Clinical Program Manager - Essex Management

Overview

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!

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.

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 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…