Technical Project Manager

About Craftsmen Industries

Craftsmen Industries custom manufactures unique specialty trailers and vehicles and large format printed elements for experiential marketing and industrial solutions for brands across the industry spectrum including Boeing, PepsiCo, and Anheuser-Busch. We pride ourselves on creating our products fully in-house from initial design and engineering to fabrication and the finishing touches of graphics and paint.

Our Craftsmen team includes one subsidiary, Schantz Manufacturing. Schantz focuses on custom manufacturing of concession trailers for the fair and festival industry.

Guided by our values, we BUILD by helping bring ideas to life in a dynamic and collaborative environment and we're looking for talented individuals to grow with us!

What Do We Offer?

• Competitive compensation.
• Career development opportunities.
• Benefits including but not limited to Medical, Dental and Vision.
• 401(k) Match and Much More!

Position Title: Technical Project Manager

Location: St. Charles, MO

Primary Responsibilities:

The Technical Project Manager is responsible for leading the successful execution of custom technical projects from the sales and estimating phase through final delivery. This role blends project management discipline with technical understanding to ensure projects meet customer requirements, internal quality standards, documentation obligations, and the company's primary project performance measures: delivering on time and on budget.

The Technical Project Manager supports the sales and estimating process on RFPs by helping interpret technical requirements, identify project risks, support preliminary schedules, review customer deliverables, identify SDRL requirements, and assist with technical scope development. After receipt of purchase order, this position manages project communication, technical deliverables, schedule development, customer approvals, scope changes, project financial performance, SDRLs, technical documentation, and overall project execution.

This position serves as a primary coordinator between engineering, project management, production, quality, purchasing/materials, sales, vendors, and customers. The role also provides dotted-line oversight and coordination support to the Engineering Change Review Board to help ensure engineering changes are properly reviewed, documented, communicated, and incorporated into active projects.

• Promote and maintain a safe work environment by following company safety policies, OSHA standards, and proper use of PPE.
• Support the sales and estimating process on RFPs by reviewing technical requirements, identifying risks, supporting preliminary project schedules, assisting with technical scope definition, and helping ensure customer deliverables are understood before award.
• Assist sales, estimating, and engineering with RFP responses, including technical clarifications, compliance reviews, SDRL requirements, project assumptions, schedule inputs, and customer-facing technical narratives.
• Lead project execution after receipt of purchase order, including internal coordination, customer communication, schedule management, budget tracking, and technical deliverables.
• Prepare, analyze, and present reports to internal stakeholders to support informed decision-making.
• Work closely with Project Management, Engineering, Sales, Production, Quality, Purchasing, and Materials to capture project goals, prepare project plans, support customer change management, and maintain project dashboards.
• Develop, maintain, and communicate project schedules for engineering, procurement, production, quality, customer approvals, inspections, and final delivery.
• Coordinate customer approvals, submittals, SDRLs, technical documentation, and other required project deliverables to maintain schedule and contractual compliance.
• Prepare, review, organize, and submit technical writing packages, including technical descriptions, compliance responses, manuals, reports, procedures, test documentation, and customer-facing technical correspondence.
• Maintain SDRL tracking tools, submittal schedules, document registers, customer deliverable logs, and project documentation repositories.
• Work closely with engineering to understand project requirements, design intent, technical risks, system interfaces, and product configuration.
• Provide dotted-line oversight and coordination support to the Engineering Change Review Board, helping ensure engineering changes are reviewed for technical, cost, schedule, customer, configuration, purchasing, quality, and production impact.
• Track engineering changes through review, approval, documentation, and implementation to support configuration control and cross-functional alignment.
• Identify, document, and communicate internal and customer-driven scope changes; coordinate with sales, estimating, engineering, and leadership to support change order development.
• Track project labor, material costs, open issues, and schedule risks while actively managing project cost and margin performance.
• Monitor project schedules and budgets for discrepancies, identify risks early, and provide actionable recommendations for recovery or correction.
• Facilitate project meetings, customer meetings, conference calls, design reviews, production reviews, project status updates, and site visits as required.
• Support fabrication, production, inspection, testing, and customer acceptance activities by helping resolve technical and project execution issues.
• Interface with customers, suppliers, subcontractors, and internal teams to ensure alignment on scope, technical requirements, schedule, documentation, and quality expectations.
• Manage multiple projects or project responsibilities simultaneously while maintaining quality, responsiveness, and follow-through.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Construction Management, Project Management, Technical Communication, or related field preferred; equivalent technical and project experience may be considered.
• Minimum of 3-5 years of project management, project engineering, technical program management, or custom manufacturing experience.
• Experience working in custom engineering, manufacturing, construction, aerospace, defense, vehicle, trailer, shelter, or mobile solutions environment preferred.
• Ability to understand technical drawings, specifications, customer requirements, contract deliverables, customer approvals, and project documentation.
• Experience with SDRLs, technical submittals, customer deliverables, compliance documentation, or technical writing strongly preferred.
• Strong written communication skills with the ability to prepare clear, professional, customer-facing technical documents.
• Experience with scheduling software and knowledge of critical path management.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications; experience with Wrike, MS Project, Smartsheet, or similar project planning software preferred.
• Ability to interact effectively with engineering, operations, quality, purchasing, production, sales, customers, and suppliers.
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically, solve problems, make sound decisions, and communicate clearly in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to learn multiple technical disciplines, which may include steel structures, aluminum structures, hydraulics, electrical systems, controls, visual elements, mobile structures, and custom vehicle systems.
• Must be willing to travel and manage projects at remote locations, as needed (~3%).
  1. Valid state driver's license and a clean driving record.
  2. Demonstrate safe driving practices while driving company vehicles or when driving your personal vehicle on behalf of the company.
• Must demonstrate a consistent and stable work history, strong follow-through, and strong verbal and written communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with government, defense, aerospace, or highly documented customer programs.
• Familiarity with CDRLs, SDRLs, contract data requirements, inspection documentation, test reports, manuals, or compliance matrices.
• Working knowledge of engineering standards, quality systems, AS9100/ISO 9001 environments, or customer source inspection processes.
• Experience supporting technical writing for manuals, work instructions, acceptance test procedures, inspection reports, or customer deliverable packages.
• Working knowledge of SOLIDWORKS, AutoCAD, Revit, or other design/documentation platforms
• PMP, CAPM, Lean, Six Sigma, or other project management/process improvement training.

Physical Requirements:

• Sitting, standing, and walking in office, warehouse and manufacturing environments.
• Ability to climb in and out of trailers, scaffolding and up ladders.
• Ability to bend, lift, and position self to move about the office, as needed.
• Required to stand, walk, and use fingers and hands.
• Vision abilities required by this job include close and/or color vision, and ability to adjust focus.
• Ascend/descend on ladders and move around within custom mobile solutions.
• Must be able to position self to move, bend, and lift up to 50 lbs.
• Must have the ability to hear and respond to auditory signals, distinguish tones and pitches in equipment, and use hearing protection during specific tasks.

Craftsmen Industries (and its subsidiaries) is an Equal Opportunity Employer. This means that we consider all applicants for employment and employees eligible for employment without regard to race, marital status or civil union status, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or any other characteristic protected by law. We also provide reasonable accommodations to our applicants and employees with disabilities in order to assist them in the performance of their essential job functions.

To learn more visit www.craftsmenind.com or www.schantzmfg.com.