Strategic Programs Manager Jobs in Maryland (NOW HIRING)

Location: We are actively hiring in the Fort Meade, Maryland area.

About the Opportunity: 

The Senior Strategist; Program Manager (PM) is responsible for overseeing the successful delivery of assigned government and commercial contracts, managing cross-functional teams, and maintaining strong client relationships. This role ensures projects meet quality standards, timelines, and budget objectives while driving strategic outcomes. Acting as a trusted consultant and advisor, the Program Manager leads comprehensive project strategies, identifies opportunities to create business value, and guides teams to deliver impactful, client-focused solutions.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Journalism, Communication, English, Business, or a related field
• 10+ years of experience in strategic communication, public affairs, program management, or strategy development
• 7+ years program/project management experience including familiarity with Agile methodologies and project delivery best practices
• Top Secret Clearance with SCI and polygraph required
• Excellent organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, maintaining a strong focus on accuracy and attention to detail
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate in a clear, approachable, and knowledgeable manner
• Government contracting experience
• PMP certification preferred
• Minimum active Secret clearance required
• Experience with human-centered design and design thinking principles
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple complex projects simultaneously

Responsibilities: 

Senior Strategist responsibilities include:

Client Partnership & Strategic Leadership

• Partner directly with clients to understand challenges, capture requirements, and define missions, visions, goals, and KPIs/OKRs.
• Collaborate with clients through well-designed meetings and workshops to co-create solutions and gather critical inputs.
• Perform high-quality primary and secondary research to inform strategic direction.
• Apply human-centered design and design-thinking principles to complex problem sets.
• Work iteratively by proactively gathering feedback from clients and internal partners to refine solutions.
• Identify opportunities to create tangible business value through current-state assessments and high-level requirement definition.
• Develop and maintain strong client relationships, including managing external stakeholders and converting new requests into business opportunities.
• Oversee multiple client engagements, ensuring alignment, clarity, and strategic impact across projects.

Content, Storytelling & Project Execution

• Elevate content quality and thought leadership in partnership with the Strategy Competency Manager, ensuring strong standards for deliverables.
• Translate ideas into compelling strategic narratives, campaigns, and solutions.
• Identify content structures, hierarchies, and visual concepts for storytelling products, including content maps and wireframes.
• Collaborate with design teams to develop infographics, charts, diagrams, presentations, and other visual products that convey complex information clearly.
• Manage multiple internal project teams, organizing assignments and tracking progress, deadlines, and deliverables from both operational and financial perspectives.

Program Manager responsibilities include:

Strategic Leadership & Program Management

• Lead end-to-end project management for assigned contracts, from strategic planning through delivery, developing comprehensive approaches that create tangible business value based on client requirements and stakeholder feedback
• Manage and report project budgets, timelines, risks, travel requirements, and deliverable quality to ensure successful outcomes
• Identify opportunities to extend current contracts and develop new business with related clients

Client Relationship & Advisory Services

• Serve as primary client relationship manager and trusted consultant, providing expert guidance
• Lead client engagements, including visioning sessions, discovery engagements, and review sessions
• Collaborate directly with clients and stakeholders to understand challenges and design solutions
• Facilitate regular stakeholder meetings, manage expectations and resolve conflicts. 

Team Management & Development

• Oversee project-specific onboarding and integration of new team members
• Supervise project teams, delegating work while maintaining the vision for deliverables.
• Allocate tasks and time based on budget and team capacity.
• Provide coaching and mentoring focused on delivery excellence and client satisfaction.
• Conduct monthly performance evaluations to inform Competency Managers' formal reviews.
• Coordinate with Competency Managers on skill development, career growth, and project-specific resource allocation.
• Track team utilization, profitability, and manage subcontractor performance.
• Oversee team member transitions and off-boarding at project completion.

Project Execution & Quality Management

• Run agile management cadence with project teams to ensure effective delegation of tasks, workload management, and on-time delivery
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to translate ideas into compelling campaigns, solutions, strategies, and stories
• Oversee creation of infographics, charts, diagrams, presentations, and other visual products for print and digital formats
• Apply consulting, human-centered design, and design thinking principles to research and execution processes
• Ensure deliverable quality on projects through direct oversight and review processes
• Document lessons learned and best practices to enhance organizational knowledge 

Compliance & Deliverables Management

• Ensure timely delivery of contractual deliverables and monthly status reports
• Maintain compliance with contract requirements including security clearances, access control, required forms, travel requests and reports, and waivers.
• Coordinate with  Team Leads and business operations team to produce monthly invoicing and reporting

Work Schedule:

• Onsite schedule, 3-5-days per week
• Full time, 40 hours per week
• Some travel required to attend relevant events and conferences, and participate in LINK team events

Salary: We're committed to offering competitive compensation. While the salary range for this position is $112,000-$151,000, your final offer may be adjusted based on factors like experience and location.