Senior Manager, Launch, Global Value Stream (US)
About The Position
The Senior Manager, Launch is a collaborative leadership role responsible for planning and delivering complex facility launches, expansions, network changes, and operational transitions across HelloFresh’s North American network. The role coordinates cross-functional teams to translate business objectives into plans, align stakeholders on milestones and dependencies, anticipate risks, and prepare teams for launch and ongoing operations. Working across Operations, Engineering, Facilities, Safety, Quality, Procurement, Finance, People, Technology, and other functions, the Senior Manager establishes structure, ownership, accountability, and decision-making for complex initiatives. The role requires strong program leadership, planning, stakeholder management, communication, and operational problem-solving, along with comfort working in physical operating environments and partnering with technical and facilities teams. The role leads initiatives from strategy and planning through execution, readiness, stabilization, and handoff. It is based in the United States and requires regular travel to operational and project sites across North America, with travel varying by project phase and increased onsite presence during key planning, readiness, launch, and stabilization periods.
Requirements
- 8+ years of experience in program management, operations, supply chain, engineering, operational excellence, facility launches, business transformation, or a related field.
- Demonstrated experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives involving multiple teams, stakeholders, workstreams, and competing priorities.
- Strong program and project management capabilities, including integrated planning, dependency management, risk mitigation, budgeting, change management, and stakeholder alignment.
- Ability to structure ambiguous problems and translate broad business objectives into executable plans.
- Strong facilitation skills, including bringing diverse stakeholders together, driving decisions, establishing accountability, and maintaining momentum.
- Experience partnering with technical teams such as Engineering, Facilities, Construction, Automation, Technology, or Equipment teams; technical subject-matter expertise is not required.
- Strong executive communication skills, including synthesizing complex information into clear updates, recommendations, and decisions.
- Ability to influence across organizational functions and levels, including stakeholders who do not directly report to the role.
- Strong business judgment and ability to balance operational requirements, cost, timing, risk, and stakeholder needs.
- Highly organized and comfortable managing multiple projects, priorities, deadlines, and changing business requirements.
- Data-driven, curious, collaborative, and comfortable challenging assumptions to achieve the best business outcome.
- Comfortable spending time in active operational environments and traveling to sites across North America.
- Regular travel to operational and project sites across North America; stated travel requirement is 50–75%.
Nice To Haves
- Experience supporting facility launches, operational expansions, network changes, major implementations, or other large-scale business initiatives.
- Experience in manufacturing, food production, fulfillment, logistics, distribution, supply chain, or other complex physical operating environments.
- Bachelor’s degree in Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering, Business, Project Management, or a related discipline.
Responsibilities
- Lead end-to-end planning and execution of facility launches, expansions, operational transitions, network changes, and other complex initiatives across North America.
- Develop integrated launch plans with defined milestones, dependencies, ownership, and decision points.
- Coordinate Operations, Engineering, Facilities, Safety, Quality, Procurement, Finance, People, Technology, and other functional partners.
- Establish launch governance and operating rhythms to support visibility, accountability, timely decisions, and alignment.
- Facilitate cross-functional planning sessions, launch reviews, working meetings, and executive updates.
- Translate strategic objectives into actionable plans and connect functional deliverables to overall launch success.
- Identify dependencies and risks early, and partner with workstream owners on mitigation and contingency plans.
- Track milestones, deliverables, budgets, risks, decisions, and readiness indicators throughout project lifecycles.
- Partner with Facilities, Engineering, Construction, vendors, and technical stakeholders to align infrastructure and equipment workstreams with launch plans.
- Coordinate operational readiness across processes, systems, equipment, staffing, training, documentation, safety, quality, and facility requirements.
- Prepare data-driven senior leadership communications covering progress, required decisions, risks, and launch health.
- Create clarity in ambiguous or changing situations by setting priorities, defining ownership, and helping teams resolve problems.
- Lead readiness assessments and ensure critical gaps are identified, assigned, and resolved before launch.
- Support launch execution and post-launch stabilization, coordinate issue resolution, and transition ownership to Operations and functional teams.
- Develop and improve standardized launch playbooks, planning tools, governance models, templates, and best practices.
- Capture lessons learned and incorporate them into future launch strategies and processes.
- Manage multiple complex initiatives while balancing priorities and maintaining focus on safety, quality, cost, schedule, and operational readiness.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
