Program Manager (SAS - LifeScience)

We are seeking a seasoned Engagement Partner to lead one of our strategic client relationships in the Commercial Pharma (Life Sciences) space. This is a high-impact, client-facing role based out of the Bay Area, CA focused on enabling digital transformation, delivery excellence, and business innovation across the commercial pharma value chain.

The Engagement Partner should be local to the area and will own the end-to-end client engagement, delivery governance, and account growth strategy. You will be responsible for managing globally distributed teams working in a Managed Services model, including teams across onshore, nearshore, and offshore locations. The ideal candidate brings deep experience in pharma commercial operations, data and analytics, and emerging technologies like Generative AI.

• Life Science, Pharma, BioTech or Clinical experience is mandatory.

Key Responsibilities

• Be the single point of accountability for the client relationship, focusing on delivery excellence, value realization, and client satisfaction.
• Build deep relationships with VP and C-level stakeholders across Commercial, IT, Data, and Analytics functions.
• Understand client's commercial pharma landscape including brand performance, field force effectiveness, marketing analytics, patient engagement, and market access and craft tailored delivery strategies.
• Run Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs), Steering Committee Meetings, and executive workshops, ensuring alignment with client priorities and KPIs.
• Lead the governance and oversight of all delivery programs spanning commercial sales, CRM, HCP targeting, omnichannel enablement, sales force operations, real-world data analytics, and regulatory data compliance.
• Drive delivery excellence through implementation of best practices in quality, reliability, and predictability. Set up and manage SLAs, KPIs, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Lead and support data platform modernization efforts (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks, AWS/Azure), and ensure robust delivery pipelines for data ingestion, transformation, and insight generation.
• Actively manage a Managed Services model: r esource planning, service transitions, cost optimization, innovation infusion, and business continuity.
• Partner with the Client Partner and Sales Teams to uncover new opportunities for growth within the account.
• Proactively identify areas for upsell/cross-sell across new LOBs, geographies, or data-driven initiatives.
• Contribute to solutioning and proposal development for client RFPs, SOWs, and new initiatives.
• Build strategic roadmaps in collaboration with client stakeholders to guide long-term innovation and transformation.
• Manage large-scale delivery teams distributed across onshore ( USA), nearshore ( LATAM), Europe and offshore (India/Asia) locations.
• Drive performance, productivity, and employee engagement across teams; lead coaching and mentoring initiatives.
• Ensure resource alignment, training, and domain enablement of delivery teams for pharma-specific use cases and compliance needs (e.g., GxP, HIPAA).

Innovation & Generative AI Enablement

• Lead the exploration and implementation of Generative AI solutions for commercial use cases such as:
• Intelligent HCP engagement recommendations
• Personalized content generation
• Medical and marketing summarizations
• Next-best-action models
• Collaborate with client innovation teams to design PoCs, pilots, and scaled rollouts of AI-driven platforms and tools.
• Promote a culture of experimentation, automation, and continuous improvement within the engagement.

Financial Management & Operational Oversight

• Should be able to understand and have oversight on engagement-level functions including, budgeting, forecasting and margin optimization
• Should be able to understand program level commercial levers.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Life Sciences, Business, or a related field (Master's or MBA preferred).
• 15+ years of experience in IT consulting/services with a focus on Life Sciences, especially Commercial Pharma.
• Minimum 10 years of client-facing delivery leadership with large-scale engagements (200+ team members).
• Deep understanding of pharma commercial operations, including:
• HCP segmentation and targeting
• Sales force effectiveness and CRM (e.g., Veeva)
• Omnichannel marketing and campaign analytics
• Patient journey and market access analytics
• Compliance and regulatory mandates (e.g., GxP, HIPAA, GDPR)
• Demonstrated expertise in P&L management, budget planning, and financial governance or large client accounts.
• Strong expertise in Data and Analytics platforms, including:
• Snowflake, AWS, Azure and Databricks
• ETL & Datawarehousing tools ( Informatica, Talend), BI ( Tableau, Power BI, Qlik)
• Real-World Evidence ( RWE) and commercial datasets (e.g., IQVIA, Symphony)
• Strong experience operating under a Managed Services or Shared Services model.
• Proficient in Agile methodologies, ITIL, and modern delivery frameworks.
• Exceptional stakeholder management, communication, and negotiation skills.
• Experience in generative AI applications within life sciences is a strong plus.
• Ability to handle escalations, drive conflict resolution, and maintain strong relationships under pressure.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certifications in PMP, Agile, SAFe, or ITIL.
• Experience with Veeva, Salesforce Health Cloud, IQVIA, or similar commercial pharma platforms.
• Experience managing P&L or account-level financials is an advantage.
• Familiarity with pharma regulatory reporting, compliance, and audit procedures.
• Life Science Domain (Pharma Commercial domain)
• Data Analysis exp
• Strong Stakeholder management across the regions
• Large ( Fixed bid) scale engagement management (200+ team members)
• Managed services (escalations, concerns)
• Running MBR (Monthly business review), GBR (Global Business review) reviews with senior directors, VP, CXO