Lessons Manager Jobs in Minnesota (NOW HIRING)

SUMMARY
The New Product Introduction Project Manager leads cross-functional projects that bring new products, product enhancements, and customer-specific solutions from concept through stable production. This role manages project scope, schedules, resources, risks, costs, and deliverables across engineering, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, sales, and supporting functions.
The position ensures manufacturing requirements are addressed early and that new products launch safely, on time, within budget, and at the required quality and performance levels. The role uses Planview Project Advantage and a formal Stage-Gate process to manage project execution, decision points, deliverables, and cross-functional accountability.
As New Product Introduction Project Manager at Wilson Tool, this role will:
•  Lead new product introduction projects from concept and business case through validation, production launch, and post-launch review.
•  Develop and maintain project plans defining scope, milestones, responsibilities, resources, dependencies, and target dates.
•  Coordinate cross-functional teams and drive timely decisions, accountability, and issue resolution.
•  Ensure production processes, tooling, documentation, materials, equipment, and training are ready before launch.
•  Monitor early production performance and lead resolution of launch-related issues.
•  Promote continuous improvement through lessons learned and consistent NPI practices.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Project Leadership
•  Lead multiple NPI projects of varying complexity and priority from concept through stable production.
•  Facilitate kickoff meetings, design reviews, stage-gate reviews, launch-readiness reviews, and post-launch evaluations.
•  Track project actions, resolve conflicts, identify resource needs, and escalate issues when necessary.
•   Provide clear, concise project updates to leadership and key stakeholders.
Cross-Functional Coordination
•  Coordinate activities across product management, sales, engineering, manufacturing, quality, purchasing, supply chain, finance, and customer-facing teams.
•  Translate customer, market, and business requirements into defined project objectives and deliverables.
•  Ensure manufacturing, quality, sourcing, service, and operational requirements are addressed early in development.
•  Coordinate prototype builds, pilot production, testing, validation, and production ramp-up.
New Product Introduction
•  Coordinate development of production processes, tooling, fixtures, inspection methods, work instructions, routings, bills of material, packaging, and training materials.
•  Promote design for manufacturability, assembly, inspection, reliability, serviceability, and cost.
•  Lead production-readiness assessments and verify that materials, equipment, documentation, processes, and training are in place before launch.
•  Coordinate first-article, prototype, pilot-run, and preproduction activities.
•  Monitor early production performance and ensure an effective transition from development to normal production ownership.
Schedule, Cost, and Risk Management
•  Establish project schedules and monitor progress against milestones.
•  Coordinate resource requirements with functional leaders.
•  Track project spending, capital needs, tooling costs, product cost targets, and financial assumptions.
•  Develop recovery plans for schedule or budget variances.
•  Support supplier selection, make-versus-buy decisions, and procurement of long-lead materials and equipment.
•  Identify technical, commercial, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, and schedule risks.
•  Maintain risk registers, action logs, decision records, and change documentation.
•  Coordinate evaluation and approval of scope, design, timing, and cost changes.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Quality and Continuous Improvement
•  Support product and process risk assessments, including design and process failure mode analysis where applicable.
•  Coordinate validation plans, inspection requirements, capability studies, and quality documentation.
•  Ensure customer, regulatory, safety, and internal quality requirements are included in project deliverables.
•  Track launch performance, including quality, delivery, scrap, rework, productivity, cost, and customer feedback.
•  Lead post-launch reviews and capture lessons learned to improve future projects.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•  Bachelor's degree in engineering, manufacturing, operations, business, project management, or a related field.
•  Five or more years of experience in project management, new product introduction, product development, manufacturing engineering, or operations.
•  Experience leading cross-functional projects from concept through production launch.
•  Experience managing schedules, budgets, risks, deliverables, and stakeholder communications.
•  Experience using Planview Project Advantage to manage project plans, milestones, resources, risks, deliverables, and reporting.
•  Demonstrated experience working within a formal Stage-Gate product development process, including gate preparation, reviews, decisions, and follow-through.
•  Working knowledge of manufacturing processes and product-launch activities.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
•  Project Management Professional certification or equivalent training.
•  Experience in engineered products, tooling, machining, fabrication, automation, or discrete manufacturing.
•  Experience with ERP, MES, PLM, PDM, project-management, or business-intelligence systems.
•  Familiarity with bills of material, routings, engineering drawings, specifications, change control, and quality documentation.
•  Experience working across multiple facilities or global teams.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES
•  Strong project-planning, organization, and prioritization skills.
•  Ability to lead cross-functional teams without direct authority.
•  Strong understanding of manufacturing operations and production-launch requirements.
•  Ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
•  Effective meeting facilitation, follow-up, and accountability.
•  Strong written, verbal, presentation, and stakeholder-management skills.
•  Strong problem-solving, risk-management, and decision-making abilities.
•  Ability to interpret engineering drawings, technical specifications, project financials, and manufacturing documentation.
•  Proficiency with project scheduling, spreadsheet, presentation, and collaboration tools.
•  Customer-focused mindset with a strong sense of urgency and ownership.
WORK ENVIRONMENT
Hybrid work arrangement with a combination of on-site work at the White Bear Lake, Minnesota facility and remote work. The role operates in office, engineering, laboratory, and manufacturing environments and may participate in prototype builds, production trials, and launch activities. Personal protective equipment may be required in designated areas.
WORK SCHEDULE
Full-time; core business hours or as determined by business needs.
TRAVEL
Some travel is required to company facilities, suppliers, customers, or project partners.
COMPENSATION
Exempt $90,000 - $115,000 DOQ
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY
This position leads cross-functional project teams and coordinates contributors but does not typically have direct supervisory responsibility.
This job description is not an employment agreement or contract. Management has the exclusive right to alter this job description at any time without notice.