Project Manager

Aquent is seeking a highly skilled and dynamic Project Manager to join our client, a leading enterprise in the financial services sector, known for its commitment to innovation and seamless operational excellence. This pivotal role offers the opportunity to drive critical integration initiatives, directly shaping the future landscape of their vendor management, risk, and procurement processes. You will be instrumental in coordinating complex, cross-functional workstreams and designing interim solutions that ensure stability and efficiency during a significant organizational transition, making a tangible impact on the company's strategic growth and operational integrity.

About the Opportunity

We are looking for a Senior Project Manager to support a crucial integration initiative, focusing on bringing a newly acquired entity's third-party portfolio into the enterprise's established vendor management, risk, and procurement frameworks. This is a time-bound, integration-focused role designed to coordinate intricate, cross-functional workstreams, perform essential gap and variance analyses, and design interim processes. Your work will be vital in tracking third-party portfolio synergies as the organization moves towards full system and process integration.

Operating under the guidance of a Director-level Integration Lead, this role is a pure individual contributor position, without people management responsibilities or steady-state operational ownership. The ideal candidate will be a seasoned Project Manager with a proven track record in supporting post-acquisition integrations, particularly those involving third-party portfolios, supplier management, or risk-adjacent programs. Success in this role requires a professional who thrives in ambiguous environments, bringing strong structure, discipline, and executive-level communication skills to the forefront.

Key Responsibilities

• Integration Project Management: Drive the execution of the third-party integration program across multiple concurrent workstreams, coordinating activities with critical partners including Vendor Management, Third Party Risk Management, Legal, Procurement, Information Security, Finance, and other risk and control partners.
• Develop and maintain integrated project plans, defining milestones, dependencies, risks, and issues, ensuring complete alignment with the overall integration roadmap and leadership direction.
• Track and manage interdependencies across all workstreams, proactively escalating risks and decisions as needed to maintain project momentum.
• Gap, Variance & Interim State Coordination: Orchestrate comprehensive risk and process-based gap/variance analyses between current state practices and enterprise requirements.
• Support the design and documentation of interim processes and oversight approaches to effectively mitigate identified gaps prior to full integration.
• Track interim approaches, approvals, owners, dependencies, and planned sunset timing to ensure a smooth transition.
• Third Party Portfolio & Synergy Tracking: Coordinate in-depth analysis of the third-party portfolio to support the identification of overlapping or duplicate suppliers, alignment of risk tiering and segmentation, and opportunities for rationalization or consolidation.
• Establish and maintain synergy tracking artifacts (e.g., supplier overlaps, cost opportunities, risk reduction indicators), diligently tracking progress against targets set by leadership.
• Provide analytical and enablement support; execution authority remains with functional owners.
• Stakeholder Communication & Executive Reporting: Prepare senior management-ready integration reporting, including status updates, key risks and mitigations, dependency and decision tracking, and portfolio and synergy summaries.
• Support the preparation of materials for integration governance forums and senior leadership reviews, ensuring clarity and strategic alignment.
• Facilitate working sessions and integration checkpoints to maintain consistent alignment across all stakeholders.
• Systems, Data & Documentation Coordination: Coordinate activities related to vendor and risk data integration, including inventory alignment and data readiness (hands-on remediation performed by SMEs).
• Support the coordination of activities involving procurement/vendor platforms and related data.
• Maintain structured documentation using productivity and project management tools to ensure transparency and continuity throughout the integration process.

Must-Have Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience as a Project Manager, including substantial support for complex, cross-functional integration initiatives.
• Strong experience managing multiple parallel workstreams as a senior individual contributor.
• Proven ability to conduct and coordinate gap/variance analysis and support interim operating model design.
• Experience working with or adjacent to vendor management, procurement, supplier or third-party portfolios, or risk/compliance-related programs.
• Demonstrated ability to produce clear, executive-level integration reporting.
• Advanced proficiency in spreadsheet, note-taking, and enterprise project management tools.

Nice-to-Have Qualifications

• Post-acquisition or large-scale business integration experience.
• Exposure to third-party risk management concepts (in-depth SME knowledge not required).
• Familiarity with similar procurement/vendor platforms.
• Experience tracking integration synergies (cost, efficiency, risk reduction).
• Financial services or other regulated industry experience.

About Aquent Talent:

Aquent Talent connects the best talent in marketing, creative, and design with the world's biggest brands.

Our eligible talent get access to amazing benefits like subsidized health, vision, and dental plans, paid sick leave, and retirement plans with a match. Aquent is an equal-opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. We're about creating an inclusive environment-one where different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are valued, and everyone can contribute, grow their careers, and thrive.

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