Associate Director, Corporate Planning

Homebased - East Coast

As Associate Director, Corporate Planning for Parexel you will be an integral team member in moving our strategic growth initiatives forward. The primary role of the Associate Director is to lead and facilitate the planning and execution of corporate initiatives. The Associate Director proactively collaborates with Parexel internal project teams and others involved in the delivery of the initiatives (including subject matter experts, Parexel functions, external consultants and vendors), and management stakeholders.

General areas of responsibility include: business case development; creation and updating project plans/work plans, milestone planning and identification/management of critical path; resource planning; project implementation including mobilization, ongoing liaison and partnering with cross-functional teams; dependency and risk/issue identification and tracking with appropriate escalation; ensuring that projects are progressing according to plan; managing the project budget; ensuring timely completion of actions; production of key progress reports; tracking and assimilation of savings/benefit realization and KPI data; facilitate the planning and coordination of change management, training, communications and other deployment activities; preparation and presentation of materials for internal meetings; management of communication between internal stakeholder

Project Implementation, Control & Evaluation Lead the project management of initiative(s) to ensure completion within budget and schedule, with successful implementation and adoption, and achievement of anticipated benefits. Support development of business case, including costs/budget and benefits to be used to measure success. Define scope and create project plan/workplan, plan milestones and identify critical path. Develop resource plan with appropriate cross-functional representation and plan workstreams; mobilize teams. Facilitate creation of change management, communication, training and support plans, and incorporate into overall project plan to ensure successful deployment and adoption in the business, working with internal stakeholders and SMEs. Establish baseline metrics and mechanisms to track benefits. Review and manage project costs. Lead, facilitate and participate in project team meetings and discussions. Update status reports, project plans, resource plans, dependency and risk/issue tracking logs to record, measure and manage progress. Collate input from workstreams as appropriate. Identify and escalate areas that require further review and communicate with stakeholders to resolve, ensuring timely follow up of actions. Revise plans as required and communicate changes to stakeholders. Provide updates to PMO at required frequency and proactively communicate any issues or risks that could impact achievement of objectives. Support Finance Business Partner with collection and assessment of benefit realization data, KPIs and other key metrics, and costs at required frequency. Support the review of project variances (actual or forecast) and identification of plans to resolve any variance. Support production and presentation of materials for meetings. Support completion of ad-hoc requests by management.Support Initiative Management Capability DevelopmentWork with the PMO team to develop and enhance templates, processes and systems, and help drive their adoption as appropriate. Lead, promote and facilitate best practices for initiative execution and program management, including supporting capture, curation and implementation of lessons learned, role modelling and coaching of colleagues

QualificationsSkills Excellent program/project management and control skills. Advanced problem-solving skills and ability to summarize complex situations into key points. Strong influencing skills and ability to engage and lead teams. Highly motivated, self-starting, with strong results orientation. Strong verbal & written communication, interpersonal, and negotiation skills (mainly internally and often at higher levels). Advanced knowledge of the Microsoft Office software packages such as Excel, MS Project, Visio, PowerPoint. Demonstrated strong organizational skills and ability to take structured approach to varied work assignments. Strong team player who is dedicated to making cross-functional, culturally diverse and geographically distributed teams successful. Strong meeting facilitation and presentation skills. Aptitude to interface with all levels of staff, including top management. Knowledge and Experience Proven relevant experience with managing large, complex programs in healthcare, consultancy, or contract research organization. Familiarity with project management methodology ideally in combination with a background in a functional business area such as human resources, finance, accounting, marketing / sales or clinical studies. Experience with organizational change management. Education Bachelor’s degree in a science-related field, management or business administration, with an advanced technical degree or MBA desirable. PMP or equivalent desirable. Other Some travel may be required. EEO DisclaimerParexel is an equal opportunity employer.  Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to legally protected status, which in the US includes race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.

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