Sr. Project Manager — Pharma Capital Projects

 

Role Objective

Lead the planning, execution, and control of capital projects in a pharmaceutical environment, ensuring compliance with cGMP/EHS, scope, schedule, cost, and quality. Own the end-to-end project lifecycle: scheduling, SOW/RFP development, cost estimating, change management, cash-flow and cost control, and contractor management.

Key Responsibilities

• Planning & Controls: Build and maintain the master schedule (Primavera P6/MS Project), define milestones/critical path, and drive weekly look-aheads and recovery plans.

• Scope & Procurement: Develop Scopes of Work (SOWs) and RFPs; lead bidding, technical/economic evaluations, and award recommendations.

• Cost Management: Prepare/review cost estimates, budgets, cash flow, forecasts (EAC), monthly progress and cost reports (S-curves, CTR/CTC).

• Change Management: Analyze and negotiate change orders; maintain baseline (cost/schedule), trend logs, and variance justifications.

• Engineering & Design: Lead design reviews/constructability, coordinate multi-discipline interfaces, and drive value engineering.

• Execution: Manage general contractors and subcontractors to safety, quality, and productivity targets; coordinate start-up/commissioning with Operations and QA as applicable.

• Compliance: Ensure adherence to cGMP, EHS, and corporate standards; support permitting and regulatory documentation.

• Stakeholder Management: Run status/risk/decision meetings; present KPIs and executive updates to the steering committee.

• SAP & Contract Administration: Execute project processes in SAP (WBS, PR/PO, GR/IR, accruals), maintain document control, and lead project closeout (as-builts, turnover).

Minimum Qualifications

• 20+ years of experience in pharmaceutical and capital projects.

• BS in Engineering.

• Proven experience in schedule development and updates.

• Experience developing SOWs and RFPs.

• Experience in cost estimate analysis and development.

• Experience analyzing and negotiating change orders.

• Experience in cash-flow management and cost control.

• Experience with SAP.

• Experience in engineering design review.

• Demonstrated success managing general contractors and subcontractors.

Preferred Qualifications

• PMP and/or PSP (AACE); advanced Primavera P6/MS Project.

• Strong knowledge of cGMP, cleanroom requirements, and commissioning/qualification interfaces.

• Risk management proficiency (e.g., risk matrices, FMEA) and EHS familiarity.

• Bilingual English/Spanish; strong executive communication and stakeholder management.

Competencies

• Leadership, ownership, and negotiation.

• Analytical thinking, results orientation, and continuous improvement mindset.

• Ability to prioritize across multiple workstreams in dynamic, regulated environments.