Research & Development - Project Manager

Research & Development - Project Manager Grecian Delight | Kronos Foods Corp is a leading manufacturer of Greek and Mediterranean foods for foodservice, national chain, retail grocery, specialty, and warehouse club businesses. We manufacture and distribute specialty meats, flatbreads, dips, spreads, and sauces. Our manufacturing facilities are located in Elk Grove Village and Glendale Heights. We have an immediate opening for a Project Manager at our Glendale Heights location in our Research and Development Department. This position provides overall Project Management responsibility for product innovation projects, customer-based projects, product changes and cost savings opportunities that contribute to business growth, brand maintenance and efficiency initiatives. The ideal candidate needs to demonstrate ability to influence across business units and effectively coordinate external and internal resources, along with a proven project management track record leading and delivering large, complex projects in CPG or Food industries. What you are going to be doing… Lead commercialization projects within the organization and align key resources at all levels of the organization to ensure timely completion of project deliverables. Utilize the company’s process and other existing tools to manage multiple development projects from project approval to customer delivery. Clearly define, manage, and control project requirements, scope, and timelines. Ensure there is cross-functional alignment on project objectives and deliverables. Build project schedules by identifying sequence of activities, duration, resource availability, and schedule constraints. Lead effective project team meetings. Encourage cross-functional collaboration, provide direction to project team, outline priorities, assign tasks as needed, and address issues/risks impacting projects. Actively manage and communicate detailed project trackers ensuring all impacted functional teams and stakeholders have an understanding of risks, issues and activities related to the projects. Report out key project management metrics to various functions and levels, develop and assist the team in drawing out “plan B” options, escalate issues and risks in a timely manner to stay on schedule. Assist in driving efficiency efforts, including SKU management, ingredient, and packaging consolidation. Ability to work on multiple projects and a variety of complicated tasks at the same time and prioritize tasks; organized. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills for interacting and collaborating within all levels of the organization from line employees to management team, and across functional areas (R&D, sales, quality, marketing, etc.) to resolve conflict and proactively address issues. Ability to express technical information in a user-friendly language and style; detail-oriented; strong documentation skills; present information effectively in one-on-one, and group settings, including management. Strong ability to communicate clearly in writing to document requirements and translate into technical solutions. What you need to have… Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering, food science, marketing or other related discipline. A minimum of 2 years’ project management experience is required. Formal certification in Project Management (from PMI or equivalent Project Management Association) a plus. Advanced PC skills using Microsoft Office products and MS Project is a requirement, along with the ability to generate graphs, presentations, and charts. Proven experience and a background successfully completing large and complex projects on time and within budget is required. Our people are our greatest assets. Our culture fosters teamwork, collaboration, sense of urgency, and mutual respect. We value the well-being of our employees, and we provide a comprehensive total rewards program that includes: Medical Vision Flexible Spending Accounts Health Saving Accounts Employee Assistance Program Group term and voluntary life insurance Short and Long-term disability Paid Time Off Holidays Grecian Delight | Kronos Foods Corp is an equal opportunity employer and will consider all applications without regard to race, marital status, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law. #J-18808-Ljbffr