R&D Manager, Project Management, Sustaining

CONMED Corporation • Denver, CO

3d • $93,000 - $140,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

This position is a critical leadership role within the Advanced Surgical division's R&D organization, based in Denver, CO. This is a hybrid position requiring 3 days per week onsite. The Manager leads portfolio governance and owns project execution for sustaining projects partnering across cross functional groups to improve execution predictability, manage risk, and deliver business and patient impact. Advanced Surgical products include: Access and insufflation systems, Energy systems, Smoke management systems, Laparoscopic surgical instruments.

Requirements

• 6+ years of engineering and/or project management experience required, or demonstrated equivalent experience through advanced education, training, or relevant professional achievements.
• Demonstrated success managing concurrent projects or initiatives with competing priorities, including ownership of timelines, budgets, resource allocation, cross-functional stakeholder alignment, and dependency management.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in people leadership or demonstrated experience leading project management professionals.
• PMP certification.
• Experience in the medical device industry, healthcare, or another regulated product development environment.
• Ability to analyze complex information, develop practical recommendations, and drive timely decisions.
• Strong communication and influence skills, with the ability to present clearly to technical teams, business partners, and senior leadership.
• Demonstrated ability to coach others, build accountability, and foster collaboration across organizational boundaries.
• Strong understanding of project and portfolio management principles, governance, risk management, and performance reporting.
• Experience with portfolio and work management platforms such as Smartsheet, along with strong Excel and PowerPoint capabilities

Responsibilities

• Lead the Advanced Surgical sustaining portfolio. Establish clear priorities, decision points, and governance expectations aligned with business objectives.
• Guide project managers and cross-functional teams in defining scope, schedules, budgets, milestones, deliverables, and success criteria. Ensure disciplined execution to approved timelines, maintain accountability for commitments and deliverables, and uphold quality and compliance requirements.
• Lead Project Review Board meetings, portfolio reviews, and executive updates. Clearly communicate project metrics, risks, tradeoffs, resource needs, and required decisions.
• Promote proactive identification, documentation, mitigation, and escalation of project, technical, supply, regulatory, and execution risks.
• Develop and maintain resource waterline views, capacity models, and staffing recommendations across sustaining work. Partner with functional leaders to resolve constraints and align resources to priority work.
• Own the Advanced Surgical sustaining portfolio budget, including annual planning, forecasting, contractor management, capital investments, and cost improvement initiatives. Provide financial oversight through budget tracking, variance analysis, reporting, and proactive recommendations to support strategic business decisions and portfolio execution.
• Improve and maintain project management standards, templates, intake processes, dashboards, metrics, and portfolio tools, including Smartsheet-based solutions.
• Support delivery of regulatory, quality, remediation, and other sustaining initiatives in accordance with applicable quality system and design control requirements.
• Support delivery of service and cost related sustaining initiatives in accordance with applicable quality system and design control requirements.
• Partner closely with Operations to align sustaining portfolio priorities, project plans, resource needs, implementation timing, and readiness activities. Ensure operational constraints and dependencies are incorporated into decisions, risks are escalated proactively, and cross-functional commitments support successful execution and implementation.
• Build alignment across R&D, Quality, Regulatory, Operations, Marketing, Finance, and other business partners. Communicate complex portfolio information clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Lead, coach, and develop a team of project management professionals. Set clear expectations, strengthen accountability, support professional development, and foster a collaborative, high-performing culture.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation
• Excellent healthcare including medical, dental, vision and prescription coverage
• Short & long term disability plus life insurance -- cost paid fully by CONMED
• Retirement Savings Plan (401K) -- CONMED matches your contributions dollar for dollar, with the potential for up to 7% per pay period
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan -- allows stock purchases at discounted price
• Tuition assistance for undergraduate and graduate level courses
• Employee Referral Program incentives

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed