Freelance Project Director

Job description

The Freelance Project Director provides senior delivery leadership across complex healthcare and pharmaceutical client engagements, overseeing integrated programmes with multiple workstreams, disciplines, and stakeholders. The role partners closely with Client Services and discipline leads to establish clear scope, delivery plans, budgets, resource requirements, governance, and risk management. This role brings strong commercial and operational oversight while helping cross-functional teams deliver high-quality work predictably and efficiently. What You’ll Do Lead end-to-end delivery of complex healthcare and pharmaceutical programmes across multiple concurrent workstreams, using tools such as Smartsheet, JIRA, Microsoft Project, or TFS to manage scope, dependencies, milestones, and delivery plans. Direct project governance across Client Services, Strategy, Creative, Medical, Technology, Media, and other disciplines, establishing clear responsibilities, decision-making, escalation paths, and stakeholder expectations. Own programme-level scope, budgets, forecasting, resource plans, timelines, change control, and delivery risks, providing recommendations that protect commercial performance and successful client delivery. Provide senior clients and internal stakeholders with clear programme status, financial visibility, risk assessments, and mitigation plans, escalating issues early and driving decisions through resolution. Strengthen delivery across engagements by applying appropriate waterfall, agile, or hybrid methodologies and identifying opportunities to improve planning, resourcing, collaboration, and operational efficiency. Required: 7+ years of project or programme management experience in agency, consulting, healthcare, pharmaceutical, or life sciences environments, including ownership of complex client-facing engagements with multiple concurrent workstreams. Demonstrated experience managing scope, budgets, forecasting, timelines, resource plans, dependencies, and risks across integrated programmes, with accountability for delivery against agreed commercial and operational targets. Hands-on experience with project management platforms such as Smartsheet, JIRA, Microsoft Project, or TFS, with evidence of using them to manage active delivery, dependencies, reporting, and programme governance. Experience leading multidisciplinary delivery across Client Services and functions such as Strategy, Creative, Medical, Technology, or Media, with responsibility for coordinating deliverables across multiple teams and stakeholders. Experience presenting programme status, financial performance, delivery risks, and recommendations to senior clients or internal stakeholders, including leading escalation and resolution of complex delivery issues. Experience applying waterfall, agile, or hybrid delivery methodologies across multidisciplinary teams, including establishing governance, project controls, and repeatable delivery processes. Desired: Comfort and enthusiasm for using AI as a regular part of how work gets done. Experience supporting distributed delivery teams across multiple locations, markets, or time zones on regional or global client engagements. Experience applying SCRUM or other agile delivery practices to multidisciplinary healthcare, pharmaceutical, technology, or integrated agency programmes. Experience supporting organisational change, process improvement, or transformation initiatives involving multiple stakeholder groups. Experience using portfolio or programme reporting to identify resource, financial, operational, or delivery trends and recommend improvements. This is a freelance Project Director engagement based in the UK. Our Commitment to Inclusion Klick is consciously creating a culture where everyone can thrive and grow in their careers. We believe that our best work comes from our diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We strongly encourage members of historically underrepresented communities to apply, including Black people, Indigenous peoples, and other people of color, people with disabilities, people from gender and sexually diverse communities and people with intersectional identities. We're also committed to developing an inclusive, barrier-free recruitment process and work environment. Should you require any accommodation, please contact us at and we will work with you to meet your accessibility needs and ensure you have a positive experience. The Klick Group —comprising Klick Health (including Oxford PharmaGenesis, Klick Katalyst, and btwelve), Klick Media, Klick Applied Sciences (including Klick Labs), and Klick Consulting—is an ecosystem dedicated help life sciences brands achieve their full potential through best-in-class marketing and advertising, media, medical affairs and communications, market access, real-world evidence, and technology and analytics consulting — powered by 500+ in-house medical experts and award-winning data science and AI capabilities. Founded in 1997, we have offices in Toronto, New York, Oxford, London, Cambridge, Cardiff, Melbourne, Philadelphia, Saratoga Springs, São Paulo, and Singapore. One of the most-awarded health agencies on the planet, Klick is consistently recognised for its people-first culture as a Great Place to Work, Best Workplace for Women, Best Workplace for Inclusion, Most Admired Corporate Culture, and FORTUNE Best Workplace in Advertising. Klick also recently made history as Cannes Lions Healthcare Agency of the Year, Healthcare Network of the Year, and Independent Agency of the Year – Health. About Our Project Management Craft Our Project Management Craft brings structure and momentum to complex work. The team plans, coordinates, and tracks delivery across disciplines. They ensure projects stay on time, on scope, and on budget. Their work enables collaboration and efficiency.