Product Delivery Manager

Pentair•Apex, NC

6d•$110,700 - $205,600

About The Position

Pentair is seeking a Manager, Product Delivery, to join its Apex, North Carolina team. The role builds and leads a high-performing project-management organization responsible for predictable execution across product development and lifecycle initiatives. The manager owns Product Delivery talent, standards, capacity, assignments, performance, and capability maturity, ensuring priority initiatives have designated project leaders, core teams, and functional owners. The position partners across Product Management, Product Ownership and Experience, Solution Delivery, Hardware Engineering, IoT Engineering, Product Integrity, Quality, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Finance, Commercial teams, Service, and external partners. It champions the hardware development lifecycle and integrates software delivery practices under a common governance model while preserving fit-for-purpose methods and functional accountability. During startup, the manager serves as a player-coach and may temporarily lead a strategic project. As the organization matures, the role shifts toward people leadership, portfolio execution oversight, governance ownership, and continuous improvement of the Product Delivery operating system. The manager establishes delivery practices and integrated controls; improves milestone predictability, gate readiness, and portfolio visibility; coaches Project Managers; and oversees partner-enabled project governance. The role uses approved AI, automation, analytics, and digital-thread practices to improve efficiency and insight while maintaining human accountability. The manager makes hiring, performance, development, assignment, and process-improvement decisions within the role’s authority, after soliciting relevant stakeholder and strategy input.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, or a related technical field; an additional five years of relevant experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
Minimum 10 years of relevant project, program, engineering, manufacturing, operations, supply chain, or product-development experience, including at least five years leading complex cross-functional initiatives, PMO capabilities, or product-delivery organizations.
Direct people-management experience, including demonstrated ability to coach, develop, assess, recruit, and retain project-management talent.
Experience leading software-enabled hardware or complex industrial or consumer products involving hardware, embedded firmware, software, electronics, controls, connected features, manufacturing, or companion applications.
Experience integrating Product Management, Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Finance, Commercial teams, and external partners across development, launch, and lifecycle execution.
Demonstrated ability to establish or materially improve project governance, portfolio visibility, delivery standards, capacity management, or PMO operating practices with measurable results.
Experience across hardware, software, stage-gate, agile, or hybrid development lifecycles and improving how teams define, plan, execute, monitor, and assure commitments.
Ownership of portfolio or project forecasts, budgets, CAPEX/OPEX, business-case assumptions, financial variances, and corrective actions.
Ability to influence senior leaders, lead globally distributed teams through ambiguity, and resolve complex cross-functional dependencies without relying solely on direct authority.
Excellent written, verbal, facilitation, coaching, negotiation, and executive communication skills.
Lean Six Sigma certification or demonstrated impact leading Kaizen, value-stream, root-cause, or operational-excellence improvements.
Willingness and ability to travel 10–20% domestically and internationally based on operational needs.
Enterprise and systems thinking that connects strategy, customer value, product intent, engineering execution, partner readiness, manufacturing, launch, and lifecycle performance.
Builder mindset and ability to lead current commitments while establishing scalable people, processes, tools, measures, and governance.
Ability to surface issues early, frame options, recommend a path, and drive resolution with accountability and transparency.
Ability to set high standards, provide candid coaching, recognize potential, and create opportunities for capability progression.
Ability to balance decision authority with collaboration, stakeholder input, change-management discipline, and respect for functional ownership.
Comfort moving between portfolio strategy, organizational leadership, executive tradeoffs, project recovery, and detailed readiness evidence.
Curiosity, adaptability, data-driven decision-making, and willingness to constructively challenge inefficient practices while maintaining sound governance and business continuity.

Nice To Haves

MBA, master’s degree, or advanced technical degree.
Project Management Professional certification.
Experience leading within a matrixed PMO, portfolio-governance, SAFe, multi-team solution-delivery, or organizational-transformation environment.
Experience establishing or improving JDM/ODM/OEM, contract-manufacturing, supplier-development, or external-partner governance.
Experience with medium- or high-volume manufacturing, consumer durables, electromechanical products, pool equipment, appliances, industrial machinery, or software-enabled hardware solutions.
Experience applying AI, workflow automation, analytics, or digital-thread capabilities within appropriate governance controls.
Experience with Microsoft 365, Jira, Confluence, PLM, ERP, advanced scheduling, and portfolio-management tools.

Responsibilities

Build, lead, coach, and develop the Product Delivery team, including recruiting talent, strengthening Project Manager capability, setting role expectations, and creating development and succession plans.
Own Product Delivery capacity, assignments, standards, performance, and capability maturity across new product development, sustainment, value engineering, quality and reliability, supply continuity, and partner-enabled programs.
Match Project Manager assignments to initiative complexity, risk, business impact, individual strengths, and development needs; ensure priority projects have named leaders, core teams, and functional owners.
Establish and continuously improve Product Delivery methods, templates, measures, decision rights, escalation thresholds, project-health criteria, and portfolio operating rhythms.
Set expectations for integrated planning and transparent controls covering scope, requirements, schedule, investment, resources, dependencies, risks, issues, assumptions, decisions, change, verification evidence, operational readiness, and business outcomes.
Improve commitment and milestone predictability by reviewing plans, challenging assumptions, monitoring dependencies, requiring recovery plans when commitments are at risk, and escalating decisions with options and recommendations.
Strengthen Define-gate and lifecycle gate readiness by ensuring evidence, ownership, capacity, investment, risk, and execution assumptions support reliable commitments and informed decisions.
Partner with Solution Delivery and functional leaders to align product intent, ownership, software and digital delivery, engineering execution, manufacturing readiness, commercialization, and lifecycle outcomes without taking over technical or functional ownership.
Integrate hardware and software practices into a cohesive Product Delivery governance model, establishing measurable integration milestones and improving handoffs, synchronization, visibility, and accountability.
Co-lead the design and maturation of the partner-enabled operating model, then own project-governance execution, performance visibility, corrective-action follow-through, and continuous improvement across partner-enabled programs.
Provide concise, decision-ready portfolio reporting on commitments, milestones, risks, decisions, gate readiness, capacity, finances, dependencies, and value realization.
Coach Project Managers in stakeholder engagement, integrated planning, financial management, operational readiness, risk and decision management, executive communication, project recovery, and continuous improvement.
Consult key stakeholders before material changes to Product Delivery standards or governance, incorporating strategy, operational realities, and change-management considerations while retaining accountability for decisions within role authority.
Use approved AI, automation, analytics, and digital-thread practices to reduce administrative effort, improve data quality and traceability, consolidate status, strengthen schedule and risk insight, and enable management by exception while maintaining human accountability.
Initially serve as a player-coach and, when required, personally lead a strategic initiative until staffing and transition plans are complete; progressively shift focus to team, portfolio, and operating-system leadership.
Assign and prioritize Product Delivery resources across approved initiatives.
Establish Product Delivery standards, methods, templates, measures, operating rhythms, project-health criteria, and escalation thresholds.
Require recovery plans and corrective actions for at-risk initiatives and recommend gate-readiness or continuation decisions to accountable governance bodies.
Make hiring, performance, development, and assignment decisions for the Product Delivery team.
Approve Product Delivery process improvements and recommend broader portfolio, governance, capacity, or organizational changes.
Make decisions independently within the role’s boundaries after soliciting relevant stakeholder and strategy input, with attention to enterprise priorities and changing management impacts.