Program Director (Freelance to Full Time) / SYPartners

About SYPartners

SYPartners is a consulting firm that focuses on transformation. Using the tools of strategy and design, we work alongside CEOs, leaders, and their executive teams to design a better future for their organizations, particularly in times of great change.

The animating idea that drives us is our belief that organizations designed for both humanity and performance create unprecedented impact. We partner with leaders in organizations that have the courage and rigor to pursue both as equally essential and mutually reinforcing.

And we seek to design our own organization in alignment with this idea, as well. SYPartners was founded in 1994. The company is headquartered in New York City with an office in Abu Dhabi and is a founding member of kyu, a collective of best-in-class creative firms.

The Opportunity

The Program Director (PD) is a systems thinker and expert at managing complex projects with strong strategic and creative components. The Program Director serves as the COO on client engagements, collaborating with the Partner/Principal to oversee the operations of an engagement.

The PD is responsible for complex program workflow and ensuring that resources and communication are optimized across all tracks of work, and that the program execution is fully aligned with the overall strategic intent.

Candidate Profile

1. You are a proactive problem solver.
2. You are a skilled multi-tasker.
3. You are adept at moving between minutia and system views.
4. You are a dedicated collaborator, experienced at driving teams to succeed.
5. You are an excellent communicator and relationship builder.

How You'll Drive Impact

1. Planning, workflow, and delivery.
2. Cultivate positive and effective relationships with clients of all levels, and be the point of contact for all aspects of the engagement.
3. Develop and manage workflow to meet outcomes for a multi-month, multi-track engagement, knowing how to prioritize and segment work, and how to focus the team on what matters most.
4. Manage the creative process and workflow for anything from digital tools and videos to specialty print and large-scale events.

Budget and Finance

1. Price new work and contribute to proposal development.
2. Track and evaluate program profitability, identifying discrepancies and leveraging data to anticipate and recommend necessary adjustments.
3. Draft scopes of work (SOWs), track budgets, facilitate contract negotiations, and ensure that all appropriate documentation is in place.

Team Health and Partnerships

1. Co-create alongside teams of strategists, designers, and studio team members, as well as external partners including copywriters, photographers, printers, developers, and videographers.
2. Advocate on behalf of your team members, acknowledge team success, and monitor morale.
3. Create strong partnerships with each team member and encourage team behaviors that foster deep collaboration and partnership.
4. Anticipate and properly communicate resource needs to maximize impact, including scenario plans to resolve challenges, taking into account individual growth goals and superpowers, and team needs.

Qualifications

1. Minimum 10+ years of relevant program/account management experience with knowledge of the creative, digital, or experiential process.
2. Fluency in Arabic is preferred.
3. Must be available to work in-person with our team in the UAE.

SYPartners Commitment to Diversity

At SYPartners, we are committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in our own organization and for the leaders and clients we partner with. Our vision of the future—one in which organizations are designed to create conditions for human flourishing—demands that we continually work to become a more diverse and inclusive organization ourselves. We are committed to working with and designing for people of every race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic status, physical ability or attribute, religion, national origin, or political belief. We recognize this commitment requires continual learning, reflection, and imagination.

Compensation

Our offer takes into consideration the skills and experience you bring, pay equity across similar roles within SYPartners, and the market rate for similar roles outside of SYPartners. You can be confident that your offer will be in line with the compensation of other colleagues who are in the same role with comparable skills and experiences. Our offers are guided by and a result of our compensation philosophy, anchored in four guiding principles: Informed, Equitable, Consistent, and Transparent.

Taking Care of Our People

Taking care of people isn't just something we strive for through our business; it is who we are, and part of what we do each and every single day. We want to ensure talent at SYPartners feels this is a place where, no matter who you are, you feel safe, included, and that you have the opportunity to bring your unique self into the space to do the best work of your life.