Project Manager - Product Development

Laars Heating Systems Company is a global leader in the boiler and water heater industry, with U.S.-based design and manufacturing capabilities, a strong R&D foundation, and a continued focus on condensing boiler and heat pump technology. Our competitive advantage is built on innovation, customer dedication, and the technical strength of our engineering, design, and manufacturing teams.

Role Overview

The New Product Development (NPD) Project Manager leads end-to-end execution of new product development projects across the Laars portfolio, from initial stage-gate evaluation through commercialization and launch. The role ensures cross-functional teams execute with discipline, alignment, and accountability across scope, schedule, budget, quality, and launch readiness.

This is a leadership role as much as a planning role. The PM brings structure to complex, multi-functional work, actively shapes team behavior, removes obstacles, surfaces risks early, and creates the conditions for the team to deliver on commitments.

The PM serves as the primary point of accountability for project execution, working across Manufacturing, Product Engineering, Purchasing, Product Management, Finance, Supply Chain, Sales, and Marketing. Success requires influencing without authority, holding others accountable with credibility and respect, and escalating issues before they become larger problems.

Role Responsibilities

Project Leadership & Execution

• Own assigned NPD programs from stage-gate evaluation through launch and production handoff, maintaining integrated plans, schedules, milestones, resource needs, risks, budgets, and deliverables.
• Lead phase-gate reviews, maintain a single accurate view of project status, and drive timely resolution of open issues, resource gaps, scope conflicts, and schedule risks.

Team Engagement & Behavioral Leadership

• Facilitate cross-functional teams by aligning diverse functions around priorities, decision points, action items, accountability, and a shared definition of done.
• Monitor team engagement, coach project discipline, encourage transparency, and intervene constructively when behaviors or missed commitments put the project at risk.

Risk Management & Escalation

• Identify, assess, and actively manage risks and issues throughout the project lifecycle, developing mitigation and contingency plans with functional leads.
• Escalate risks, resource gaps, technical delays, and scope changes with context, options, and clear asks so leadership can make timely decisions.

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Serve as the integration point across Manufacturing, Product Engineering, Purchasing, Product Management, Finance, Supply Chain, Sales, and Marketing, ensuring dependencies are understood and managed.
• Coordinate cadence meetings, design milestones, prototype builds, sourcing/tooling readiness, production readiness, budget tracking, leadership updates, and stakeholder communications.

Process & Methodology

• Execute projects within the company’s NPD stage-gate process while adapting tools and methods to program realities.
• Maintain complete project documentation and identify improvements to NPD tools, templates, and processes based on lessons learned.

Success in this role will be measured by

• Programs consistently meet committed launch dates, budgets, and product specifications.
• Risks and issues are surfaced early enough for action, with clear escalation when needed.
• Cross-functional teams are aligned, prepared, transparent, and accountable to their commitments.

Experience and Qualifications

• 5+ years of project management experience leading cross-functional product development or engineering programs, preferably in a manufacturing environment such as HVAC, appliance, industrial equipment, or similar physical product industries.
• Experience managing projects through a formal stage-gate NPD process from concept through commercialization.
• Proven ability to lead without direct authority, influence diverse stakeholders, and hold teams accountable through credibility, structure, and clear communication.
• Strong command of scope management, integrated scheduling, resource planning, risk management, budget tracking, meeting facilitation, decision documentation, and escalation practices.
• Experience working with Engineering, Operations/Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Finance, Product Management, Sales, and Marketing; proficiency with project management tools such as MS Project, Smartsheet, Jira, or equivalent and Microsoft Office tools.

Education and Training

• Bachelor’s degree in Project Management, Engineering, Business, Operations Management, or a related discipline required; technical degree with manufacturing project management experience strongly preferred.
• PMP certification required or must be obtained within 18 months of hire; formal NPD stage-gate training strongly preferred.
• Six Sigma Green Belt, structured problem-solving experience, or Agile/Scrum training is a plus.