Senior Project Manager

Senior Project Manager

Purpose and Scope/General Summary: The Senior Project Manager leads complex, strategic initiatives across Pilgrim's and JBS Prepared Foods, translating business priorities into coordinated execution across multiple interconnected projects and workstreams. Partnering with leaders across R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, Engineering, Quality, Food Safety, Regulatory, Finance, Marketing, Sales, and other functions, this role ensures programs remain aligned with business objectives and deliver measurable results.

By integrating project plans, resources, priorities, risks, and dependencies, the Senior Project Manager drives cross-functional alignment, accountability, and execution across diverse teams. The Senior Project Manager provides enterprise-level leadership by connecting projects, people, and resources to achieve broader strategic outcomes.

Responsibilities:

• Lead strategic, complex programs consisting of multiple interconnected projects and workstreams, ensuring alignment to business priorities and intended outcomes.
• Lead, coach, and develop the Project Management team, including goal setting, performance management, career development, succession planning, and building organizational capability.
• Provide strategic direction and resource prioritization for Project Managers, ensuring workloads, project assignments, and development opportunities are aligned with business priorities and organizational objectives.
• Translate business strategy and priorities into clear program objectives, success measures, integrated roadmaps, milestones, resource requirements, and executive decision points.
• Lead a cross-functional team, establishing clear expectations and shared goals, providing coaching and feedback, and driving accountability for program outcomes across functions.
• Align and prioritize cross-functional team resources, including project management support, based on business priorities, project complexity, risk, timing, and organizational capacity.
• Lead the cross-functional team, including representatives from Marketing, Sales, Finance, R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering, Procurement, Quality, Food Safety, Regulatory, and other stakeholders, to drive coordinated execution.
• Manage dependencies across projects, ensuring risks, resources, timing, and decisions are understood and actively managed at the program level.
• Identify conflicts across projects and develop recommendations regarding priority, scope, sequencing, timing, resources, and risk.
• Provide senior leadership with clear visibility to program performance, key risks, resource constraints, decisions required, and recommended actions.
• Lead scenario planning and recommendations for significant business, resource, supply, cost, quality, capacity, or timing tradeoffs.
• Ensure individual projects remain aligned to broader program objectives and that decisions within one project appropriately consider impacts to related projects.
• Partner with business and functional leaders to establish clear ownership, decision rights, and accountability across programs.
• Drive disciplined project and program management practices while ensuring processes remain fit for purpose based on the complexity and risk of the work.
• Partner with Stage Gate and portfolio governance to ensure appropriate business decisions, resource commitments, and project priorities are visible and supported.
• Develop and implement improvements to project and program management tools, standards, processes, metrics, and ways of working.
• Build project management capability across the organization through coaching, standards, training, and sharing of best practices.
• Support succession planning and development of the Project Management talent pipeline.
• Represent Project and Program Management in senior leadership, customer, supplier, and cross-functional business discussions as needed.
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Food Science, Engineering, Supply Chain, Marketing, or a related field required.
• Advanced degree in Business, Science, Engineering, or a related field preferred.
• 8+ years of progressive project or program management experience, including experience leading complex, cross-functional initiative required
• 3+ years of experience leading cross-functional teams, including aligning diverse functions to common goals, coaching, talent development, and building team capability required.
• Demonstrated experience leading multiple interconnected projects or workstreams toward common business objectives.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to understand business priorities and translate strategy into executable programs and influence senior leadership and cross-functional teams.
• Ability to operate effectively in ambiguity, create structure around complex problems, and develop clear recommendations.
• Strong decision-making, problem-solving, negotiation, and conflict-resolution capabilities.
• Excellent written, verbal, facilitation, and executive presentation skills.
• Strong understanding of project and program management disciplines, including integrated planning, critical path management, dependency management, risk management, resource planning, change management, and governance.
• Food, CPG, manufacturing, or another complex product-development experience required.
• Experience with new product development, commercialization, manufacturing scale-up, portfolio management, or strategic business programs preferred.
• Experience with enterprise project management and collaboration tools required.
• PMP or comparable project/program management certification preferred.
• Travel up to 15%
• Can perform the functions of the job with or without a reasonable accommodation
• As a salaried position with the company, you may be required to travel at some point to other facilities, to attend Company events, or as a representative of the Company in other situations. Unless otherwise specified in this posting, the amount of travel may vary and the most qualified candidate must be willing and able to travel as business needs dictate.

The applicant who fills this position will be eligible for the following compensation and benefits:

• Benefits: Vision, Medical, and Dental coverage begin after 60 days of employment;
• Paid Time Off: sick leave, vacation, and 6 company observed holidays;
• 401(k): company match begins after the first year of service and follows the company vesting schedule;
• Base salary range of $109,000-$135,000
• Incentive Pay: This position is eligible to participate in the Company’s annual bonus plan, the amount of bonus varies and is subject to the standard terms and conditions of the incentive program; and
• Career Development: Our company is dedicated to supporting professional growth by offering continuous learning opportunities and a focus on career growth through various learning and development programs.

The posted salary range represents the Company’s good faith estimate of the compensation that the Company reasonably expects to pay for this role at the time of posting. Actual compensation will be determined based on factors including, but not limited to, relevant experience, skills, qualifications, tenure, internal equity, market data, and may vary accordingly.

This position does not have an application deadline. We will continue to recruit until the position has been filled.

The Company is dedicated to ensuring a safe and secure environment for our team members and visitors. To assist in achieving that goal, we conduct drug, alcohol, and background checks for all new team members post-offer and prior to the start of employment. The Immigration Reform and Control Act requires that verification of employment eligibility be documented for all new employees by the end of the third day of work.

About us: Pilgrim’s is a leading global food company with more than 62,000 team members worldwide. The company processes, prepares, packages, and delivers fresh, frozen, and value-added food products for customers in more than 100 countries. Pilgrim’s operates protein processing plants and prepared foods facilities in 14 states, Puerto Rico, Mexico, the U.K, the Republic of Ireland and continental Europe. Pilgrim’s is headquartered in beautiful Greeley, Colorado, at the JBS USA corporate office where our 1,200 employees enjoy more than 300 days of sunshine a year.

Our mission: To be the best in all that we do, completely focused on our business, ensuring the best products and services to our customers, a relationship of trust with our suppliers, profitability for our shareholders and the opportunity of a better future for all of our team members.

Our core values are: Availability, Determination, Discipline, Humility, Ownership, Simplicity, Sincerity

EOE, including disability/vets

Unsolicited Assistance: JBS and its companies do not accept unsolicited assistance from any recruitment vendors for any of our open jobs. All resumes or candidate profiles submitted by recruitment vendors or headhunters to any employee at JBS and its companies or via the applicant tracking system, in any form without a valid written request and search agreement previously approved by HR, will be solely owned by JBS and its companies. No fees will be paid should the candidate be hired by JBS and its companies because of an unsolicited referral.