Senior Pharmaceutical Project Manager

Johnson Controls • Rockville, VA

1d • $95,000 - $130,000

About The Position

The Senior Pharmaceutical Project Manager is the day-to-day project lead for validated-environment and laboratory construction projects across a campus, including cleanrooms, biosafety cabinets, containment suites, biocontainment laboratories, and related utilities. The role delivers projects within a validated-state framework, emphasizing operational excellence, compliance, and tactical and financial performance.

Reporting to the Project Executive, the Senior Project Manager partners with Engineering, QA/Validation, Delivery, sponsors, and regional leadership. The role coordinates project stakeholders and teams across multiple sites, maintains project scope, schedule, and budget, and oversees validation strategies, documentation, risk, contracts, vendors, and project finances. It also supports regulatory inspection readiness, continuous improvement, and safe, compliant collaboration.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in construction, Civil, Mechanical, or Electrical Engineering, Construction Management, Business Management, Architecture, or a related field.
• 5–10 years of direct project management experience on large capital projects, including regulated or validated settings.
• Demonstrated success delivering complex, multi-site projects in validated environments such as GMP, GLP, or ISO 17025 settings within laboratories, biopharma, pharmaceutical manufacturing, medical devices, healthcare, or related sectors.
• Understanding of contract language, project accounting, and basic portfolio management as applied to validated environments.
• Strong executive communication skills, including the ability to present to senior leadership and diverse stakeholder groups and influence across functional boundaries.
• Ability to lead and coordinate cross-functional teams in regulated contexts.
• Proficiency with standard project management tools such as Primavera P6 and MS Project, reporting platforms, and advanced MS Office skills for creating executive-level dashboards and presentations.
• Working knowledge of validation concepts, commissioning/qualification processes, data integrity best practices, and regulatory expectations for validated facilities.
• Ability to establish and maintain professional relationships with key stakeholders and subcontractors in validated environments.
• Willingness to travel and operate across multiple sites as needed.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree.
• PMI certification (PMP) or equivalent.
• Certifications or hands-on experience in CQV; CSV awareness; familiarity with FDA 21 CFR Part 11, EU Annex 11, and related regulatory frameworks.
• Experience delivering validated environments such as GMP/GLP labs, ISO 14644 cleanrooms, ISO 17025 laboratories, or similar.
• Experience working on programs in datacenter-adjacent facilities requiring stringent validation regimes.
• Demonstrated ability to contribute to continuous improvement programs for validation processes and data integrity across a project portfolio.

Responsibilities

• Plan, execute, monitor, and close validated-environment projects across multiple sites, ensuring IQ/OQ/PQ, equipment qualification, data integrity, and regulatory expectations are met.
• Serve as the day-to-day on-site project lead, coordinating owners, architects, engineers, QA/Validation, contractors, and vendors within validated-state constraints.
• Collaborate with the Project Executive to define and maintain scope, schedule, and budget baselines; monitor progress and report deviations.
• Develop and implement validation strategies and documentation aligned with corporate validation policy, including validation plans and commissioning/qualification activities.
• Identify, assess, and mitigate project-level risks affecting deliverables, schedules, budgets, data integrity, or compliance; escalate risks with proposed remedies as needed.
• Track and report project performance to the Project Executive, including schedule, budget, risk, QA/validation progress, and regulatory readiness.
• Manage change orders, project delays, procurement, and contract administration for assigned projects, ensuring alignment with validated baselines and contract requirements.
• Update project logs at least weekly and manage documentation according to Solution Navigator standards.
• Maintain documentation controls that meet contract, QA, and regulatory standards and support regulatory inspections.
• Seek opportunities to improve validation workflows, data integrity practices, and delivery quality.
• Maintain sponsor and stakeholder relationships and serve as a project-level advisor on validated-environment delivery and compliance.
• Manage vendor and subcontractor performance, select qualified partners, and ensure alignment with timelines and objectives.
• Manage assignment-level project finances, including budgeting, forecasting, progress billings, and payables.
• Prepare the project team for regulatory inspections and audits through thorough documentation and traceability.
• Encourage a safe, compliant, collaborative project environment and provide guidance to junior team members as needed.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary and a comprehensive bonus program.
• Three weeks paid vacation in a calendar year, holidays, sick time, and three PTO days in a calendar year.
• Comprehensive benefits package including 401K, medical, dental, and vision care, available day one.
• Extensive product and on-the-job/cross-training opportunities.
• Encouraging and collaborative team environment.
• Scheduling and management support.
• JCI Employee discount programs (The Loop by Perk Spot).

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior