What are the responsibilities and job description for the Director of Project Management - Growing, Global, Mission-driven Organic Beverage Company - Eugene position at Acumen Executive Search?
Director of Project Management for a Growing, Global, Mission-driven Organic Beverage Company in Eugene
Celebrating 15 years of excellence, Acumen Executive Search is a premiere boutique, woman-owned Executive Search and Leadership Solutions partner in the Pacific Northwest with a global reach. We deliver high-impact results while nurturing genuine long-term relationships. Acumen works shoulder to shoulder with our clients to deliver customized, meaningful, and proven leadership solutions empowering client success.
We are again delighted to partner with our client, East West Tea Company (you may know them as Yogi and Choice Organics) – a well-known and loved, global, mission-driven company experiencing rapid growth and new product lines. They have a deep focus on culture and personal development and experience very low turnover with loyal, passionate employees. They “exist to inspire” as a B Corp that truly lives its values, striving to support quality, sustainability, and social responsibility on a local, national, and global level.
They are looking to add a driven, strategic, people-focused Director of Project Management to their collaborative and motivated team. The Director of Project Management would be responsible for creating a Process-Based culture in the organization. This individual is responsible for leadership, strategy, oversight, and coordination of cross-functional teams, incorporating best practices to inform sound business decisions. Being a consumer-product based organization, this individual also will play a key role in getting products to market more quickly, implementation of a new ERP (in partnership with the Director of IT) and operational related projects for the organization.
Responsible for:
- Working with Global Chief Strategy Officer and Leadership in developing alignment as a culture of process-oriented thinking.
- Influencing cross functional teams – leading diverse groups as an agent of cultural change.
- Working with cross functional departments to create efficiencies in processes and systems.
- Analyzing processes and creating timelines while prioritizing opportunities and risks.
- Sound judgement and knowledge of consumer product manufacturing to enable on-time, on-budget deliverables.
- Analyzing systems and processes, lead improvements with project timelines, documentation.
- Execution using effective organizational skills to create and manage product development timelines, systems, and processes leveraging a stage-gate methodology.
- Questioning and balancing attention to detail with swift execution while identifying current/future needs.
- Leading frequent cross-functional team meetings, ensuring goals, risks/opportunities are identified.
- Gathering, analyzing, synthesizing, and presenting information/data from cross functional teams driving results and continuous improvement.
- To create effective structure, hire and manage additional Project Manager.
This role will orchestrate activities between marketing, R&D, sourcing, operations, quality, testing, and will interface with executive leadership. This is an excellent opportunity which offers growth and challenge and is well-suited for a project management professional who has broad project management experience and is ready to play a senior role.
Our client offers a healthy culture, generous bonuses, attractive benefits, “Tea University” continuing education, relocation support along with performance-based bonuses - everyone shares their success. This role will be managing a project coordinator as the team grows within the year.
The company, located in the charming city of Eugene, Oregon, is less than an hour from the gorgeous coastline and less than 2 hours from the mountains. The City offers free Wi-Fi, wonderful restaurants, food carts, and café culture, top-ranked schools, a sparkling new Knight Campus, and has been termed a “more affordable Portland that’s sunnier and close to the beach.”
If you:
- Are both strategic and tactical, able to multi-task while being calm under fire. A ‘thinker’, quick processor of layers of information.
- Have experience acting as agent of cultural change and able to coalesce teams around stated mission/vision/values.
- Have strong listening skills and are a heart-centered leader who can lead through influence at all levels of an organization and with multiple functional groups.
- Are adept at negotiating deadlines and deliverables with complex timelines, across functional groups.
- Possess excellent oral/written communication. Able to track and document project timelines/ deliverables.
- Are analytical, able to analyze, manipulate, and present data from multiple sources in various formats.
- Can anticipate risks, create mitigation plans, and offer alternative winning solutions.
- Ask great questions, be persuasive, negotiate, and inspire others to drive results through action.
- A committed, self-directed, solution-oriented individual that ‘owns’ their role and responsibilities.
- Have a bias towards action and an ability to deliver excellence and drive accountability through process optimization.
- A creative thinker, a “can-do attitude.” A team player that explains and clarifies roles/expectations
- Are able to bring best-practices in manufacturing project management, leveraging the stage-gate process.
- Highly organized, able to problem solve, and are flexible and solution focused.
- Are skilled in change management and know how to bring teams along.
- Have strong relationship skills, able to mentor and coach and actively problem-solve
- Have enough humility to listen and integrate constructive feedback.
This opportunity may be for your right next step.
Our client is looking for a Director of Project Management who wants to join a progressive and growing team and who inspires a “can-do” attitude in people and organizations. A person who can lead, listen, guide a team, and work in a multi-cultural environment. A flexible person who believes that creativity and innovation have no boundaries while producing results based on shifting needs and priorities
Collaboration & Relationship Management
- Verifies timelines and maintains effective communication with appropriate cross-functional teams regarding issues and action plans in development, being open to revisions.
- Lead cross-functional teams ensuring marketing, branding, sourcing, compliance, development, and manufacturing are aligned with company values and direction.
- Manages teams to ensure process timelines and quality standards are met.
- Identifies gaps in product and processes, works towards continuous improvement.
Core Knowledge
- Core knowledge of commercialization in consumer products companies.
- Knowledge of and experience in ERP implementation – a plus.
- Understanding of Stage-Gate process and process optimization.
- Lean or Six Sigma training a plus.
- Able to focus on the big picture/strategic needs of the team as well as tactical execution.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree
- Experience in business setting working in organizational cross collaborative team functions
- 10 years project management experience in business preferably product manufacturing or consumer products a plus
- MBA or Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification – a plus, but not required