Associate Director Project Management

Leads the Project Management function at site or portfolio level. Owns overall customer delivery performance and satisfaction through the project management team. Accountable for site-level project governance, escalation framework, and controls. Responsible for portfolio visibility, performance tracking, and reporting, with financial forecasts supported in partnership with Finance. Acts as a key interface between clients, site leadership, and global functions.

Responsibilities

Project Delivery & Customer Accountability

• Hold overall accountability for portfolio delivery performance, ensuring commitments on scope, timeline, cost, quality, and compliance are met through effective PM execution.
• Act as the escalation point for high-risk, cross-project, or unresolved issues, ensuring appropriate ownership and resolution across PMs and functions.
• Maintain active oversight of customer satisfaction, ensuring expectations are clearly set, managed, and met throughout the project lifecycle.
• Establish and own the site-level governance framework, aligned to Global PMO standards, including internal project team meetings, joint project team meetings with customers, and steering or governance forums where applicable.
• Ensure governance practices include clear meeting cadence, agendas, minutes, action tracking, and escalation pathways.
• Provide structured portfolio visibility and escalation to site leadership and relevant functional stakeholders.

Planning, Risk & Delivery Management

• Ensure consistent application of project planning disciplines across the PM team, including project schedules, critical path management, and RAID processes.
• Maintain accountability for portfolio delivery performance, proactively identifying and addressing cross-project risks to timeline, scope, or cost.
• Drive a proactive, risk-based approach to managing delivery and business exposure.

Scope Change & Commercial Alignment

• Ensure effective scope change management across the project portfolio, with accountability residing at project level with PMs.
• Support and guide PMs, particularly junior PMs, in managing scope change processes and customer discussions, partnering with Business Development on commercial or non-routine changes as required.
• Ensure scope changes follow contractual terms, governance expectations, internal approval processes, and customer communication standards.
• Ensure accurate and timely project financial inputs (forecasting, milestones, risks) are provided by PMs, and partner with Finance to support forward-looking demand visibility across the portfolio.
• Provide regular portfolio-level reporting on project status, schedule and cost variance, key risks, and overall outlook.
• Oversee coordination of invoicing activities to ensure billing is accurate, timely, and aligned with project progress and delivery milestones.

People Leadership & Capability Development

• Lead, coach, and develop the Project Management team, ensuring clear role accountability and consistent application of project management standards.
• Support performance management, capability development, and succession planning within the PM function.
• Promote a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, customer focus, and business acumen.

Systems, Process & Continuous Improvement

• Ensure effective use of project management systems, tools, and reporting mechanisms.
• Partner with Global PMO to implement standardized processes and frameworks and drive continuous improvement in project delivery practices.
• Contribute to cross‑functional operational excellence initiatives impacting project outcomes.

Cross‑Functional & Site Leadership Interface

• Act as a key interface between customers, site leadership, and global functions, representing project commitments, customer priorities, and business needs.
• Partner with Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, and Finance to balance customer expectations with site capacity, delivery risk, and broader business needs.
• Where applicable, contribute to customer demand planning and longer‑term capacity, workforce, or portfolio discussions.

Success Measures

• Customer satisfaction and retention
• Effective governance and escalation management
• Portfolio visibility and forecast accuracy
• PM team capability, engagement, and consistency
• Compliance with quality and regulatory expectations

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a scientific, technical, or business discipline (advanced degree preferred)
• Formal Project Management training or certification (PMP / PRINCE2 / equivalent preferred)
• Demonstrated experience both leading client-facing, cross‑functional project teams and delivering projects directly in a regulated environment
• Strong working knowledge of project management tools such as Smartsheet or MS Project, with the ability to support the PM team in core tool usage
• Strong commercial, financial, and customer‑management acumen

Required Skills

• Strategic thinking with operational rigor
• Strong communication and influence
• Accountability and ownership mindset
• Ability to lead through complexity and ambiguity