Innovation Project Manager

• Lead a cross-functional core team - engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, marketing, finance, and external partners-aligning tasks, resolving conflicts, and removing roadblocks.
• Facilitate Stage-Gate reviews (focus on Gates 2-5) - prepare deliverables, lead gate meetings, and secure go/hold decisions that keep work moving.
• Coordinate suppliers and service providers - manage statements of work, timing, and quality for prototypes, tooling, testing, and production ramp-up.
• Own project financials - generate cost estimates, capital/expense requests, track actuals vs. budget, and drive corrective action on variances.
• Track and report performance metrics - schedule adherence, cost, quality, and readiness KPIs; provide concise, audience-appropriate updates to senior leadership.
• Ensure compliance with quality, safety, and regulatory requirements throughout design, validation, and launch.
• Drive change-management and stakeholder communication plans to build buy-in and smooth hand-offs across plants, functions, and markets.
• Foster a culture of innovation - encourage creative thinking, continuous improvement, and practical experimentation.
• Capture lessons learned and improve the new product playbook - run post-launch retrospectives and feed insights into continuous improvement efforts.
• Coach and mentor team members - model curiosity, give timely feedback, and foster a positive, high-performance culture that embraces ambiguity and innovation.

• Comfortable navigating ambiguity-exercising agency to seek, suggest, and implement solutions while balancing team input.
• Skilled facilitation-brings out the best in each team member and cuts through uncertainty together.
• Change management and trust-building-influences without authority, overcomes resistance, and guides teams at a sustainable pace.
• Emotional intelligence-adapts style and empathy to diverse internal and external stakeholders.
• High performer, self-directed-thrives in ambiguous settings and treats work quality as a core decision filter.
• Strong business acumen-distinguishes bottom-line levers from proxies and allocates resources accordingly.
• Collaborative team player-promotes open dialogue and cross-functional problem solving.
• Curious, continuous learner-digs to root causes, iterates with optimism, and embraces new insights.
• Leadership-ability to inspire and motivate diverse teams.
• Clear, concise communication-tailors' messages to each audience and gets to the point.
• Ownership bias and results focus-sets ambitious targets, steps up to do what's needed, follows through on commitments, and drives outcomes with humility and zero-ego collaboration.
• Digital fluency-comfortable with modern PM platforms and generative-AI tools or willing to learn (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot, Miro AI) to accelerate planning, risk management, and documentation.

• 2-4 years in product or project engineering, technical roles within a project team, or equivalent blend of strategy, technical, and/or financial project management
• 2+ years in formal project-management roles, with proficiency in contemporary PM toolsets (e.g., MS Project, Smartsheet, Jira).
• Hands-on New Product Development experience spanning ideation through manufacturing and market release (Stage-Gate or agile-hybrid).
• Supplier, plant, or contract-manufacturer coordination during prototype, pilot, and ramp-up phases.
• Exposure to multiple delivery frameworks (PMO, agile, traditional Stage-Gate) with the judgment to blend best practices for speed and rigor.
• History of success in collaborative, change-heavy environments, demonstrating strong business acumen.
• Prior experience coaching and providing feedback to direct and indirect team members.
• Experience in industrial products, software, or connectivity hardware is a plus.

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, manufacturing, or a related technical field preferred (not required).
• PMP certification is a plus, or a willingness to earn it.
• Microsoft 365 enterprise proficiency-comfortable using Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Excel (pivot tables, look-ups, basic macros), and PowerPoint to create clear reports, dashboards, and collaborative workspaces.
• Enterprise ERP & Data Analytics (E.G Tableau, Oracle) a bonus (not required)

eQuest