connected decisioning.

Our data analysts identify who that person is, our strategists understand what they want, and our award-winning technologists and creatives know how to deliver it – ensuring we’re able to activate authentic customer connections for our clients.

Part of Omnicom’s Precision Marketing Group, RAPP is comprised of 2,000+ creatives, technologists, strategists, and data and marketing scientists across 15+ global markets.

YOUR ROLE:

Program and Portfolio Management at RAPP is a key capability that ensures that our accounts and  the agency are continuously generating customer value through delivery excellence, operational efficiency and business growth. 

As a Sr Director of Program Management, you will be the driving force behind managing our portfolio that builds and maintains our strategic vision, orchestrate our annual planning and scoping processes, drives storytelling, brand reputation and tracks realization of our strategic plans.  Our strategic plans and annual planning processes drive the scope and priority for our mutiple complex, technology, analytics and marketing programs as well as internal initiatives. You are a master of process and execution, a creative problem solver and have exceptional people skills.  You are organized, have a strong attention to detail and obsessed with driving business value. You have experience in leading portfolios and programs, leveraging project management, agile and change management best practices.   

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Roadmap development, planning and execution of complex integrated portfolios of programs and projects, managing interdependencies and continuous prioritization to achieve expected value and outcomes.
• Lead new request discovery, scoping and estimations, effectively engaging multiple disciplines
• Oversee full life cycle of project and program delivery collaborating with cross-functional teams / department heads - from defining project specifications (goals, milestones, staffing, budget, schedule, dependencies, and scope) through proactive mitigation of risks and changes and completion of projects.
• Manage and analyze financial performance and revenue impact across projects and/or account. Apply strategies to sustain health, drive growth strategies and problem-solve financial issues.
• Lead the project/program’s financial, contracting, vendor and resourcing needs in partnership with operations, finance and contracting teams.
• Cultivate strong partnerships with internal and external agency teams and the customer. Builds an individual and team brand that is known for:
  • Ensuring delivery of on-time, scope and budget deliverables and enabling the account’s ability to realize its strategic plans and customer value
  • Being a go-to when it comes to the financial and resource health of the account
  • Fostering strong collaboration, exemplifying thorough and proactive communication and effectiveness in managing up out and down.
• Evaluate and optimize agency and delivery processes with a goal of continuous improvement. (e.g. measurement, reporting, analysis, post-mortem and process improvement).
• Drive process standardization and consistent adoption of established process, tools and operating models.
• Build the next generation of RAPPers by actively engaging in hiring and developing project manager and project coordinators, continuously advancing their career growth and competencies.

REQUIRED SKILLS:

• Bachelor’s degree required. Masters degree preferred.
• 10-15 years of complex, program and portfolio management delivery leveraging best practices in program/project management, SaFe, agile delivery and scrum.
• Expertise in MS office products and project management tools, including Workfront, Atlassian, MS Project, Smartsheet or others
• Program or large project experience in one or more of the following areas:
  • CRM and 360 campaign management, i.e. digital, direct mail, video, radio, etc.
  • Technology and Analytics platform modernization and development
  • Cloud Transformation leveraging AWS, Azure or GCP.
  • Implementing Data Driven Decision Workflows.
  • Marketing Technology solutions such as Pega CDH, Sales Force or similar.
  • Web technologies, including HTML, DHTML, Flash, XML, etc.
  • Strategy Development, annual planning and financial management initiatives
• Established track record of successful partnering with clients, multi-disciplinary teams and external partners to drive business outcomes.
• Strong communication and presentation skills - capable of building and presenting executive project briefs, articulate complex solutions and problem statements
• Excellent problem solving, people management, risk management and negotiation skills.
• Experience with project documentation (SOWs, Project Plans, RAID Logs) and management/workflow tools a plus.
• Excellent leadership and influence skills, with passion for mentoring PM talent and continuously advocating for the value and benefit of the project management discipline.

Our hybrid work model:

RAPP's current hybrid model is designed to enable in-person connections and collaboration that is core to our culture, while also supporting flexibility for all employees. As such, we have the option to work from home two days per week, if we'd like. 

RAPP provides a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits plan. Benefits for this role include health/vision/dental insurance, 401(k), stock options, Healthcare & Dependent Flexible Spending Accounts, vacation, sick, and personal days and positive activism days, paid parental leave and disability benefits. For more information regarding Omnicom benefits, please visit www.omnicombenefits.com. A reasonable estimate of the salary for this role, at the time of posting, is $140,000 - $160,000. This range is specific to Chicago and multiple factors are considered in making compensation decisions including, but not limited to: skill set, experience and training, certifications; etc. This is an exempt position. If your requirements fall outside of this range, you are still welcome to apply.

“As an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status.”

NOTE:  This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive. Employee may perform other related duties as negotiated to meet the ongoing needs of the organization.