Director of Project Management

Cohere Beauty Omaha Inc•Phoenix, AZ

About The Position

The Director of Commercial Project Management (Customer Success) is a senior leadership role responsible for leading the end-to-end commercial project management function across new and existing customer projects. This role supports commercial project execution and as a player-coach, directly owning select high-complexity or strategic customer projects while leading a team of project managers across two sites. The Director is accountable for translating customer needs into executable, cross-functional project plans, driving disciplined project delivery from opportunity handoff through launch and ongoing customer support. Reporting to the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), this role serves as a critical execution bridge between Commercial, R&D, Operations, Regulatory, and Supply Chain, partnering closely with the Director of Commercial Operations. This position requires someone that can build infrastructure from scratch while delivering operational results with demanding customers. The position requires strategic vision to design a scalable PMO, technical credibility to understand formulation/manufacturing constraints, business acumen to translate project status into financial impact, customer relationship skills to navigate diverse requirements, and leadership presence to establish new organizational discipline. This is a true build-and-run role requiring entrepreneurial initiative, operational rigor, and interpersonal flexibility in a complex B2B service environment.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in business, operations management, engineering, or related field (MBA preferred)
PMP (Project Management Professional) certification required
10+ YEARS PROGRESSIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE WITH 5+ YEARS LEADING PM TEAMS
Proven track record building PMO infrastructure from scratch
Experience managing 500+ concurrent projects with measurable leading and lagging KPI’s
EXPERT-LEVEL PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT AND CAPACITY PLANNING
DEEP EXPERTISE WITH PROJECT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (MONDAY.COM, SMARTSHEET, MS PROJECT, ASANA)
ABILITY TO LEARN BASICS OF FORMULATION DEVELOPMENT, MANUFACTURING/QUALITY PROCESSES
KNOWLEDGE OF, OR ABILITY TO LEARN, FDA REGULATIONS AND GMP REQUIREMENTS
FINANCIAL ACUMEN INCLUDING P&L IMPACT ANALYSIS AND RESOURCE PLANNING
EXECUTIVE PRESENCE WITH EXECUTIVE-LEVEL COMMUNICATION SKILLS
CUSTOMER-FACING EXCELLENCE NAVIGATING DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS PROFESSIONALLY
COACHING AND TALENT DEVELOPMENT CAPABILITIES
STRATEGIC THINKING COMBINED WITH HANDS-ON OPERATIONAL EXECUTION
RESILIENCE MANAGING HIGH-VOLUME, HIGH-COMPLEXITY B2B ENVIRONMENTS

Nice To Haves

Six Sigma, Lean, or Agile certifications preferred
Background in regulated industries (FDA, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food & beverage) preferred
CDMO, contract manufacturing experience strongly preferred
Success managing demanding B2B customer relationships with varied requirements

Responsibilities

Balance 500+ concurrent projects across complexity, customer requirements, R&D and regulatory intensity, and facility constraints
Identify bottlenecks and resource conflicts before they impact customer timelines
Partner with R&D, Supply Chain, Regulatory, Quality, and Commercial leadership to adjust priorities based on business impact
Ensure Project Managers/Customer Success Managers serve as primary customer interface with regular cadence of transparent status meetings
Adapt approaches for varied customer needs from large retail brands with rigid specifications to emerging brands requiring consultative partnership
Personally engage on high-stakes projects and escalations requiring senior leadership
Act as single point of accountability for cross-functional execution across R&D, Supply Chain, Packaging, Regulatory, Quality, and Operations
Build and execute against leading and lagging KPI’s
Personally manage highest-complexity, highest-revenue, or politically sensitive projects
Build, manage, and develop high-performing team of Project Managers/Customer Success Managers
Set SMART goals and monitor KPIs including projects delivered, on-time completion rates, customer satisfaction, and data accuracy
Recruit, coach, and retain top talent as the organization scales
Lead strategic customer meetings when projects face delays, quality issues, or scope changes
Deliver data-driven reporting to Executive Leadership Team (ELT) on pipeline health, risks, capacity constraints, and KPI performance
Translate project details into business impact: revenue timing, margin implications, customer satisfaction risk
Identify inefficiencies slowing SKU throughput; lead post-launch retrospectives
Establish PMO metrics including schedule adherence, forecast accuracy, cycle time
Benchmark against industry standards for competitive advantage through execution excellence