Project Management Team Lead

Our merchandising team aims to deliver the best value and selection to our customers through products, services and solutions all centered around our customers' needs. We are driven by customer insights and analytics to bring products and solutions to market seamlessly. We're inclusive, well-rounded professionals who have deep experience in buying, selling, negotiating, operations, design, innovation, finance and more.

The Project Management Team Lead for Staples' Own Brand product pipeline is a working manager responsible for guiding a team of project managers while actively executing a portion of the project portfolio. This role focuses on driving on-time delivery, managing exceptions, ensuring quality assurance (QA) compliance, and spearheading the rollout of change management processes across the product lifecycle.

What You'll be Doing:

Project Management & Execution

• Act as an individual contributor for a dedicated portfolio (approximately 20% of a standard IC pipeline), managing specific NPD projects from initiation to launch.
• Drive on-time project delivery across the team''s entire portfolio, establishing baselines, tracking milestones, and mitigating schedule variances.
• Maintain accurate project documentation and reporting for executive visibility.

Team Leadership & Development

• Directly manage, coach, and develop a team of 3-4 project management professionals.
• Conduct performance reviews, weekly 1:1s, and workload balancing to ensure equitable distribution of NPD projects.
• Set clear performance metrics and development goals for team members.

Exception Management & Quality Assurance

• Serve as the primary escalation point for project bottlenecks, utilizing exception management frameworks to unblock critical path items.
• Enforce QA workflows throughout the NPD lifecycle, ensuring all product tollgates and compliance standards are met before progression.
• Identify recurring exceptions or quality failures and conduct root-cause analyses to prevent future occurrences.

Change Management & Process Optimization

• Lead the rollout and adoption of new change management processes across the NPD pipeline.
• Partner with cross-functional stakeholders (R&D, Product, Marketing, Operations) to ensure process changes are clearly communicated and implemented with minimal disruption.
• Continuously evaluate and refine project management methodologies to increase team efficiency and product time-to-market.

What's needed - Basic Qualifications:

• 5+ years of formal project management experience, ideally within New Product Development or product life cycle management.
• 3+ years of experience leading, mentoring, or directly managing project teams.
• Strong practical knowledge of change management principles and quality assurance workflows.
• High proficiency in exception management, risk mitigation, and stakeholder communication. Ability to context-switch between strategic leadership and tactical project execution.
• Advanced proficiency in project management software (e.g., Jira, Clickup, Smartsheet). PMP, CAPM, or Agile certifications are preferred.

We Offer:

• Inclusive culture with associate-led Business Resource Groups
• 22 days of PTO and Holiday Schedule (7 observed paid holidays + 1 floating holiday)
• Online and Retail Discounts, Company Match 401(k), Physical and Mental Health Wellness programs, and more!

The salary range represents the expected compensation for this role at the time of posting. The specific base pay may be influenced by a variety of factors to include the candidate''s experience, skill set, education, geography, business considerations, and internal equity. In addition to base pay, this role may be eligible for bonuses, or other forms of variable compensation.

Staples is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law.