Clinical Program Manager - Essex Management

Overview

Clinical Program Manager – Essex Management (US Remote/Rockville/Frederick). This position supports "Essex, an Emmes Company" – a biomedical informatics and health information technology 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 is transforming the future of clinical research. Emmes has built industry‑leading capabilities in cell and gene therapy, vaccines, infectious diseases, ophthalmology, rare diseases, and neuroscience. We believe the work we do will directly impact patients’ lives. We’re looking for professionals eager to advance clinical research and embed innovation into our company culture.

We are seeking a high‑impact, strategic, and execution‑oriented director‑level Program Manager to lead and mature the organization’s program strategy, delivery excellence, and client enablement capabilities. This role provides both strategic leadership and hands‑on 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. It 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.

• 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 allocation 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…