Operations Project Manager

Role: Operations Project Manager Location: Houston, TX Employment Type: FTE - Permanent Note: Exposure to advanced manufacturing, data centers, large-scale customer deployments, construction, or EPC-style project delivery Ieally in energy, hardware, manufacturing, or another capital-intensive environment Key Responsibilities Own the integrated master schedule across all active projects in one place, with the cross-project dependency map and the critical path through them Drive the schedule: set and defend milestone dates, push owners to commit, and escalate early when a date is at risk rather than reporting the miss afterward Force trade-offs in advance when projects compete for the same resources, parts or weeks, and build the capacity plan that shows where we are over-committed before we commit further Keep small slips from compounding: when one date moves, know the same day what else moves with it and who needs to hear about it Establish and run the operating cadence (planning, weekly execution reviews and monthly portfolio reviews) and support the reporting that goes to leadership and the Board Run risk, issue and change management, track decisions to closure, and chase down blockers so things move between the meetings Define the minimum standards every project follows (scope, schedule, milestones, risks, actions, issues, decisions and status), light enough that teams use them without being told twice Lead the stand-up of our project management platform: evaluate the options, make a recommendation, implement it, and own the migration from spreadsheets and status decks to a single source of truth, in-line with best-in-class tools Own the configuration, administration and data quality of the platform, and keep improving it as the portfolio grows from 20 projects to 60+ Build the reporting and dashboards so status is generated rather than assembled by hand, and anyone can see where a project stands without having to ask Run one portfolio across Switzerland and the United States, with the same schedule, definitions and view of status on both sides, working across time zones without losing days to them Manage the handoffs between Swiss engineering and US manufacturing and operations, where most of our dependencies and most of our risk live Partner with project and functional owners across engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, customer deployment and finance so the process serves them rather than taxes them Give the CEO, CTO and COO a clear portfolio view of what is on track, what is at risk and what needs a decision, and shape how the function scales, including the first hire on your team Skills and Experience Required Roughly 4 to 7 years of experience in project, program or PMO roles, with meaningful time at an early-stage or high-growth company, ideally in energy, hardware, manufacturing or another capital-intensive environment A track record of driving schedules (e.g. comfortable telling a senior engineer that their date does not work with the credibility and the data to drive progress) Direct experience bringing structure to an organization that did not have it: standing up a PMO, a portfolio process or a project management platform, including what you built, what you deliberately left out and how you got people to adopt it Hands-on depth in a modern project management platform (for example Jira, Smartsheet, Asana, Monday or Planview), including configuration and administration, not only use Comfort managing dependencies across many concurrent projects, and the judgment to know which need escalation Experience working across sites, countries and time zones, with the discipline that makes distributed work move rather than stall An engineering or technical background Strong influence without authority: the process only works if project owners choose to use it A bias to action and a pragmatic view of process: enough structure to make the chaos legible, not so much that it slows the company down Excellent written and verbal communication in English, and the ability to work independently in a lean, global team Willing to be based onsite in Houston and to travel regularly, including to Switzerland Must have existing authorization to work in the United States Desirable Experience taking a manufacturing organization through the transition from prototype to volume production Experience incorporating AI into project management to enable organization-level speed Exposure to advanced manufacturing, data centers, large-scale customer deployments, construction or EPC-style project delivery PMP certification (Project Management Professional, PMI) Working proficiency in French