Senior Project Manager, PMO

Job Title: Senior Project Manager, PMO

Function: PMO

Reports to: VP of Supply Chain

Location: Hybrid in Evanston, Illinois

Position Type: Full-Time

Schedule: M - F 9am - 5pm

Ornua (meaning "new gold") is Ireland's largest exporter of Irish dairy products, proudly bringing the unique taste of Irish dairy to the world since 1961.

Are you a Senior Project Manager looking for the challenge of helping a mission-driven organization strengthen how strategy becomes execution?

Ornua Foods Americas is actively seeking a Senior Project Manager, PMO to join the Ornua family as we continue our growth trajectory. This role will lead complex cross-functional initiatives across innovation and commercialization, strategic growth, new supply chains, and other enterprise priorities.

WHY THIS ROLE IS VALUABLE

As Senior Project Manager, PMO, you will translate business objectives into executable plans and lead teams from concept through implementation, adoption, and value realization. You will operate as a portfolio leader rather than a project administrator, creating delivery certainty, surfacing risks and decisions early, and strengthening accountability across the business.

Your leadership will accelerate innovation and growth, improve portfolio visibility, and help Ornua apply best-in-class PMO discipline in a practical way that supports an evolving organization without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

WHAT YOU WILL BRING TO THE ROLE

You bring strong project, program, and portfolio leadership, along with the judgment to apply structure pragmatically in a fast-changing environment. You can challenge assumptions constructively, establish credible critical paths, influence without direct authority, and turn complex information into clear recommendations, decisions, and action.

At Ornua, success is not just about what you do; it is how you do it. You demonstrate our values by seeking and embracing new ideas, making things happen, showing care for your teammates, being your authentic self, and achieving great things together.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Project Leadership and Delivery

• Lead complex, high-impact projects from concept through implementation, adoption, and post-launch review, with clear ownership of scope, outcomes, schedule, budget, risks, and dependencies.
• Translate strategic objectives into integrated project plans, critical paths, milestones, deliverables, decision points, and measurable success criteria.
• Test assumptions, validate functional lead times, drive pace and accountability, and ensure projects deliver intended business outcomes and benefits.

Portfolio Leadership and Enterprise Prioritization

• Maintain an enterprise view across assigned initiatives and identify resource constraints, sequencing requirements, collisions, and cross-project dependencies.
• Provide fact-based recommendations on prioritization, timing, trade-offs, resourcing, recovery actions, and when work should proceed, pause, be re-sequenced, or be escalated.
• Support portfolio reviews and create transparent visibility to progress, value, risk, capacity, and decisions required.

Stage-Gate and Commercialization Excellence

• Lead innovation and commercialization initiatives through the globally defined Stage-Gate process from idea to shelf and post-launch review.
• Ensure each gate is a meaningful business decision supported by the required evidence, including business case, proposition, technical feasibility, critical path, resourcing, risks, and launch readiness.
• Coordinate technical and commercial workstreams, prepare decision-ready Gate reviews, and lead Learn From Experience and post-launch reviews.

Governance, Risk, and Escalation

• Establish fit-for-purpose governance using Global PMO standards and OFA business requirements.
• Identify risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies early; assign owners and response dates; and drive mitigation and resolution.
• Escalate material barriers with a concise statement of impact, options, recommendation, decision owner, and decision date while maintaining disciplined scope and change control.

Cross-Functional Leadership and PMO Maturity

• Lead multifunctional teams across Marketing, Sales, R&D, Technical, Quality, Regulatory, Supply Chain, Operations, Procurement, Finance, Customer Service, ICT, and Global functions.
• Clarify responsibilities, influence without direct authority, resolve conflict constructively, and hold stakeholders accountable for commitments and decisions.
• Contribute to PMO, Stage-Gate, portfolio-management, reporting, training, governance, and capability improvements using practical external best practices.

Executive Communication and Decision Support

• Provide concise, decision-oriented updates to teams, sponsors, Steering Committees, and senior leadership.
• Communicate progress, critical path, value, trade-offs, risks, decisions, and asks with a clear point of view.
• Maintain accurate and transparent project and portfolio reporting without substituting reporting activity for leadership and delivery.

EXPERIENCE AND REQUIREMENTS

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Business, Supply Chain, Engineering, Operations, Food Science, Marketing, Finance, or a related discipline.
• 7+ years of progressive project, program, or portfolio-management experience leading complex cross-functional initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience operating within a mature, best-in-class PMO or formal governance environment and applying those disciplines pragmatically in a less structured or process-maturing organization.
• Experience leading initiatives from concept through implementation, adoption, and benefits realization, including Stage-Gate, commercialization, new-product development, transformation, strategic growth, or new-capability delivery.
• Ability to establish credible integrated plans, critical paths, budgets, resource requirements, risk frameworks, and governance routines.
• Demonstrated ability to influence, challenge constructively, and hold stakeholders accountable without direct authority.
• Strong business and financial acumen, including business cases, trade-off analysis, investment logic, and benefits tracking.
• Exceptional facilitation, executive communication, problem-solving, and decision-preparation skills, with the ability to navigate ambiguity and competing priorities.

Desired Qualifications

• PMP, PgMP, PRINCE2, Agile, Lean, Six Sigma, or comparable project-management certification.
• Experience in consumer packaged goods, food, dairy, manufacturing, life sciences, industrial products, retail, healthcare, or another complex adjacent industry.
• Experience leading innovation and commercialization across technical and commercial workstreams.
• Experience in a global or matrixed organization where enterprise standards are owned centrally and executed locally.
• Experience contributing to PMO maturity, portfolio governance, capability building, training, or change-management initiatives.

WHY ORNUA?

Ornua is a purpose-driven, values-led co-operative creating value for Irish dairy farming families through our global operations. With 10 business units, 16 production facilities, and in-market teams across the world, we operate through two divisions: Ornua Foods, which markets iconic consumer brands including Kerrygold and Pilgrims Choice, and Ornua Ingredients, which provides innovative, customized dairy ingredient solutions to customers.

• Our Values lie at the core of everything we do: Seek and Embrace New Ideas, Make It Happen, Be Our True Selves, Show You Care, and Achieve Great Things Together.
• We invest in our people and foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
• Career progression opportunities, including global mobility.
• Comprehensive benefits with region-specific offerings.
• Dynamic Working policy supporting flexible hours and hybrid work options.

PAY RANGE

The salary range for this role is $114,000 to $130,000 and the candidate will be offered a salary commensurate with their level of experience.

TOTAL REWARDS

Total Rewards at Ornua Foods North America include a competitive salary and annual bonus scheme. Other benefits include low employee contributions for medical, vision, and dental coverage; 401(k); paid time off; maternity leave; parental leave; flexible working; fitness reimbursement; charity donation; complimentary Kerrygold products; free car parking and secure bicycle storage; free healthy snacks and drinks in the office; Reward & Recognition program; volunteering opportunities; and Long Service Awards.

Would you like to make an impact? Apply today!

Ornua is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be provided with equal employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, disability status, or genetic information. Ornua is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you require an accommodation to complete the application or interview process, please contact Ornua People Services at 833-450-2385 or peopleservicesus@ornua.com.

This employer participates in E-Verify, a federal program that verifies the identity and employment eligibility of all persons hired to work in the United States. As part of the hiring process, information provided on your Form I-9 will be submitted to the E-Verify system.