Project Manager III

Lindt & Sprüngli (Canada), Inc•San Leandro, CA

14d

About The Position

At Ghirardelli, we honor tradition and drive innovation, aiming to be the top choice for premium chocolate. Our commitment to Making Life A Bite Better inspires both our products and the way we do business. We support personal and professional growth, recognizing that each employee’s contribution directly impacts Ghirardelli’s growth and success. Join our dynamic team and help shape Ghirardelli's future. The Project Manager III is responsible for leading the cross-functional effort to execute high priority, high complex projects across one or more categories, including project portfolio management for specified categories. Depending on the experience of the candidate, a Project Manager II would be considered with scaled back responsibilities to still lead high complexity projects across categories, but not manage a category portfolio or have people-management responsibilities. This role ensures the successful launch of tier 1 and tier 2 new product development projects, high-complexity product changes, and time-critical initiatives through cross-functional collaboration and supply chain coordination. The role also involves project portfolio management, aligning projects with the company's strategic game plan to optimize resources. Project Manager level 1 or 2 report into this role.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering or other relevant discipline
7+ years in CPG industry or in other industries managing projects with multiple parties and complex timelines and/or leading cross-functional teams
New product development/commercialization, brand management or supply chain management experience in consumer products industry preferred
Project Management skills including use of MS Project and Smartsheet
PMP certification or proven consistent track record of delivering multiple high-complexity projects simultaneously is a requirement

Responsibilities

Manage project portfolio by overseeing selection, prioritization, and execution of the portfolio.
Aligning projects with organizational strategy and optimizing resource allocation to achieve maximum efficiency.
Create project plans and timelines to document scope, requirements, key timings, milestones and decision points, based on internal & external constraints, slack time and launch dates in order to deliver projects on time and in full.
Manage cross-functional team members and business processes to ensure timelines are maintained and decisions are made on time.
Capture and maintain project data in the Product Lifecycle Management and other applicable systems to ensure team members can access current/latest project information.
Develop and maintain tracking tools, for instance Key Performance Indicators, ensuring milestone, timeline and performance visibility to the cross-functional team and the larger organization, and implement process changes to improve performance as needed and agreed.
Develop, maintain, and improve standard tools and processes for a systematic approach to routing new products, seasonal and in-and-out items, and other time-critical products through the Supply Chain, and train cross-functional team members on these tools and processes.
Drive a culture of continuous improvement in project delivery performance.
Facilitate team meetings as required, and ensure these meetings are systematic with agendas, decisions and actions recorded and distributed.
Create a culture of ownership within the team, supporting Sr. Project Manager in development and execution of team vision and strategy.
Anticipate potential problems or issues and proactively work with the cross-functional team to gather information required to make well-informed decisions and head off problems.
Resolve conflicts within the team wherever possible.
Manage escalations along functional management lines where conflicts cannot be resolved within time and/or wherever project delivery to agreed timing may be in jeopardy.
Present status updates upon request to various audiences up to and including the business management team.
Provide overall business oriented and objective leadership to cross-functional team.
Confidence to elevate concerns to management team in an unbiased manner.
Hire, develop and manage performance of junior Project Managers as business needs dictate.
Create an inclusive environment that embraces our values and purpose.
May perform other duties as assigned.
Complete special projects and other duties as assigned or as necessary.