Automation Project Engineer (pharma)

Qualifications:

• 3+ years of relevant experience within project engineering, project management, automation, IT/OT, or manufacturing readiness.
• Experience coordinating multiple technical workstreams within a regulated manufacturing environment.
• Strong understanding of project execution, milestone tracking, risk management, issue resolution, dependencies, and operational readiness.
• Ability to develop KPIs, project trackers, management updates, change requests, service tickets, and knowledge articles.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to work effectively across technical and business stakeholders.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving capabilities.
• Ability to independently drive follow-up and maintain accountability across multiple stakeholders and workstreams.

Pluses:

• Pharmaceutical or biotechnology manufacturing experience.
• Experience supporting process qualification and/or production ramp-up.
• Familiarity with ServiceNow.
• Familiarity with QualityDocs or similar controlled quality-documentation systems.
• Experience with change control processes.
• Experience working across Automation and IT/OT organizations.
• Previous experience supporting manufacturing or facility startup/readiness activities.

Job Description:

We are seeking an Automation Engineering Project Manager / Engineer to support operational readiness, process qualification readiness, and production ramp-up activities in Clayton, NC. The resource will work across Automation, Engineering, IT/OT, Quality, Operations, and project teams to drive readiness activities, track milestones and dependencies, identify gaps, manage risks, and provide clear reporting to project leadership.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop a strong understanding of project scope, execution status, milestones, dependencies, and outstanding readiness activities.
• Coordinate across Automation, Engineering, IT/OT, Quality, Operations, and project teams to gather status, clarify requirements, and align timelines.
• Identify gaps impacting operational readiness, process qualification readiness, and production ramp-up.
• Build and maintain project KPIs, readiness trackers, and management-level status reporting.
• Clearly communicate completed work, ongoing activities, unresolved issues, risks, upcoming milestones, and decisions requiring leadership attention.
• Maintain project risks, issues, actions, decisions, and dependencies while escalating high-impact or overdue items.
• Draft and coordinate change requests and supporting documentation within QualityDocs.
• Create, manage, and follow up on IT tickets, ServiceNow knowledge-base articles, and standard changes.
• Establish and maintain an integrated readiness tracker covering owners, timelines, dependencies, risks, status, and required actions.
• Support closeout activities, documentation handover, open-item transition, and knowledge transfer.
• Perform additional project and engineering activities assigned within the scope of the engagement.