Senior Programme Manager, One Year FTC | London or Birmingham

At Cambridge Healthcare Research [CHR], we partner with the world’s largest biopharmaceutical companies, supporting their commercial and strategic decision-making. We employ rigorous primary and secondary research to ensure we provide our clients with robust market analysis and actionable recommendations. At CHR, we strive for excellence in everything we do and pride ourselves on a culture that nurtures the talented and the curious, helping the inquisitive and the ambitious to develop skills which enable them to grow as people, within a dynamic team environment. Our values enable us to embed considered and curious teams at the heart of any client challenge: 

• Collaboration – We build strong connections to achieve more together 

• Excellence – We aim for greatness in everything we do 

• Community – We deliver beyond work for our people, our clients, and wider society 

• Courage – We embrace challenges as opportunities for growth 

• Integrity – We always do the right thing 

The Opportunity 

We are looking for an experienced Senior Programme Manager [maternity cover] to join the Programme Management team. You will be reporting to the Head of Programme Management and working alongside the Solici team [our strategic competitive intelligence division].

The SPM should be ambitious and relish the challenges of working in a fast-paced environment. The SPM is a business partner for our client-facing consulting teams and will support optimising our resourcing, delivery timelines, financial and client reporting and general support for the group. This role is critical to the success of client engagement and as such, needs high levels of technical knowledge, well-developed communication skills as well as possessing high levels of emotional intelligence.

What you will do 

The Senior Programme Manager has overall accountability for the scoping, financial management, resourcing, and completion of the projects within their assigned business unit while remaining aligned with the strategy, commitments, and goals of the organisation. You will support the business unit leads in strategic planning. You will also have accountability for proactively managing a small rota of freelance primary researchers who support our work. This will include scheduling, reporting, finance management and relationship management with this important resource.

Requirements

Your key responsibilities will include: 

• Plan and implement projects; from scoping and costing in collaboration with the consulting teams
• Help define project milestones, project deliverables and capacity plans
• Define tasks as per scope and assign them to specialist consultants
• Manage budget and revenue recognition with finance colleagues
• Manage schedule and project timeline
• Track deliverables
• Support and direct team
• Lead quality assurance and stage gating process
• Monitor and report on project progress to internal and external stakeholders
• Implement and manage change when necessary to meet project outputs
• Evaluate and assess the result of the project
• Be a partner to the project team to ensure successful delivery
• Continue to develop and hone the quality of project/programme management within CHR Support a culture of adherence to quality, professionalism, and efficiency; drive best practice in project/programme management and project teams
• Support client audits
• Manage primary research resourcing, providing planning, financial and relationship management
• Help the Heads of the Competitive Intelligence (CI), Market Research (MR), and other Commercial teams to oversee complex/problem projects and ensure client relationship is maintained/protected
• Build trusted relationships with senior leadership where continued evaluation and evolution of our Programme Management team leads to better client relationships and stronger business performance

Who will thrive here? 

You will bring a detailed knowledge of Client project delivery in research or market research environment, in addition to a strong understanding of the Pharmaceutical Industry and regulatory environments.  You will, ideally, have experience of working in a Professional Services or Consultancy environment, in addition to having strong financial literacy and experience in working effectively as part of a wider multi-functional team.

You will have proven negotiation skills and interpersonal fluency, with the ability to establish and maintain strong relationships and relate confidently to users at all levels.

Excellent interpersonal skills and active listening skills and excellent written and verbal communication skills are essential, as is the ability to communicate with technical staff, business users, and stakeholders at all levels. Proven ability to manage, plan and be accountable for activities involving interaction with business employees, external vendors, and stakeholders, as well as high levels of IT literacy and use of MS Office and Project applications.

CHR's head office is in Shoreditch, London and provides the opportunity to work within our hybrid working model. We anticipate 2-3 days per week on-site, in either our London or Birmingham office. We offer a flexible and supportive atmosphere as well as a competitive salary and benefits package that includes: 

• Competitive base salary.
• London or Birmingham based.
• Annual bonus
• Private Healthcare and Life Assurance
• Contributory Pension Scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Personal fitness allowance

 
CHR for Society: We believe that a great business is not just about revenues and profits. It’s also about using our expertise and resources to have a positive impact on society and the environment. At CHR we are fully committed to driving positive change in the world – we want our employees to not only build fantastic careers, but also to know they have the ability to positively impact society along the way. 

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion 
 

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and make all employment decisions without regard to age, national origin, race, ethnicity, religion, creed, gender, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.