The Automation Project Manager will establish project management governance and execution discipline across technical deployment and operational readiness activities in a regulated manufacturing environment. This contract role coordinates cross-functional teams, maintains integrated visibility of actions and dependencies, supports leadership reporting, and drives issues and blockers toward resolution. The Project Manager will facilitate execution and readiness activities but will not serve as the technical owner of systems or equipment.
Responsibilities:
- Establish and maintain project management governance, action tracking, dependency management, and escalation processes.
- Convert meeting discussions into documented actions, decisions, risks, issues, dependencies, owners, and target dates.
- Coordinate activities across automation engineering, information technology, connectivity, cybersecurity, infrastructure, network support, equipment, vendor, and program management teams.
- Facilitate recurring coordination meetings and drive assigned actions, risks, decisions, blockers, and dependencies to closure.
- Maintain integrated visibility of system onboarding, deployment, infrastructure readiness, equipment readiness, and operational readiness activities.
- Coordinate network, firewall, infrastructure, cybersecurity, hardware, equipment, and local deployment readiness activities.
- Support readiness planning for industrial automation and computerized system platforms.
- Coordinate virtual equipment readiness, stakeholder alignment, dependency management, hardware bill of material tracking, and deployment follow-up.
- Prepare concise weekly status reports, leadership summaries, readiness dashboards, escalation summaries, and milestone updates.
- Support on-site workshops, planning sessions, readiness reviews, deployment activities, and stakeholder meetings as required.
Qualifications:
- Minimum 7 years of project management experience supporting technical, engineering, infrastructure, automation, or manufacturing projects.
- Demonstrated experience coordinating large, cross-functional teams across multiple organizations.
- Strong experience managing risks, issues, actions, decisions, dependencies, and escalations.
- Experience leading stakeholder coordination and facilitating recurring governance meetings.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including executive-level status reporting and leadership communications.
- Strong organizational, facilitation, follow-up, and problem-solving skills.
- Ability to operate effectively in a regulated pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or manufacturing environment.
- Ability to collaborate on site as required.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience supporting automation or computerized system deployment programs.
- Familiarity with industrial control, supervisory control and data acquisition, data historian, infrastructure, or operational technology environments.
- Experience supporting cybersecurity, infrastructure, and network deployment projects.
- Experience with greenfield manufacturing facilities.
Tools and Technologies:
- Industrial automation platforms such as DeltaV, Rockwell, Ignition, and related systems
- Data and analytics platforms such as AVEVA PI, SyntQ, and Seeq
- Project management platforms such as Smartsheet, Microsoft Project, Jira, or equivalent
- Risk registers, issue logs, dependency trackers, action trackers, readiness dashboards, and milestone reports