Director Project Management Central Labs

Director Project Management ICON Central Labs

Dublin, Ireland

This is an exciting opportunity to work within a fast paced environment for a leading global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. Our Director, Project Management plays a key role within ICON Laboratory Services (ILS) by ensuring client satisfaction by acting as the main contact for all Project Management's Managers and Team Leads in all matters regarding ICL.  Responsibilities include: proactive client care and partnership with key clients; providing direction of the Project Management Teams toward better internal and external customer satisfaction through early intervention, early risk assessments and voice of the customer realization; and finally assuring that the PM group is managing studies in accordance with Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) Guidances.

Overview of the Role

• Work with key clients to understand current and upcoming needs in order to plan internal resource needs, enhance and re-direct services as needed, and drive improvements to our services and deliverables best suited to the client, always with a view to fostering the lab-client partnership.
• Review client metrics, including identifying areas of potential improvements or optimizations as needed by the PM Managers and Team Leads; delegate the investigation and troubleshooting of quality issues from internally or externally driven complaints and/or client audits.
• Prepare for and attend regular client meetings at a governance and operational management level to represent all of ILS and bring issues, concerns and future development needs back into ILS for consideration and implementation; Attends regular Protocol Review Committee meetings for capabilities considerations and for resource planning purposes; Involvement in Proposal Updates.
• Work with the BD Team and key Clients directly to build stronger relationships through listening to the voice of the customer at the client as well as communicating these needs to internal ILS interdepartmental service providers.
• Act as the PM Managers' or Team Leads' main contact / mentor / coach and the person to contact for all escalated matters regarding our central laboratory services. This will be accomplished by following up and responding to clinical study specific inquiries from both intra and inter departmental groups to provide further troubleshooting solutions and earlier proposal intervention and early risk assessments to minimize these through process improvements.
• Work with other internal groups to enhance interdepartmental interactions, such as having more involvement in new lab Implementation & training to explain what this means to clinical studies and therefore to our clients.
• Work with CRS to better align our services and to provide cross function ICON enhancements for our clients to choose from
• Performs additional relevant responsibilities as requested by management.

Authority

• Access to all active and closed projects to obtain big picture view of our service levels.
• Ability to attend all client meetings with internal parties
• Communication with internal and external vendors as required by job functions
• Advocate for the client with all internal departments to drive process improvement
• Issue escalation to Senior Management as appropriate.
• Manage all staff under his/her jurisdiction.

Supervision

• Ensure  all  necessary  training  is  provided to  his/her  staff  to  improve  their  job  performance and knowledge
• Proactively participate in the selection and recruitment of suitable and qualified staff
• Act as mentor/role model for Project Management / Team Leads
• Evaluate performance of direct reports.
• Support direct reports in establishing and accomplishing mutually agreeable goals that contribute to the success of the organization as a whole.

Role Requirements

• Hold a BS or BA in a Life Science or related field.
• Previous experience in clinical lab/ clinical trial , project management or related experience
• Previous line management experience
• Significant sponsor experience preferred.
• Must have a track record of successfully managing large/complex global programs.
• Strong history of success in building client relationships and client retention experience.
• Good understanding of project management processes and highly developed problem solving skills and knowledge of systems required for study management
• Significant leadership and well developed managerial skills with experience in client and internal presentations.
• Ability to oversee all aspects of project management and client relationship management, successfully manage PM Managers, interact positively with all levels of internal staff.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Experienced multi-tasker with the ability to work independently with a high degree of quality.
• Must be self-motivated with an outgoing personality and work well in a team setting
• Proven track record in delivering focused customer service and client satisfaction
• Proven ability to proactively manage a broad variety of clinical studies
• Experience in managing projects and/or client relationship management
• Strong history of success in building client relationships and client retention experience
• Capable of quickly building good rapport with clients, assessing their needs and presenting features and benefits of ILS's products and services
• Group presentation skills a plus
• Proven ability to utilize resources and successfully navigate an organization
• Knowledge and familiarity with the clinical trials industry
• Ability to effectively apply learned principles to broader situations
• Skilled in projecting and monitoring trends and performing risk management
• Ability to remain composed and even-keeled in stressful situations, performing effectively in spite of shifting priorities, workload and external pressures
• Accomplished as an action-oriented self-starter, actively seeking out self-improvement with a view to global thinking and team development.