Senior Project Manager, ERP Transformation

Description

Key Responsibilities

• Own the integrated program plan end to end, building it where one does not yet exist, covering scope, schedule, milestones, dependencies, and resources across every workstream, including requirements, development, data migration, integrations, reporting, testing, and cutover.
• Set and defend the facility rollout cadence, and be accountable for increasing it as the program matures.
• Drive every contributing team, business and IT alike, to committed dates, and escalate immediately and at the appropriate level of leadership when a commitment is at risk.
• Maintain the program decision, risk, issue, and action lists with a named owner, a due date, and a current status on every open item, and personally chase items to closure.
• Present executive leadership with a single, unvarnished view of commitments and status across all teams, including when a delay originates inside Information Technology.
• Hold third-party vendors and implementation partners accountable to their committed deliverables and dates on the same basis as internal teams.

• Be accountable for the operational outcomes each release and each facility go-live is intended to deliver, not only for the go-live itself.
• Work with business owners to define measurable outcomes before work begins, such as order cycle time, inventory accuracy, financial close duration, on-time shipment, or labor per unit, and report achievement against them after each go-live.
• Challenge scope that does not create measurable business value, and press for the smallest release that delivers it, so working capability reaches users sooner and improves through iteration.
• Drive process improvement rather than process replication. Where the business asks to reproduce a legacy process in the new platform, surface it and bring the decision to the business owner and the steering committee.
• Ensure trade-offs between scope, date, and cost are made deliberately by the business, with downstream implications made explicit, rather than absorbed by default into the schedule.

• Serve as the single accountable owner of the program across Production, Warehouse Management, Accounting and Finance, Customer Service, Traffic, and Procurement, and across Business Applications, Software Engineering, Infrastructure, and Cybersecurity. One owner spanning business and IT, not one on each side.
• Establish and operate program governance, including an executive steering committee attended by the Chief Executive Officer and the functional executive leadership team, and maintain the risk and issue registers behind it.
• Prepare and personally present program status, decisions, and recommendations to the CEO and the executive leadership team, and produce material supporting Board-level reporting.
• Propose prioritization across product teams, confirm it with the functional leads, and escalate where agreement cannot be reached rather than absorbing the conflict into the plan.
• Hold business areas and Information Technology equally to agreed commitments on subject matter expert availability, testing windows, and decision turnaround.
• Serve as the point of contact that reduces the coordination burden carried by business leaders, escalating into IT on their behalf when they are blocked.
• Bridge communication between executive sponsors, business owners, end users, and the product, design, architecture, and development teams, ensuring each has what it needs from the others.

• Build and maintain one schedule that reconciles two-week sprint cadence, the monthly and annual financial close calendar, fixed facility go-live dates, and plant operating and seasonal constraints.
• Establish the sequence and phasing of roadmap delivery in coordination with Product Management and Product Ownership.
• Hold requirements stable once a release is committed, and assess every proposed change for impact on schedule, resourcing, and dependent workstreams before it is accepted.
• Ensure financial reporting requirements are defined, agreed, and held stable early in each release, given their dependence on the underlying data model and their sensitivity to late change.
• Identify where program work conflicts with business operating constraints and raise it early enough to be addressed.

• Own program go-live dates, define the readiness criteria that govern each facility go-live, and obtain formal sign-off from each business owner at every gate.
• Plan testing windows jointly with business areas and track progress through functional testing, User Acceptance Testing, and deployment activities.
• Track defect resolution through to closure ahead of each release.
• Carry each facility from planning through cutover, go-live, stabilization, and transition to production support.

• Capture regulatory, audit, food safety, traceability, and internal control requirements as program requirements at the start of each release, rather than allowing them to surface late in testing.
• Coordinate with Accounting and Finance leadership to confirm that delivered functionality adheres to applicable standards, including GAAP and internal audit controls, and that those requirements are validated prior to each facility go-live.

• Own change management and adoption planning across affected business areas, raising gaps and conflicts to leadership for resolution.
• Monitor delivery of role-based training through each department training lead, and raise gaps where staff will not be ready to operate the new system at go-live.
• Track organizational readiness by business area, identifying sources of resistance and other adoption barriers early enough to be addressed before go-live.
• Convene all affected business areas when new capability or significant change is introduced, so requirements are captured before design rather than after.

• Identify and implement opportunities to improve program predictability, delivery speed, and stakeholder satisfaction.
• Apply AI tools to improve project management, program reporting, and delivery execution.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Systems, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Minimum of seven (7) years of progressive project or program management experience leading enterprise application initiatives.
• Experience leading at least one full lifecycle ERP or enterprise system implementation through production go-live.
• Demonstrated experience delivering custom-developed software solutions.
• Proven experience leading business transformation initiatives that resulted in measurable operational improvements.
• Experience managing complex, cross-functional programs involving multiple workstreams, business functions, and integrated systems.
• Experience operating within regulated or controlled environments where financial, regulatory, audit, or compliance requirements influence solution design and delivery.
• Experience working directly with executive leadership teams to facilitate decisions, communicate program status, and drive organizational alignment.
• Experience utilizing AI-enabled tools to improve project management, business analysis, testing, or delivery processes.

• Strong knowledge of Agile delivery methodologies, software development lifecycle (SDLC) practices, and enterprise technology implementations.
• Ability to influence and drive results across teams and functions without direct reporting authority.
• Ability to balance and prioritize competing business and executive stakeholder needs while maintaining alignment to strategic objectives.
• Ability to develop and maintain project plans, governance materials, status reporting, risk management processes, and executive communications independently.
• Strong facilitation, negotiation, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills with the ability to effectively interact with all levels of the organization, including executive leadership.
• Proven ability to build collaborative relationships, manage stakeholder expectations, and drive accountability across business and technology teams.
• Ability to communicate difficult messages, resolve conflicts, and lead organizations through change.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver results in a fast-paced environment.

• Experience supporting manufacturing, distribution, food production, or comparable operating environments.
• Experience leading or supporting a financial ERP implementation, including general ledger structure, accounts payable and receivable, asset management, and financial close.
• Familiarity with the control and compliance environment surrounding financial systems, including GAAP and internal audit controls.
• Experience with multi-site or phased rollouts across distributed operations.
• Experience with open-source or Java-based enterprise platforms such as Apache OFBiz.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, or equivalent demonstrated experience.
• PgMP, PMI-ACP, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), SAFe, or similar certifications.
• Experience with Azure DevOps, Notion, Jira, or similar Agile planning and portfolio management tools.

Benefits

• Employee-owned
• Advancement Opportunities
• Insurance coverage that includes medical, dental, vision and life insurance and flexible spending accounts
• 401(k) with employer match
• Paid holidays and competitive vacation/sick pay plans
• Tuition assistance program 
• Employee stock ownership program (ESOP)