Program Manager Strategic Initiatives Jobs in Reston, VA

• Posted on July 27, 2026

Showing 1 location
USP US
Rockville, MD 20852, USA

• Hybrid
• Sales & Marketing
• Full-Time
• Requisition #: SENIO003519

Who is USP?

The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is an independent scientific organization that collaborates with the world’s leading health and science experts to develop rigorous quality standards for medicines, dietary supplements, and food ingredients. At USP, we believe that scientific excellence is driven by a commitment to fairness, integrity, and global collaboration. This belief is embedded in our core value of Passion for Quality and is demonstrated through the contributions of more than 1,300 professionals across twenty global locations, working to strengthen the supply of safe, high-quality medicines worldwide.

At USP, we value inclusive scientific collaboration and recognize that attracting diverse expertise strengthens our ability to develop trusted public health standards. We foster an organizational culture that supports equitable access to mentorship, professional development, and leadership opportunities. Our partnerships, standards, and research reflect our belief that ensuring broad participation in scientific leadership results in stronger, more impactful outcomes for global health.

USP is proud to be an equal employment opportunity employer (EEOE) and is committed to ensuring fair, merit-based selection processes that enable the best scientific minds—regardless of background—to contribute to advancing public health solutions worldwide. We provide reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities and uphold policies that create an inclusive and collaborative work environment.

Brief Job Overview

The Senior Strategic Realization Program Manager plays a key role in translating the organization’s strategy into tangible results. This position partners with senior leaders including the CEO, Executive Team, and Global Leadership Team to ensure strategic initiatives are designed, pressure tested and executed effectively, with a focus on measurable outcomes and operational excellence. The individual in this role will review strategies, proposals, and plans from across the organization to assess their credibility, strategic fit, risks, dependencies, and likely impact. They will build, implement, and oversee frameworks for accountability, develop insightful metrics, and drive process improvements that enable sustainable success. The ideal candidate is a self-starter who is energized by complex, ambiguous problems; able to move work forward with incomplete information; skilled at building practical processes that can be transitioned to others to operate and iterate; and eager to contribute to high-level strategic goals through sound judgment, rapid learning, and executive-level synthesis.

How will YOU create impact here at USP?

As part of our mission to advance scientific rigor and public health standards, you will play a vital role in increasing global access to high-quality medicines through public standards and related programs. USP prioritizes scientific integrity, regulatory excellence, and evidence-based decision-making to ensure health systems worldwide can rely on strong, tested, and globally relevant quality standards.

Additionally, USP’s People and Culture division, in partnership with the Equity Office, invests in leadership and workforce development to equip all employees with the skills to create high-performing, inclusive teams. This includes training in equitable management practices and tools to promote engaged, collaborative, and results-driven work environments.

The Senior Strategic Realization Program Manager has the following responsibilities:

Strategically Evaluate and Drive Accountability for Strategic Initiatives:

• Collaborate with senior leaders to define clear objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with the organization’s strategic priorities.
• On behalf of the CEO and Executive Team, assess viability and likely strategic effectiveness of the strategies and plans proposed by the Global Leadership Team.
• Critically evaluate strategic proposals, business cases, and initiative plans to pressure-test assumptions, identify gaps in logic or execution readiness, and assess credibility, feasibility, and likely impact.
• Monitor progress, identify potential roadblocks, and proactively navigate (in partnership with business owner) to keep initiatives on track.
• Facilitate discussions that challenge assumptions and drive clarity on deliverables and milestones.
• Synthesize risks, tradeoffs, and issues of concern into clear, balanced, and actionable recommendations for senior executives.

Develop and Implement Systems to Provide Visibility into Performance:

• Establish mechanisms and provide close to real time monitoring of performance, allowing us to rapidly adjust to signals as needed.
• Think critically about program performance against goals and expectations, distinguish signal from noise, and synthesize issues of concern for executives in a concise and actionable manner.
• Design, implement and maintain metrics and multi-level dashboards (e.g., streamlined ET version vs more details program version) that provide visibility into strategic effectiveness and likely impact of ongoing initiatives.
• Analyze data to provide insights that inform decision-making and continuous improvement.

Lead Process Design and Optimization:

• Identify opportunities to streamline and standardize processes that support new and existing strategic initiatives, especially where ownership, decision rights, or operating rhythms are unclear.
• Design and implement lightweight, durable processes, tools, and frameworks that solve near-term problems while creating repeatable models that can be handed off to business owners for ongoing operation and continuous improvement.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to ensure process solutions are scalable and aligned with organizational goals.
• Rapidly prototype, test, and refine approaches in response to stakeholder feedback, performance data, and changing organizational needs.

Facilitate Change Management:

• Lead change management efforts associated with strategic initiatives, including communication plans, training, and stakeholder engagement.
• Foster a culture of adaptability and continuous improvement.

Analytical and Operational Excellence:

• Leverage analytical skills to assess initiative performance, identify trends, and drive meaningful insights.
• Maintain a high level of operational rigor by organizing information effectively, managing dependencies, and ensuring alignment across stakeholders.
• Help identify and solve problems that present obstacles and challenges to the team, facilitating issue resolution with senior stakeholders on a timely basis.
• Operate effectively in ambiguous or evolving environments, using available information to form sound recommendations while identifying where further data, alignment, or decision-making is needed.

Working with Partners:

• Build and maintain high quality relationships with functional partners to facilitate timely discussions (e.g., for investment, issue resolution, etc.).
• Ensure high quality engagement by other functions in Committee conversations and decisions
• Establish high quality relationships with ET and GLT members and leaders.

Who is USP Looking For?

The successful candidate will have a demonstrated understanding of our mission, commitment to excellence through inclusive and equitable behaviors and practices, ability to quickly build credibility with stakeholders, along with the following competencies and experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Strategy, or other related areas with experience in business operations.
• 8+years of relevant experience in strategic program management, business operations, or performance management roles, building sustainable frameworks to drive efficiencies and streamline operations.
• Proficiency leading teams and transformation initiatives, without formal authority, and with a track record of delivering results through others.
• Proven experience in assessing, designing, and implementing performance measurement frameworks (e.g., KPIs, dashboards, balanced scorecards) to drive accountability and inform decision-making.
• Demonstrated experience working closely with senior leadership to evaluate, challenge, and refine strategies and plans.
• Strong strategic judgment and critical thinking skills, including the ability to evaluate the credibility, feasibility, risks, and likely impact of proposals, plans, and business cases.
• Demonstrated ability to bring structure to ambiguous, complex, or emerging business problems and move work forward with incomplete information.
• Experience synthesizing complex issues, risks, and tradeoffs into concise executive-level communications and recommendations.
• Experience facilitating cross-functional collaboration and issue resolution in a complex, matrixed organization.
• Track record of designing, implementing, and transitioning processes, frameworks, or operating models to business owners for sustained use and continuous improvement.
• Strong time management, project management skills (i.e., proactive approach, deadline management, follow-up mechanisms, overview instruments), organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Growth mindset and learning agility, with demonstrated ability to iterate quickly, incorporate feedback, and adapt approaches as new information emerges.

Additional Desired Preferences

• Master’s degree in a related health science field.
• Certification in project management (e.g., PMP, PRINCE2) or process improvement (e.g., Lean, Six Sigma).
• Experience with performance measurement frameworks such as Balanced Scorecard or objectives and key results (OKR).
• Experience identifying high-value use cases for AI-enabled tools, automation, or workflow technologies; piloting practical solutions; and scaling adoption across teams to streamline processes, reduce manual effort, improve decision support, and drive operational efficiencies.

Supervisory Responsibilities

None, this is an individual contributor role.

Benefits

USP provides the benefits to protect yourself and your family today and tomorrow. From company-paid time off and comprehensive healthcare options to retirement savings, you can have peace of mind that your personal and financial well-being is protected.

Compensation

Base Salary Range: USD $120,051.00 – $171,072 annually.

Target Annual Bonus: % Varies based on level of role.

Individual compensation packages are based on various factors unique to each candidate’s skill set, experience, qualifications, equity, and other job-related reasons.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.

Note: USP does not accept unsolicited resumes from 3rd party recruitment agencies and is not responsible for fees from recruiters or other agencies except under specific written agreement with USP.