Senior R&D Project Manager

CEVA SANTE ANIMALE•Philadelphia, PA

About The Position

Ceva Animal Health seeks a Senior R&D Project Manager to lead selected research and development projects in Discovery, New Product Development, or Life Cycle Management through proof of concept, market authorization, and commercialization. The role combines rigorous project management, cross-functional leadership, and scientific and product-development expertise. The project manager is accountable for delivery across time, cost, quality, and business impact, while developing the project team, managing scope and portfolio changes, and connecting project decisions to Ceva’s strategic, competitive, and customer context. The role leads project decisions within defined authority and brings decision-ready proposals and trade-offs to governance bodies when escalation is needed. It includes maintaining project plans and documentation, managing timelines, resources, risks, opportunities, issues, changes, budgets, and forecasts, and communicating status and recommendations to project teams and governance forums. The project manager brings relevant scientific expertise, monitors scientific advances, develops an external expert network, and anticipates regulatory, quality, manufacturing, commercial, and intellectual-property considerations throughout the product-development lifecycle. The role also promotes continuous improvement and the use of digital and AI-enabled tools for planning, forecasting, and reporting.

Requirements

Advanced scientific degree in life sciences, veterinary sciences, or a related field; a master’s degree with substantial equivalent scientific expertise may be considered.
Genuine scientific or technical expertise relevant to the project domain, such as disease knowledge, microbiology, immunology, or CMC, evidenced by an advanced degree, publications, patents, or a recognized R&D expert track record.
Proven project-management track record applying standard tools and methodologies rigorously, including agile and waterfall approaches.
Business acumen.
Experience presenting to governance bodies and making and owning autonomous decisions within defined thresholds.
Comfort with digital and AI-enabled project-management tools and data-driven reporting.
Knowledge of GMP, GLP, and GCP and the regulatory framework for biological or pharmaceutical products.

Nice To Haves

PhD or post-doctoral experience is strongly preferred.
PMP, PMI, or equivalent project-management certification.
Experience with Smartsheet.

Responsibilities

Lead selected R&D projects in Discovery, New Product Development, or Life Cycle Management toward proof of concept, market authorization, and commercialization.
Own project delivery across time, cost, quality, and business impact.
Make project decisions within defined authority and escalate decisions beyond those thresholds to governance bodies with a proposed solution and trade-offs.
Connect project decisions to Ceva’s strategic, competitive, customer, product-range, and portfolio context.
Anticipate market needs and business objectives across the project lifecycle.
Communicate project status and recommendations clearly, transparently, and appropriately to project teams and governance forums.
Build, lead, and develop cross-functional project teams; delegate ownership of workstreams and support team-member growth.
Participate in objective setting and assessment for project team members.
Promote continuous improvement, adaptability, change, and reuse of project learnings.
Structure, own, and update the project plan, including scope, work breakdown structure, sequencing, critical path, timeline, scorecard, and KPIs, in the corporate project management tool.
Proactively manage project risks, opportunities, issues, and changes; anticipate deviations and propose corrective actions and trade-offs.
Promote digital and AI-enabled tools to improve forecasting, planning, and reporting and reduce manual work.
Track budgets and forecasts, manage variance against the business case, and incorporate financial and operational trade-offs into decisions.
Maintain project documentation, updates, resource management, timeline estimates, and reporting.
Apply scientific understanding to project work and challenge technical rationale and interpret study data.
Monitor internal and external scientific advances and maintain an external network of expertise in the project’s scientific area.
Manage the end-to-end product-development lifecycle and anticipate cross-functional dependencies, including regulatory, quality, manufacturing, and commercial needs.
Incorporate regulatory, quality, intellectual-property, and market considerations into project planning, risk management, and prioritization.
Ensure compliance with applicable standards and ethical requirements throughout development.