Senior Project Manager
Onsite 5 days in Schaumburg, IL area
Current Client Range: $120,000–$150,000
Client: Lighting/Electrical distributor
Reports To: Executive Leadership
The organization is seeking an experienced Senior Project Manager to assume ownership of an active portfolio of lighting and electrical projects. This is a highly visible, client-facing role requiring strong leadership, urgency, organization, and commercial judgment.
The Senior Project Manager will take command of projects from handoff through completion, serving as the primary point of accountability for customers, vendors, contractors, and internal teams while protecting project schedules, customer relationships, billing milestones, and profitability.
Key Responsibilities
- Assume immediate ownership of an active portfolio of lighting and electrical projects.
- Lead projects from sales handoff and submittal approval through procurement, delivery, installation support, and closeout.
- Serve as the primary point of contact for customers, contractors, manufacturers, vendors, and internal stakeholders.
- Develop and maintain detailed project schedules, milestones, action-item lists, and delivery plans.
- Review project specifications, drawings, quotations, purchase orders, submittals, and contract requirements.
- Coordinate product selections, approvals, releases, procurement, and delivery schedules.
- Proactively monitor manufacturer lead times, production status, shipping, and material availability.
- Identify schedule, cost, scope, and supply-chain risks early and establish resolution plans.
- Manage RFIs, submittals, change orders, substitutions, claims, shortages, damages, returns, and warranty issues.
- Track project financial performance, including revenue, cost, gross margin, change orders, billing, and collections.
- Review project costs and identify discrepancies, margin erosion, unapproved work, or missed billing opportunities.
- Lead internal and external project meetings and communicate decisions, responsibilities, and deadlines.
- Mentor project coordinators and less-experienced project managers.
- Improve project-management procedures, reporting tools, and communication standards.
Qualifications
- At least 7 years of progressive project-management experience.
- Demonstrated success managing complex, deadline-driven projects with multiple stakeholders.
- Experience in lighting, electrical distribution, construction, building materials, engineering, or a related project-based industry.
- Strong understanding of project financials, including budgets, gross margin, billing, change orders, and cost control.
- Ability to read and interpret construction drawings, specifications, schedules, quotations, and purchase orders.
- Strong procurement, vendor-management, and supply-chain coordination experience.
- Excellent client-facing communication, negotiation, and problem-solving skills.
- Proven ability to establish priorities, make decisions, and drive accountability.
- Strong proficiency with Microsoft Excel, Outlook, and project-management or ERP systems.
Preferred Qualifications
- Direct experience managing commercial lighting or electrical-material projects.
- Experience working for a lighting agency, electrical distributor, manufacturer, contractor, or construction-management firm.
- Familiarity with lighting controls, fixture schedules, submittals, photometrics, and product specifications.
- Experience with large commercial, institutional, infrastructure, or public-sector projects.
- Experience using Bluebeam, Procore, or comparable construction and project-management software.
- Bachelor’s degree in Construction Management, Engineering, Business, or a related field.
- PMP certification or comparable project-management training.
What Success Looks Like
- Establish clear status, schedule, financial position, and action plan for every assigned project.
- Build strong working relationships with key customers, vendors, and internal team members.
- Identify and address outstanding risks, change orders, billing issues, and delivery concerns.
- Create consistent communication and reporting practices.
- Improve project predictability, customer satisfaction, and financial performance.
- Reduce the number of project issues requiring executive intervention.