Position Summary:
The Program Manager is a highly visible, hands-on role responsible for leading cross-functional programs from initial concepts through Post-Launch. Working across R&D, Marketing, Packaging, Regulatory, Quality, Operations, Supply Chain, Sales, Finance, and other functional teams, this position drives alignment, execution, risk management, and accountability throughout the product development lifecycle.
The Program Manager will lead domestic and international new product development, commercialization, front-end innovation, business support, and select merchandising display programs using Carma Laboratories’ Stage Gate processes. This role owns integrated program schedules, facilitates cross-functional decision-making, proactively identifies risks and resource constraints, and keeps teams aligned to approved scope, timing, cost, quality, and business objectives.
The Program Manager partners with the Senior Manager of Program Management and functional business leaders to support portfolio prioritization, resource capacity planning, product roadmaps, process governance, and continuous improvement in support of corporate goals and objectives.
This is a 100% hands-on role requiring someone who is equally comfortable building a detailed program plan, facilitating a cross-functional team, driving accountability without direct authority, and communicating program risks and recommendations to senior leadership.
Reports to: Senior Manager of Program Management
Functional Responsibilities:
- Collaborates with program sponsors, the Senior Manager of Program Management, organizational leadership, and senior cross-functional representatives to define program scope, user and business requirements, deliverables, resources, resource demand versus capacity, schedule, budget, success measures, and timing for new initiatives.
- Leads programs from initial planning through execution and closeout, ensuring work is completed within approved scope, timing, budget, quality standards, and Stage Gate requirements.
- Independently develops and maintains detailed, integrated program schedules that define activities, sequencing, dependencies, decision points, milestones, critical paths, and functional commitments.
- Establishes and maintains effective program governance, including meeting cadence, agendas, decision and action tracking, program documentation, schedule updates, lessons learned, and timely stakeholder communications.
- Schedules and facilitates cross-functional core team meetings and working sessions; drives clear decisions, ownership, commitments, dependencies, due dates, and follow-through.
- Drives cross-functional accountability through influence rather than direct authority and escalates unresolved barriers, resource conflicts, decisions, and risks at the appropriate time and level.
- Proactively identify, assess, document, and manage program risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies, and opportunities using risk-based project and program management methods.
- Monitors program progress and performance, recommends corrective actions, and revises plans through documented change-control practices when approved scope, timing, resources, cost, or requirements change.
- Provides concise, decision-oriented program updates to the Senior Manager of Program Management and presents program status, tradeoffs, risks, recommendations, and required decisions to senior management as appropriate.
- Supports portfolio planning and prioritization by evaluating resource demand, capacity constraints, dependencies, risks, costs, strategic alignment, and business priorities; provides data-driven recommendations to Program Management and functional leadership.
- Partners with functional leaders to identify and secure appropriate team resources, financial requirements, capital needs, and specialized capabilities for prioritized programs.
- Leads or supports resource demand and capacity assessments and communicates current constraints, forecasted gaps, and proposed mitigation plans to management.
- Works directly with Finance to ensure program financial requirements, including P&Ls, COGS, margin assessments, budgets, and performance metrics, are current and incorporated into team reviews and decisions.
- Reviews program deliverables and outcomes with cross-functional teams to verify they meet agreed requirements, program standards, quality expectations, and Executive Leadership Team expectations.
- Provides timely, constructive feedback to cross-functional team members, reinforces effective team behaviors, recognizes wins, and raises recurring performance or process concerns through the appropriate functional leadership channels.
- Partners with the Senior Manager of Program Management, R&D leadership, and cross-functional teams to strengthen collaboration, trust, transparent discussion, disciplined problem solving, and solution-oriented behaviors.
- Recommends and implements improvements to program management, Stage Gate, commercialization, ideation, governance, portfolio, resource planning, and metric-tracking processes.
- Develops and maintains program tools, templates, records, histories, dashboards, training materials, and process documentation to support consistent execution, knowledge transfer, and organizational learning.
- Ensures new program participants receive appropriate orientation to program objectives, roles, responsibilities, governance expectations, tools, and relevant Carma Laboratories policies and practices.
- Leads or supports brainstorming, core team development, process training, and other working sessions as needed.
Qualifications
Required Experience, Desired Skills & Qualifications:
- Minimum 5 years of progressive, hands-on project or program management experience leading cross-functional initiatives; 5–8 years preferred.
- Demonstrated ability to independently build and manage complex, integrated program schedules and to manage risks, issues, dependencies, resource constraints, scope changes, and schedule recovery actions.
- Strong cross-functional leadership and facilitation skills, including the ability to influence without direct authority, challenge constructively, resolve conflict, and drive timely decisions and accountability.
- Ability to manage multiple concurrent programs, establish priorities, monitor progress, and maintain accurate program data and documentation.
- Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the judgment to communicate program status, tradeoffs, risks, recommendations, and escalation needs clearly to cross-functional teams and senior leadership.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Teams, and OneNote, as well as collaborative project or program management tools.
- Demonstrated adaptability, continuous-improvement mindset, ethical conduct, transparency, and alignment with organizational values and business practices.
- Experience managing new product development and commercialization programs within consumer-packaged goods, cosmetics or personal care, OTC, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, medical device, or another product-based environment.
- Experience working within a Stage Gate or comparable structured product-development and commercialization process.
- Experience with portfolio prioritization, resource demand and capacity planning, financial or business-case management, and program performance metrics.
- Advanced proficiency with Smartsheet and other software tools (Microsoft Project/Planner, Monday, etc.)
- Certified Associate of Project Management (CAPM), Project Management Professional (PMP) or comparable project/program management certification.
Core Competencies:
- Ownership and Accountability: Takes responsibility for commitments, follows through, and addresses barriers or avoidable business risks promptly.
- Business Judgment: Balances urgency, business impact, cost, quality, resources, and risk when making or facilitating decisions.
- Collaboration: Builds trust and productive working relationships across functions and levels while maintaining candid, solution-oriented discussion.
- Adaptability: Responds effectively to changing priorities, responsibilities, and business needs without losing focus on agreed outcomes.
- Continuous Improvement: Identifies practical opportunities to strengthen processes, tools, governance, and program outcomes.
Educational Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree in business, Engineering, Science, or related discipline. Equivalent combinations of education and directly relevant program-management experience may be considered.
- CAPM, PMP, PgMP, or equivalent project/program management certification is strongly preferred.
Physical Requirements:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands and computer skills; and talk or hear.
- The employee must be able to lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.
- Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.
- Employee must be able to sit or stand and work on a computer for up to eight hours in a workday.
- Ability to function in highly demanding, multi-tasking situations.
Environmental Requirements:
The work environments described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.