Associate Program Director

Associate Program Director

Costa Rica

This role is in the organization to support the delivery discipline in providing oversight to project management teams across a portfolio.

The core expectation of this role is to define and manage programs of all sizes and complexities,

expertly craft project artifacts, be a collaborative partner across the work. Additionally, this role leadsthe work and team with strong relationships across disciplines/ with clients and is responsible for financial management and staffing across projects and portfolios.

Career Development is typically provided by Program Directors [or above] but can be modified to suit an account and/or office location. This role may provide career development to emerging talent. Nature of this role of role is that of a ‘leader’.

You will:

• Support, enable, and deliver a program within an account delivered by a group of Project Managers

• Build and own operational cadences for a program of work, including finance tracker, resourcing planning, recruitment, executional tools and templates, and reporting

• Contributes to creation/improvement of templates and processes for department

• Lead and collaborates to ensure the work stays on brief, client needs and feedback are understood and addressed, and the work delivered is of high quality

• Lead a variety of small to large projects with collective budget likely under $1MM and with teams of 20 or fewer

• Structure and lead status meetings, client reviews, and other stakeholder meetings

• Ensure delivery leadership has necessary visibility into the work

• Act as the main POC for the clients, handling communications with the intent of client satisfaction

• Use knowledge of client goals/ competition to identify opportunities to grow accounts

• Identify post launch opportunities through retrospective analysis

• Perform analysis and reporting on project health, attending finance meetings to inform account health (Metrics include: Remaining forecast, forecast to completion, burn (actuals) to date, % project progress, % budget utilized, write off %)

• Approve client invoices and third-party purchase orders

• Be an active champion of project management fundamentals and a leader in the discipline

• Facilitate and assign (when applicable) in project retrospective process to take learnings forward

• Provide input to team development, account growth, annual planning, and operational processes

• Organize, document, and communicate to showcase the standard of excellence and demonstrate delivery best practices to teams and third-parties

• Motivate team in a productive way and proactive way, promote “yes, and?” thinking to uncover potential and/or solutions

• Actively and visibly champion the work and team

• Support team dynamics and performance with guidance and conversation

You have:

• Deep understanding of client businesses, goals, objectives, and preferences, with the ability to anticipate needs proactively.

• Strong collaborative mindset with the ability to contribute effectively across cross-functional teams.

• Demonstrated leadership skills, leading by example and fostering a cohesive, high-performing team environment.

• Ability to identify process improvement opportunities and contribute to scalable solutions.

• Experience communicating team structures, resourcing plans, and program-level objectives clearly across small to complex initiatives.

• Understanding of cross-disciplinary integration and experience working within various cross-agency operating models.

• Experience structuring and leading status meetings, client reviews, and stakeholder presentations.

• Exposure to pitch development and RFP processes, including scope definition, approach, team structure, and budget creation.

• Ability to assess project plans and pivot across scope, approach, financials, and delivery models when needed.

• Experience supporting roadmap planning, with foresight into upcoming workstreams and financial forecasting.

• Ability to partner with Client Service or Account leads to manage pipeline and portfolio planning.

• Strategic mindset for optimizing staffing models and delivery approaches to address budget constraints.

• Experience staffing projects at a portfolio level and securing appropriate resources across teams.

• Solid understanding of digital and traditional marketing channels, including emerging capabilities and trends.

• Working knowledge of technology within project environments (e.g., applications, platforms, tech stacks, automation, immersive experiences), with the ability to manage tech-enabled initiatives and mitigate risks.

• Understanding of media ecosystems (paid, owned, earned; audio, video, social, etc.) and their integration into broader project delivery.

• Experience translating project activities into high-level staffing plans, estimates, and Statements of Work (SOWs), including assumptions, dependencies, deliverables, and budget considerations.

• Ability to track and report on budget utilization and financial health at a portfolio level.

• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to tailor messaging to diverse stakeholders.

• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to build trusted relationships and foster high-performing teams.

• Proactive mindset with the confidence to challenge the status quo and drive continuous improvement.

• Advanced proficiency in collaboration and issue-tracking tools such as Box, Jira, Confluence, and Microsoft Teams.

• Advanced expertise in office productivity tools (e.g., Excel, Word, Keynote, PowerPoint), including portfolio-level reporting and presentations.

• Advanced proficiency in project and financial management tools such as Tenrox, Smartsheet, and Halo/Abacus, with experience managing portfolio-level tracking and reporting.

What We Offer:

• Global maternity and parental leave

• Work-life balance

• Competitive benefits packages

• Vacation, compassionate leave, wellness days, and flex days

• Access to online services for families and new parents

• Diversity and Inclusion Board with 13 affinity groups

• Internal learning and development programs

• Asociación Solidarista - You can join voluntarily

“The Talent Team at Critical Mass is focused on ensuring we provide the best training, onboarding, and employee experience possible! Our new hires & employees are the future of our organization, and we want to set you up for long-term success. In an effort to do so, we expect our team to work from an office a minimum of 3 days a week.

The ask stems from our want to:

Strengthen opportunity for continuous learning

Improve collaboration and team relationships.

Increase employee engagement

We understand that not everyone may feel comfortable with this expectation, so we ask that you please let us know immediately if there are any concerns so we can help navigate accordingly.”

Critical Mass is an equal opportunity employer.

Critical Mass uses artificial intelligence in our recruitment process to enhance job postings, filter keywords during the review of prospective candidates, and, in some cases, transcribe interviews with our recruiters. Human review remains central to the process, and all hiring decisions are ultimately made by our team.

The Critical Mass Talent Acquisition team will only communicate from email addresses that use the URLs criticalmass.com, omc.com and us.greenhouse-mail.io. We will not use apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or Google Hangouts for communicating with you. We will never ask you to send us money, technology, or anything else to work for our company. If you believe you are the victim of a scam, please review your local government consumer protections guidance and reach out to them directly.

If U.S. based: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/job-scams#avoid
If Canada based: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/finance/consumer-affairs.html
If U.K. based: https://www.gov.uk/consumer-protection-rights
If Costa Rica based: https://www.consumo.go.cr/educacion_consumidor/consejos_practicos.aspx