Description
ICON is seeking a Senior Director, Project Management Centre of Excellence to lead the evolution of ICON's Project Management Office into a federated Project Management Centre of Excellence.
This role will establish the standards, governance, capability framework and enabling infrastructure that support consistent, high-quality clinical project delivery. The successful candidate will create a central hub that defines the quality bar while building a distributed network of certified champions who embed project-management capability within ICON's delivery functions.
Responsibilities:
- Lead the strategy, operating model, charter and roadmap for ICON's federated Project Management Centre of Excellence
- Establish and govern enterprise project-management standards, methodologies, processes, templates, systems and certification requirements for clinical trial delivery
- Design and own a role-based competency framework, structured onboarding journey and continuous-learning architecture covering project-leadership roles across the organisation
- Build, train and certify a distributed network of functional champions and subject-matter experts
- Standardise study intake and outtake processes and drive measurable improvements in study start-up, site activation, closeout, quality and cycle-time performance
- Establish governance, adoption measures, scorecards and accountability mechanisms that embed standards across functions, divisions and geographies
- Partner with Quality and Oversight, Governance & Oversight, Data Analytics, Business Transformation, and Digital and AI teams to scale capability, strengthen process effectiveness and demonstrate measurable business value
- Engage senior executives and delivery leaders, positioning project-management capability as a driver of quality, operational performance, sponsor experience and business growth
- Build, lead and develop a high-performing central team
Requirements:
- Extensive global clinical trial delivery experience across the full study lifecycle
- Significant senior leadership experience within project management, a PMO or comparable enterprise capability function in a global, matrixed clinical development or CRO environment
- Proven experience designing and owning a role-based competency framework and structured onboarding and continuous-learning pathway for clinical project-leadership roles
- Demonstrated success establishing enterprise project-management standards across functions outside direct line authority
- Experience building and leading a distributed capability network
- Strong working knowledge of ICH-GCP, clinical trial regulatory and quality requirements, inspection readiness and CAPA
- Experience establishing a Project Management Centre of Excellence or leading a significant operating-model transformation
- Experience using learning platforms, analytics, digital or AI-enabled solutions to scale capability and measure effectiveness
- Relevant credentials such as PMP, PgMP, Prosci or continuous-improvement qualifications are an advantage
Rewards & Benefits:
- Competitive base salary and performance-related incentives
- Health and wellbeing programmes including medical, dental, and vision coverage where applicable
- Retirement and pension plans
- Life assurance and disability coverage
- Employee assistance programmes and wellbeing resources
- Learning and development opportunities through structured training and career pathways