Strategic Initiatives, Associate Director

Strategic Initiatives, Associate Director

Syneos Health® is a leading fully-integrated life sciences services organization built to accelerate customer success. We partner with innovators at every point across the drug development and commercialization continuum, helping them navigate complexity, anticipate change and accelerate progress.
 
Every day we perform better because of how we work together, as one team, each the best at what we do. We bring together talented experts across a broad spectrum of business critical corporate functions. Every role plays an essential part in enabling our customers to achieve their goals. Our teams are agile, collaborative, and committed to delivering—for each other, for our customers, and ultimately for the people who rely on the services we support.
Discover what your 25,000 future colleagues already know:
 
Why Syneos Health
• We are passionate about developing our people, through career development and progression; supportive and engaged line management; technical and therapeutic area training; peer recognition and total rewards program.
• We are committed to building an inclusive culture – where you can authentically be yourself. Central to this is our purpose – Driven to Deliver – which captures the passion of our colleagues to show up each day and shape solutions that have the ability to dramatically impact someone’s life. 
• We are continuously building the company we all want to work for and our customers want to work with. Why? Because we know that when we bring together smart colleagues from across the world, we can shape the future of healthcare, driving impact for customers and defining the pace of patient progress. 

Job Responsibilities

Job Summary

The Associate Director, Strategic Initiatives leads complex, enterprise-level initiatives that deliver sustained business value for Syneos Health. This role is accountable for directing high-impact programs including post-M&A integrations, strategic partnerships, and large-scale business transformations by leading senior, cross-functional teams and influencing outcomes across multiple functions and business units. The Associate Director translates enterprise strategy into executable initiatives, drives decision-making at the program level, and ensures alignment with organizational priorities. This role operates with a high degree of autonomy, partners closely with executive leadership, and champions a culture of accountability, recognition, and continuous improvement while delivering measurable results at the operational and business unit level.

Core Responsibilities

• Provides leadership and direction for complex, cross-functional programs, ensuring alignment with enterprise and functional strategies and business priorities.

• Leads and oversees matrixed teams, including senior professionals and subordinate project leaders, establishing clear accountability, governance, and performance expectations across programs.

• Owns end-to-end program execution, including development and oversight of program charters, integrated delivery roadmaps, dependency management, resource strategies, and governance frameworks.

• Drives execution excellence by monitoring progress against milestones, KPIs, and value realization targets, proactively addressing risks to ensure successful delivery of outcomes.

• Identifies, evaluates, and resolves complex, cross-functional risks and issues, escalating strategic decisions to executive sponsors and governance bodies as appropriate.

• Provides oversight of scope, budget, and resource planning, ensuring initiatives are delivered within approved financial and operational parameters.

• Influences and validates financial forecasts, monitors program-level spend, and partners with finance leaders to ensure reconciliation of resources and expend tures across initiatives.

• Leads enterprise-level change management and business readiness efforts, ensuring adoption, sustainability, and realization of intended benefits across impacted functions.

• Serves as a primary liaison to executive sponsors and steering committees, delivering concise, insight-driven updates and framing decisions that impact multiple functions or business units.

• Represents strategic initiatives in governance, portfolio, and cross-enterprise forums, influencing prioritization, sequencing, and investment decisions.

• Coaches and mentors project managers and senior team members, building organizational capability and reinforcing best practices in program delivery.

• Drives continuous improvement by capturing lessons learned and contributing to the evolution of strategic initiative methodologies, tools, and standards.

• Partners with functional leaders to identify opportunities for process optimization and operational improvements that support long-term business objectives.

Qualifications

Minimum Education Requirement

4 Year / Bachelors Degree

BA/BS or equivalent combination of education and experience considered

At least 8 years’ experience in project management

Preferred Education Requirement: Graduate Degree

Additional Qualifications

• Demonstrated expertise in leading large, complex programs that span multiple functions or business units, with accountability for outcomes and value realization.

• Proven ability to lead through influence, including managing senior stakeholders and directing work through matrixed teams and subordinate leaders.

• Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving skills, with experience resolving complex operational, technical, and organizational challenges beyond a single team.

• Experience coaching and developing experienced professionals or project leaders, fostering high performance and professional growth.

• Exceptional executive-level communication and presentation skills, with the ability to frame issues, decisions, and recommendations for senior leadership.

• Advanced proficiency in project and program management methodologies and tools, with the ability to adapt approaches to fit enterprise-scale initiatives.

• High degree of adaptability, initiative, and judgment in dynamic, fast-paced environments involving ambiguity and competing priorities.

Critical Skills

• Empowered Program Leadership – ability to lead complex initiatives by aligning stakeholders, building high-performing cross-functional teams, removing barriers, and enforcing accountability to turn strategy into results.

• Program Management Excellence – skilled in applying advanced program management methodologies and best practices to effectively plan, govern, and deliver large, multi-workstream initiatives.

• Change Leadership & Organizational Readiness – proficient in leading change with empathy and intent, proactively addressing the people side of transformation to drive adoption and ensure sustainable outcomes.

• Value Creation & Outcome Tracking – ability to maintain a strong focus on value realization by defining success metrics, tracking outcomes, and using data to inform decisions and drive results.

• Enterprise & Operational Acumen – adept at leveraging a broad understanding of organizational operations and interdependencies to anticipate impacts, accelerate execution, and create additional value.

• Business & Financial Acumen – experienced in applying sound business judgment and financial insight to evaluate tradeoffs, guide investments, and optimize program-level decision-making.

Disclaimer

Tasks, duties, and responsibilities as listed in this job description are not exhaustive. The Company, at its sole discretion and with no prior notice, may assign other tasks, duties, and job responsibilities. Equivalent experience, skills, and/or education will also be considered so qualifications of incumbents may differ from those listed in the Job Description. The Company, at its sole discretion, will determine

what constitutes as equivalent to the qualifications described above. Further, nothing contained herein should be construed to create an employment contract. Occasionally, required skills/experiences for jobs are expressed in brief terms. Any language contained herein is intended to fully comply with all obligations imposed by the legislation of each country in which it operates, including the implementation of the EU Equality Directive, in relation to the recruitment and employment of its employees. The Company is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, including the provision of reasonable accommodations, when appropriate, to assist employees or applicants to perform the essential functions of the job.

Get to know Syneos Health

Over the past 5 years, we have worked with 94% of all Novel FDA Approved Drugs, 95% of EMA Authorized Products and over 200 Studies across 73,000 Sites and 675,000+ Trial patients.

No matter what your role is, you’ll take the initiative and challenge the status quo with us in a highly competitive and ever-changing environment. Learn more about Syneos Health.
 

http://www.syneoshealth.com

Additional Information

Tasks, duties, and responsibilities as listed in this job description are not exhaustive.  The Company, at its sole discretion and with no prior notice, may assign other tasks, duties, and job responsibilities. Equivalent experience, skills, and/or education will also be considered so qualifications of incumbents may differ from those listed in the Job Description. The Company, at its sole discretion, will determine what constitutes as equivalent to the qualifications described above.   Further, nothing contained herein should be construed to create an employment contract.  Occasionally, required skills/experiences for jobs are expressed in brief terms. Any language contained herein is intended to fully comply with all obligations imposed by the legislation of each country in which it operates, including the implementation of the EU Equality Directive, in relation to the recruitment and employment of its employees.  The Company is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, including the provision of reasonable accommodations, when appropriate, to assist employees or applicants to perform the essential functions of the job.