Sr. Project Manager, Innovation
About The Position
Mezzetta is seeking a Senior Project Manager, Innovation to serve as the operational backbone of its pre-launch innovation project portfolio. The role brings structure, clarity, and decision discipline to a fast-paced, cross-functional environment, particularly within the innovation pipeline and stage gate process. Reporting to the VP of Strategy & Execution, this leader will standardize and elevate project management practices and act as a thought partner to functional leaders, helping teams understand project status, risks, tradeoffs, and the implications of key decisions. The role focuses on driving alignment, enabling better decisions, and improving the success rate of innovation at Mezzetta. The position partners with Innovation, Marketing, R&D, and Operations to improve stage gate practices, portfolio visibility, and execution. It also builds project management capability across teams and supports predictable, high-quality delivery through consistent methods, accountability, retrospectives, continuous improvement, and effective use of tools such as Smartsheet.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree.
- At least 10 years of project management experience.
- Demonstrated success leading innovation pipelines and stage gate processes.
- Experience operating in ambiguous, fast-changing environments with shifting priorities.
- Proven ability to drive cross-functional alignment and decision-making without direct authority.
- Strong ability to translate complexity into clear, actionable insights for leadership.
- Expertise in project management tools.
Nice To Haves
- MBA.
- PMP certification.
- Significant experience in CPG or food manufacturing.
- Smartsheet experience.
- Lean or continuous improvement experience.
Responsibilities
- Own and continuously improve Mezzetta’s innovation stage gate process.
- Ensure clear entry and exit criteria, decision frameworks, and accountability at each stage gate.
- Drive decision clarity and durability to minimize rework and scope churn.
- Partner with Innovation, Marketing, R&D, and Operations to ensure feasibility, alignment, and execution readiness.
- Surface cost, timing, and complexity tradeoffs to enable strong decision-making.
- Provide a clear, consolidated view of innovation project portfolio health.
- Translate complex project data into clear executive-level insights.
- Identify risks, dependencies, and capacity constraints early.
- Enable leadership to make informed prioritization and resource decisions.
- Establish and enforce project management best practices, tools, and methodologies.
- Drive consistency in project scoping, planning, and execution.
- Train cross-functional teams on effective project management and stage gate discipline.
- Improve predictability, speed, and quality of project delivery.
- Drive accountability across teams for timelines, deliverables, and outcomes.
- Lead retrospectives and continuous improvement efforts.
- Optimize tools, such as Smartsheet, to support scalable execution.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
