New Product Development Project Manager
Location: Grand Rapids, MI | Onsite
TalentBridge is partnering with a leading manufacturer in the Grand Rapids area to identify a New Product Development Project Manager to join their team. This role will manage multiple New Product Development (NPD) projects from concept through commercialization, serving as the central project-management resource across Product Management, Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Marketing, Sales, Finance, and other cross-functional teams. The ideal candidate is an experienced project manager who can drive execution, manage timelines and critical paths, identify risks, and hold cross-functional teams accountable without having direct authority.
What You'll Do
- Lead multiple NPD projects from concept through commercialization.
- Build and manage project plans, schedules, milestones, dependencies, critical paths, and deliverables.
- Partner with Product Managers and cross-functional teams to establish scope, requirements, timing, and ownership.
- Coordinate activities across Product Management, Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Marketing, Finance, and Sales.
- Monitor project progress, identify risks and resource constraints, and develop mitigation or recovery plans.
- Drive accountability for project commitments and deadlines across teams.
- Lead NPD meetings, communicate project status, and ensure clear ownership of next steps.
- Escalate issues and timing risks when necessary to keep projects moving.
- Develop project dashboards, status reports, and other tools that provide visibility to teams and leadership.
- Help improve NPD processes, project-management practices, and overall cross-functional execution.
- Utilize Microsoft Planner to structure project plans, track progress, assign ownership, and maintain project visibility.
- Apply Stage-Gate, Agile, or hybrid project-management practices as appropriate.
What You'll Bring- 5+ years of project management experience, including meaningful experience managing or supporting New Product Development projects.
- Experience managing multiple concurrent projects in a cross-functional environment.
- Experience working with functions such as Product Management, Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Marketing, Finance, or Sales.
- Strong understanding of project schedules, milestones, critical paths, dependencies, risks, and deliverables.
- Ability to influence and hold stakeholders accountable without direct authority.
- Strong communication, organization, problem-solving, and stakeholder-management skills.
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Product Management, Engineering, Operations, Project Management, or a related field.
- Strong proficiency with Microsoft Planner and Microsoft 365, including Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and SharePoint.
- Ability to develop project plans, dashboards, timelines, risk/action logs, and status reporting.
Preferred Experience- NPD experience within manufacturing, engineered products, hardware, or another product-based environment.
- Experience with Stage-Gate, Agile, or hybrid project management.
- Familiarity with ERP, PIM, PLM, or CRM systems.
- Experience improving or standardizing product-development processes.