Senior Project Manager

Maker's Pride Talent Acquisition Team • Downers Grove, IL

15d • Hybrid

About The Position

Maker’s Pride is on a journey to become the world’s most trusted partner in food. This transformation is enabled by a portfolio of complex, enterprise‑level initiatives led by the Maker’s Pride Business Transformation Office (BTO).
The Senior Project Manager serves as a trusted delivery and thought partner responsible for ensuring that Maker’s Pride’s most complex and high‑impact initiatives are executed with consistent technical, financial, and collaborative rigor. This role is accountable for driving outcomes across initiatives with significant organizational, operational, and financial complexity, while providing transparency and insight to senior leadership and the Executive Leadership Team (ELT).
The Senior Project Manager operates with a high degree of autonomy, navigates ambiguity, anticipates cross‑initiative risks and dependencies, and translates complex work into clear recommendations that support executive decision‑making. This role elevates project execution standards, enables enterprise alignment, and strengthens project maturity across the organization. This is a hybrid role; you will work out of our corporate headquarters in Downers Grove, IL 4 days/week and work remotely 1 day/week.

Requirements

• Advanced Technical & Operational Acumen: Strong background in engineering, manufacturing, and/or operations, enabling effective leadership of technically and operationally complex initiatives.
• Strategic Judgment & Comfort with Ambiguity: Proven ability to navigate uncertainty, evaluate tradeoffs, anticipate downstream impacts, and make sound recommendations in dynamic environments.
• Executive‑Level Communication & Influence: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to synthesize complex information into clear, compelling narratives and recommendations for senior and executive audiences.
• Enterprise Leadership Experience: Demonstrated success leading highly complex, cross‑functional initiatives involving multiple stakeholders and significant interdependencies, including external partners when applicable.
• Analytical & Financial Rigor: Strong analytical skills with proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint; able to evaluate data, financial impacts, and risks to inform decision‑making.
• Coaching & Development Mindset: Ability and willingness to mentor others, elevate standards, and act as a force multiplier across the BTO and broader organization.
• Education: Undergraduate degree in business, engineering, finance, accounting, or other relevant field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience: Minimum of 7 years relevant work experience.

Nice To Haves

• MBA (preferred)
• Engineering/ Food Manufacturing Experience preferred.
• Experience working across multiple business functions (e.g. operations, engineering, finance, consulting) preferred
• Certifications: PMP Certified preferred

Responsibilities

• Enterprise Project Leadership: Accountable for the successful delivery of complex, strategic initiatives with significant operational, financial, and organizational impact. Owns outcomes, tradeoffs, and risk mitigation from concept through execution.
• Strategic Planning & Execution: Define project scope, governance, cross‑functional team structures, timelines, and milestones. As unknowns and risks emerge, proactively assess assumptions, interdependencies, and impacts to recommend course corrections that protect business objectives.
• Executive Partnership & Communication: Serve as a primary point of accountability for senior leadership and ELT updates. Prepare executive‑ready materials, decision briefs, and recommendations that distill complex inputs into clear, actionable insights.
• Outcome & Performance Management: Define, track, and evaluate success metrics aligned to strategic objectives. Ensure transparency into progress, risks, and dependencies and elevate issues requiring executive visibility or resolution.
• Cross‑Functional & External Collaboration: Partner closely with internal stakeholders across operations, engineering, finance, sales, and other functions, as well as external partners and customers, to ensure alignment, accountability, and effective execution.
• Leadership & Influence: Lead, guide, and coach cross‑functional teams through complex and ambiguous work. Influence without authority, challenge assumptions constructively, and drive alignment across competing priorities.
• Enterprise Enablement & Knowledge Management: Establish and reinforce best practices, tools, and ways of working for complex project execution. Mentor project managers and functional partners, and institutionalize lessons learned to continuously elevate BTO project maturity.
• Career Growth & Impact: Play a critical role in Maker’s Pride’s transformation journey, with meaningful exposure to enterprise‑level initiatives and senior leaders, and opportunities to broaden strategic and leadership capabilities.

Benefits

• We offer a comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, 401k and wellness benefits beginning on the first day of employment.
• The position is eligible for a discretionary annual incentive based on company and individual performance.

What This Job Offers

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