Sr. Project Manager, New Product Introduction (NPI) (Hybrid)

Purple•Draper, UT

7d•$114,800 - $135,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Purple is seeking a Senior Project Manager to lead the New Product Introduction (NPI) process for GelFlex® Grid comfort products, from concept through commercialization. This hybrid position combines remote work with onsite work at Purple’s headquarters in Draper, Utah, with the arrangement determined by business needs. The role reports to the Senior Director of Product and coordinates process execution across Product Management, Development, Engineering, Quality, Sourcing, Operations, and Marketing. The position owns integrated product plans and timelines as well as the NPI process itself. It will refine the stage-gate framework, clarify decision-making and handoffs, and improve systems through tools and automation that reduce manual status reporting and help teams focus on innovation. The Senior Project Manager also coordinates builds and launch readiness, identifies and addresses risks, leads post-launch reviews, and develops dashboards and concise leadership updates to improve future launches.

Requirements

At least 7 years of project or program management experience, including at least 5 years leading NPI for physical, manufactured products such as consumer products, durable goods, or hardware.
Track record of launching multiple products from concept through production, working directly with product, development, manufacturing, marketing, sourcing, sales, and leadership as needed.
Hands-on experience running or refining a stage-gate or phase-gate development process, with judgment about when to add structure or simplify it.
Demonstrated results improving work processes, such as reducing cycle time, rework, or launch delays.
Fluency with JIRA and experience leveraging tools for automation; curiosity about continued improvement and ability to teach others about optimizations.
Exceptional communication skills, including driving decisions across a matrix and providing clear, candid updates.
Bachelor’s degree in project management, engineering, business, supply chain, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

PMP or Lean / Six Sigma certification.
Experience in sleep, furniture, textiles, foam, or other soft-goods manufacturing.
Experience building automated workflows using tools such as Jira automation, Power Automate, Zapier, or custom AI assistants.
Omni-channel launch experience across DTC e-commerce, showrooms, and wholesale retail partners.
Experience in a growing or transforming organization.

Responsibilities

Own integrated NPI plans for new products from concept through commercialization, including milestones, dependencies, critical paths, and launch timing.
Translate Product Management goals into timelines, tasks, and plans that teams can commit to.
Refine the stage-gate process, including gate criteria, documentation, deliverables, and decision rights, while keeping it appropriately streamlined.
Coordinate prototype and production-validation builds with Product, Development, Engineering, Quality, Sourcing, and Manufacturing.
Manage ready-to-ship dates and align go-to-market plans with launch readiness.
Identify schedule risks early, lead trade-off discussions, and escalate issues with clear options and recommendations.
Identify and implement tools and automations to reduce manual status-chasing and reporting; champion adoption across the team.
Lead post-launch retrospectives and turn lessons learned into templates, playbooks, and standards.
Build dashboards and KPIs, including gate on-time rate, schedule variance, development cycle time, and launch readiness.
Provide senior leadership with concise updates on achievements, challenges, and actionable insights.