Sr. Project Manager, Innovation

Mezzetta is seeking a Senior Project Manager, Innovation to serve as the operational backbone of our pre-launch innovation project portfolio. This role will bring structure, clarity, and decision discipline to a fast-paced, cross-functional environment-particularly within our innovation pipeline and stage gate process.

Reporting to the VP of Strategy & Execution, this leader will standardize and elevate project management practices while also acting as a critical thought partner to functional leaders-ensuring teams understand status, risks, tradeoffs, and implications of key decisions.

This role is not just about tracking projects-it is about driving alignment, enabling better decisions, and improving the success rate of innovation at Mezzetta.

Responsibilities

Innovation & Stage Gate Leadership

• Own and continuously improve Mezzetta's innovation stage gate process
• Ensure clear entry/exit criteria, decision frameworks, and accountability at each gate
• Drive decision clarity and durability-minimizing rework and scope churn
• Partner with Innovation, Marketing, R&D, and Operations to ensure feasibility, alignment, and execution readiness
• Surface tradeoffs (cost, timing, complexity) to enable strong decision-making

Portfolio Visibility & Decision Support

• Provide a clear, consolidated view of innovation project portfolio health
• Translate complex project data into clear executive-level insights
• Identify risks, dependencies, and capacity constraints early
• Enable leadership to make inform

Innovation Project Management Capability Building

• Establish and enforce best practices, tools, and methodologies
• Drive consistency in project scoping, planning, and execution
• Train cross-functional teams on effective project management and stage gate discipline

Execution Excellence

• Improve predictability, speed, and quality of project delivery
• Drive accountability across teams for timelines, deliverables, and outcomes
• Lead retrospectives and continuous improvement efforts
• Optimize tools (e.g., Smartsheet) to support scalable executioned prioritization and resource decisions

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree. MBA Preferred
• PMP Certified Preferred
• 10+ years of project management experience, with significant experience in CPG or food manufacturing preferred
• Demonstrated success leading innovation pipelines and stage gate processes
• Experience operating in ambiguous, fast-changing environments with shifting priorities
• Proven ability to drive cross-functional alignment and decision-making without direct authority
• Strong ability to translate complexity into clear, actionable insights for leadership
• Expertise in project management tools (Smartsheet preferred)
• Lean / Continuous Improvement experience (preferred)