Project Management Director

Lactalis US Yogurt is currently seeking candidates to join our Project Management Team.

Lactalis Group, the world leader in dairy, is a family-owned business with more than 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals worldwide, committed to providing healthy and delicious dairy products that bring people together every day. At Lactalis, our core values of AMBITION, ENGAGEMENT, and SIMPLICITY are at the heart of everything we do.

If you’re looking for a unique experience with a company that offers strong brands, professional expertise, and a dynamic work environment that champions entrepreneurial spirit, hands-on responsibility, and real opportunity for career development, we want to hear from you!

At Lactalis US Yogurt, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace and we know that our candidates come from many different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job posting, we still encourage you to apply and share with us your STORY, your PASSION, and your EXPERTISE! You may be just the perfect candidate for this or other roles within our company.

From your PASSION to ours

Responsible for leading the build out and management of the Project Management and Master Data teams, including the development of Project Management and Master Data tools, systems, training programs, metric development, and reporting. The Director, Project Management will lead and coach direct reports to ensure the efficient and effective planning and execution of innovation, renovation, sourcing, and value engineering projects across the US Yogurt business. Responsible for integrity of master data to support all commercial and operation systems including SAP and other integrated solutions. Works closely with a cross-functional leadership team to establish project-portfolio priorities, manage resource allocation, and drive execution to meet agreed upon timelines, costs, and quality targets.

From your EXPERTISE to ours

Key responsibilities for this position include:

• Drives the development of the US Yogurt Project Management projects and the related adoption of tools and best practices for efficient, rapid, and predictable project execution.
• Leads and directs disciplined governance and planning processes. Executes the stage-gate process across LUSY for innovation, renovation, sourcing, and value engineering projects. Leads senior leadership project update meetings supporting functions in providing materials and data in a standardized manner.
• Establishes and tracks KPI's, including status/health of the portfolio, providing visibility and insight to executive stakeholders.
• Manages the portfolio of projects at a strategic level; Produces accurate and timely reporting of Program / Project Portfolio status throughout program life cycle.
• Drives strong focus on improving business case integrity and priorities. Identifies and implements improvements in the development processes and tools based on lessons learned.
• Lead team responsible for creation and maintenance of customer, vendor, material, and operational master data to support SAP and integrated systems to best support business functions and results for all US Yogurt departments and facilities.
• Manages understanding and coordination of Master Data requirements between US business entities as necessary for standardization of processes and system where necessary.
• Leverages the performance and talent processes to develop leadership skills and capabilities of direct reports. Hire, train, mentor, and lead staffing of high performing team. Regularly provides feedback on performance to direct reports.
• Acts as liaison to foster a culture of collaboration across all cross-functional groups.
• Manages and provides escalations between leadership and teams identifying opportunities for synergy in the portfolio with regards to project knowledge, resourcing, and platforms.

From your STORY to ours

Qualified applicants will contribute the following:

• BS in technical discipline required, advanced degree preferred, and PMP certification preferred.
• Minimum 5 years of Director level/Leadership experience.
• Experience in CPG industry is required.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to communicate with all levels of the organization, including the ability to present business information in a group setting.
• Highly developed facilitation skills - specifically facilitating decision making - ability to challenge leadership teams on their decisions and decision-making process to drive to business results and efficient resources utilization Demonstrated ability to interface and maintain effective relationships with all departments and employees in a team-oriented organization.
• Demonstrated ability to provide vision and leadership.
• Demonstrated experience building strong teams and developing people.
• Ability to prioritize and meet deadlines within specified time constraints.
• Ability to adapt in a changing work environment.

If you are a current Lactalis employee, click the link below and answer the questionnaire.

Internal Application

Lactalis US Yogurt and Subsidiaries is an Equal Opportunity Employer