About PDG

Performance Development Group (PDG) is an award-winning, global leader helping Life Sciences companies improve business results through improving sales performance. Recognized as a premier company in our field, we provide collaborative advisory services and innovative sales performance solutions that help our clients to exceed their business goals.

Here at PDG, we complement our learning and creative teams with professional consultants who help us to scale effortlessly, optimize creativity and deliver award-winning learning programs. Our network of consultants loves to work with us and here are some of the reasons why they find a relationship with PDG to be so valuable to them:

• Variety is the spice of life: PDG’s wide variety of learning projects gives you the opportunity to be a part of the design and development of award-winning programs that help to move the needle on employee performance while enhancing your experience and skills
• Focus on what you do so well: We have a superstar team of salespeople who work with some of the most exciting companies in the world. We handle all the business development, scoping, and proposal writing so you can focus on doing what you enjoy doing the most.
• The devil is in the details: We contract with the clients and handle all the logistics, absorbing the risk so you don’t have to worry about a thing. We also provide a wide array of tools and templates to make gigs easier for you while you work with us. Our team will make sure that you are set up for success with our thorough onboarding program and consultant toolkit.
• We show you the money!!: PDG pays a generous hourly rate, and your invoices are paid on time regardless of when our clients pay us.
• We are just nice: When we ask our professional consultants what they like best about working with PDG, we always hear that our team is super friendly, and we treat our consultants like part of the family which they don’t find in their other clients.

PDG is looking for Contract Learning Solution Architects to join our network of talent to support PDG’s ongoing needs. The work to be performed will be on a project basis and will be paid on a 1099. Travel may be required from time to time for client meetings. This job posting is to attract pipeline candidates only and not for a specific need.

The interview process for this role includes the following:

• Resume review
• Talent Acquisition screening
• Review of professional portfolio or work samples
• Hiring Manager interview
• Solution Architect Diagnostic with Presentation

Position Summary

The Solution Architect is instrumental in how we scope, solution, design, and deliver our award-winning business performance improvement solutions. The Solution Architect contributes to the success of PDG's solutions in three key areas:

• Creating solution concepts for proposals and other sales pursuits, based on business needs provided by the client during meetings with the Solution Architect and PDG’s Sales Team
• Architecting solutions as part of a client engagement, based on data gathered as part of a discovery process
• Overseeing and providing input into the solution buildout to ensure that the requirements of Solution Architecture are being met

With performance improvement solutions as the primary focus for this role, the Solution Architect will create strategies for measurement, implementation, communication, sustainability, and change management.

In this role, you will partner with our sales team to perform a deep dive into our client’s business needs, brainstorm and prescribe solutions that will help solve the client’s business problems, perform as a key member of the engagement team, act as the subject matter expert relative to PDG’s solutions and remain as part of the engagement team throughout the life of each project to provide support.

Responsibilities

Presales:

• Collaborating with PDG’s Leadership, Sales, and Account Management teams to identify clients who would benefit from solution services and create strategies for client pursuits.
• Guiding the sales team through goal definition, opportunity identification, and the design of business performance solutions using problem-solving principles and experience.
• Determining the performance needs of the target audience and how those needs align with the
• overall business goals of the organization. Analyzing complex programs and making recommendations to streamline and enhance the learner experience.
• Designing and presenting learning, performance, evaluation, and communication strategies and solutions to clients.

Value Creation

• Performing needs analysis through interviews, focus groups, document review, technology evaluation, and additional discovery to determine gaps and opportunities in the performance of the target audience
• Leveraging emerging trends and technologies in solutions design by staying abreast of thought leadership via webinars, conferences, blogs, and articles. Supporting solution concepts with relevant research, literature, or experience.
• Creating solutions that solve business problems across a variety of learning modalities ensuring that these solutions link to our client's desired performance outcomes.
• Pivoting quickly to adapt to changing requirements and needs from internal and external clients; responding to and modifying recommendations in the moment, based on client feedback and reactions.

Deployment:

• Providing input, oversight, and guidance to the team building out the solution ensuring that the solution vision is fully realized.
• Engaging the client to understand strategic changes in their business and making recommendations for aligning the program to the changes; following through ensuring and the design team integrates newly aligned changes to learning solutions.

Education and Experience Requirements

• Experience working in the life sciences industries (pharma, biotech, or medical device) industries and/or experience designing sales performance solutions is required
• Master’s Degree in Learning and Development, Human Performance, or Organizational Leadership & Development is preferred; however, commensurate work experience will be strongly considered in absence of an advanced degree.
• Minimum of eight to ten years of experience in the areas of solution design, performance consulting, human performance technology, change management, or adult learning and development
• Strong communication skills, Builds strong relationships with internal and external customers easily.
• Outstanding leadership skills. Has the ability to influence without authority and can make suggestions that are valuable and are presented in such a way that makes the client feel fully committed.