Clinical Program Manager - Essex Management

Clinical Program Manager - Essex Management

US Remote/Rockville/Frederick

This position supports "Essex, an Emmes Company". Essex is a biomedical informatics and health information technology-focused consultancy founded in 2009 and headquartered in Rockville, MD. The Essex team comprises experts with extensive experience in strategically developing and managing complex health and biomedical information programs for clients in the Federal Government, research academia, and private sectors.

Emmes Group: Building a better future for us all.

Emmes Group is transforming the future of clinical research, bringing the promise of new medical discovery closer within reach for patients. Emmes Group was founded as Emmes more than 47 years ago, becoming one of the primary clinical research providers to the US government before expanding into public-private partnerships and commercial biopharma. Emmes has built industry leading capabilities in cell and gene therapy, vaccines and infectious diseases, ophthalmology, rare diseases, and neuroscience.

We believe the work we do will have a direct impact on patients' lives and act accordingly. We strive to build a collaborative culture at the intersection of being a performance and people driven company. We're looking for talented professionals eager to help advance clinical research as we work to embed innovation into the fabric of our company. If you share our motivations and passion in research, come join us!

Primary Purpose

We are seeking a highimpact, strategic, and executionoriented directorlevel Program Manager to lead and mature the organization's program strategy, delivery excellence, and client enablement capabilities. This role provides both strategic leadership and handson management, including direct oversight of staff and responsibility for career development, coaching, and performance management.

This role will shape how internal departmental initiatives and client programs are planned, governed, staffed, measured, and communicated, ensuring delivery rigor while enabling flexibility and innovation across diverse client environments.

This role works in close partnership with portfolio, engineering, bioinformatics, data science, and business development leadership to ensure integrated delivery, effective resource utilization, proactive risk management, and an exceptional client experience.

The ideal candidate is a decisive people leader and systems thinker who thrives in complex and evolving environments, balances strategy with execution, and brings a strong client first mindset. Success requires the ability to influence at the executive level, mature organizational capabilities, and cultivate a collaborative, empowered team culture that supports excellence in deliveryfirst mindset. Success requires the ability to influence at the executive level, mature organizational capabilities, and cultivate a collaborative, empowered team culture that supports excellence in delivery.

• Establish and execute departmental goals and objectives aligned to enterprise strategy, contract priorities, and client mission outcomes; define and monitor KPIs to drive accountability and data-informed decision-making.
• Design, implement, and continuously mature program management, governance, and delivery enablement frameworks that scale across portfolios while ensuring compliance with federal, regulatory, and organizational standards.
• Provide executive-level visibility into portfolio, program, and project health through standardized dashboards, metrics, and reporting-enabling proactive management of risks, issues, dependencies, and performance trends.
• Partner with portfolio and divisional leadership to support investment prioritization, funding decisions, and resource allocation, balancing client commitments, growth objectives, and staff sustainability.
• Ensure full lifecycle contract execution excellence, including initiation, execution, closeout, client reporting, lessons learned, and continuous improvement integration.
• Lead people management strategy for the department, including performance management, career development, succession planning, training pathways, and promotion readiness.
• Own departmental workforce and strategic resource planning, including forecasting, recruitment, onboarding, capacity planning, skills development, and certification alignment.
• Ensure compliance with staff allocations plans, time reporting, and internal policies across billable, internal, and strategic initiatives.
• Actively support business development efforts, including RFP solutioning, staffing models, transition planning, delivery onboarding, and ongoing executive client engagement.
• Champion quality-by-design principles across all delivery artifacts and processes; oversee SOP evolution, process training, internal audits, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Maintain strong awareness of industry, regulatory, and technology trends; represent the organization through thought leadership, publications, conferences, and strategic forums.

• Advanced expertise in program, portfolio, and PMO leadership, including framework design, governance models, and delivery maturity assessments (e.g., PMI, PMO, Agile/Hybrid environments).
• Strong command of program operations, including financial management, forecasting, risk and issue management, resource optimization, and executive reporting.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex life sciences and health IT programs supporting clinical research, bioinformatics, public health, biomedical informatics, and regulated data environments.
• Exceptional communication and executive presence, with the ability to influence senior leaders, advise clients, and align cross-functional teams around shared outcomes.
• Proven problem-solving and systems-thinking capabilities, with a track record of driving process improvement, operational scalability, and organizational maturity.
• Ability to rapidly assess priorities, adapt to evolving client environments, and translate strategy into executable roadmaps.
• Strong regulatory and compliance knowledge, including clinical research regulations, healthcare privacy, and federal IT compliance standards (e.g., FDA, 21 CFR Part 11, HIPAA, FISMA, FedRAMP, CMMI, ISO).
• Experience operating in federal health environments (e.g., HHS, NIH, NCI), with familiarity across consulting delivery models, contract vehicles, and business development lifecycle.

Program Management Leadership

• Own and evolve client-facing program and project roadmaps, ensuring alignment with mission goals, regulatory requirements, funding constraints, and delivery capacity
• Contribute to standardized BD-to-Delivery transition processes, ensuring early engagement, clarity of scope, staffing, budgets, timelines, and accountability prior to execution.
• Ensure consistent contract execution through disciplined tracking of deliverables, milestones, financials, and performance metrics, including CPAR inputs and self-assessments.
• Design, maintain, and continuously improve enterprise delivery dashboards, providing visibility into:

• • Program and project health summary
  • Resource utilization and capacity
  • Budget performance and forecasting
  • Risk and issue trends
  • Key milestones and outcomes

Contract performance and quality metrics

• Establish and enforce a structured reporting cadence to support proactive leadership engagement and timely decision-making:

• • Weekly: Project and program status
  • Monthly: Portfolio performance and financial reviews
  • Quarterly: Strategic outlook, risk posture, and growth alignment

• Serve as a senior client relationship leader, cultivating trusted partnerships and proactively identifying opportunities to enhance delivery value and expand engagements.

Financial & Resource Management

• Partner with leadership teams to define, manage, and optimize portfolio, program, and project-level budgets.
• Develop and maintain a comprehensive resource capability matrix capturing skills, certifications, experience, performance insights, and availability.
• Optimize workforce utilization by aligning staffing decisions with delivery needs, staff development goals, and long-term organizational strategy.
• Lead and support staff transitions, onboarding, promotions, and role changes with minimal delivery disruption.
• Drive training and capability development strategies aligned to SOPs, industry standards, and evolving client needs.

Stakeholder Engagement & Communication

• Act as a senior liaison between executive leadership, program teams, and client stakeholders.
• Strengthen client partnerships through structured feedback mechanisms, contract / project performance reviews, and strategic planning engagements to support change agility and account growth.
• Enable cross-division collaboration to ensure integrated delivery and shared accountability.
• Communicate performance, risks, and opportunities through clear dashboards, briefings, and executive presentations.

Advisory & Consultation

• Provide strategic advisory services to internal and external stakeholders navigating complex program and project and delivery challenges.
• Translate technical, business domain, and operational concepts into actionable strategies that enable informed decision-making.
• Serve as a trusted advisor supporting both delivery excellence and organizational growth.

• Education: Bachelor's degree required; Master's degree in a scientific, health, or program management discipline preferred. PMP or equivalent certification desired.
• Experience: Minimum of 10 years in senior program strategy and delivery leadership roles across federal, academic, and private-sector environments.
• Program Leadership: Extensive experience program management, PMO leadership, governance, financial management, and large-scale delivery enablement.
• Industry Knowledge: Strong background in life sciences, clinical research, bioinformatics, health informatics, and public health.
• Leadership & Business Acumen: Proven ability to lead distributed teams, manage complex stakeholder environments, and influence at the executive level.
• Business Development: Demonstrated success supporting client growth, solution design, and consulting delivery models.
• Federal Health IT Experience: Experience supporting HHS, NIH, NCI, or similar agencies strongly preferred.

Why work at Emmes?

At Emmes, your actions and hard work will have a direct impact on public health initiatives, both globally and in our local communities with opportunities for volunteerism through our Emmes Cares community engagement program. We offer a competitive benefits package focused on the health and needs of our growing workforce, including:

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The Emmes Company, LLC is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability or protected veteran status.

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