Commercial PMO Specialist (San Diego)

Specialist Commercial PMO

8 Months Contract

San Diego, CA

Duties

Position Summary The Specialist, Commercial PMO provides project management and coordination support for Commercial initiatives, helping cross-functional teams execute against agreed objectives, timelines, and deliverables. This role supports project planning, milestone and dependency tracking, risk and issue management, stakeholder coordination, status reporting, and project documentation. The Specialist applies established Commercial PMO methodologies and tools to maintain project visibility, facilitate cross-functional execution, and proactively identify items requiring escalation. The role also supports change management and business readiness activities to enable successful implementation and adoption of Commercial initiatives.

Primary Responsibilities

Project Planning & Coordination

• Develop and maintain project plans for assigned projects and workstreams.
• Track milestones, deliverables, dependencies, deadlines, and owners.
• Coordinate activities across cross-functional project teams.
• Maintain work breakdown structures and detailed implementation plans.
• Monitor progress against approved plans and proactively flag potential delays.
• Support project leads and Commercial PMO leadership in maintaining alignment to scope, objectives, and timelines.

Risk, Issue & Dependency Management

• Maintain project risk, issue, action, decision, and dependency logs.
• Proactively identify emerging project risks and execution barriers.
• Partner with project stakeholders to document mitigation and contingency actions.
• Monitor mitigation plans and follow up with owners on outstanding actions.
• Escalate material risks, issues, or dependencies to project and PMO leadership.

Stakeholder & Meeting Coordination

• Coordinate project meetings and cross-functional working sessions.
• Develop agendas and organize materials to support effective project discussions.
• Facilitate routine project meetings and document key decisions, actions, owners, and due dates.
• Follow up with stakeholders to ensure timely completion of commitments.
• Support alignment and information flow across Commercial functions and project stakeholders.

Status Reporting & Communication

• Develop clear and concise project status updates using established PMO reporting standards.
• Maintain visibility to project health, milestones, accomplishments, upcoming activities, risks, and decisions.
• Consolidate cross-functional inputs into project-level reporting.
• Identify items requiring leadership visibility or escalation.
• Support development of materials for project governance and leadership meetings.

Budget & Resource Tracking

• Support tracking of project budgets, forecasts, purchase orders, and vendor spend, as applicable.
• Monitor actual and planned project costs and flag potential variances.
• Track resource needs and identify potential capacity constraints.
• Support vendor coordination, timelines, deliverables, and project documentation.
• Provide project-level information to support resource and budget decisions by PMO and project leadership.

Change Management & Business Readiness

• Incorporate agreed change management and business readiness activities into project plans.
• Track communication, training, stakeholder engagement, and implementation readiness activities.
• Coordinate with functional leads to monitor readiness against implementation milestones.
• Identify potential readiness or adoption risks and escalate concerns.
• Support implementation and post-launch activities, including lessons learned.

PMO Governance & Documentation

• Apply established Commercial PMO processes, templates, tools, and governance standards.
• Maintain accurate project documentation, including project plans, RAID logs, decision logs, meeting notes, and status reports.
• Ensure project materials are current and accessible to appropriate stakeholders.
• Support project closeout and lessons-learned activities.
• Identify opportunities to improve PMO tools, templates, and processes.

Skills

Project Management

• Working knowledge of project management methodologies and practices.
• Demonstrated ability to maintain detailed project plans, timelines, milestones, dependencies, and action items.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and maintain strong attention to detail.

Commercial Knowledge

• General understanding of pharmaceutical Commercial functions and the commercialization lifecycle preferred.
• Ability to develop an understanding of business objectives and translate them into project activities and deliverables.

Communication

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to organize and synthesize project information into clear status updates.
• Strong meeting facilitation, coordination, and follow-through skills.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional stakeholders.

Problem Solving

• Structured and analytical approach to problem-solving.
• Ability to proactively identify risks, dependencies, and execution barriers.
• Sound judgment in identifying when an issue can be resolved within the project team versus when escalation is required.

Education

Education & Experience Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in business, STEM, life sciences, or related discipline required.
• Advanced degree preferred.
• 3+ years of relevant professional experience, preferably supporting projects or programs in pharmaceutical, biotech, healthcare, or a related regulated environment.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams preferred.
• Commercial pharmaceutical experience preferred.
• Project management certification such as PMP, CAPM, or Six Sigma preferred, rather than required.