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About the role

Job Summary
The Project Management Director is responsible for managing multiple project teams and supporting the development and execution of functional strategy. This includes overseeing complex projects, ensuring quality standards, and influencing executive leadership.
This job profile is intended for senior leaders that support the mid to long-term (3–5 years) strategy development for their functional area, and have ownership of the short to mid-term (1–3 years) execution of functional strategy/operational direction. Requires ability to communicate with and influence executive leadership. Typically manage multiple teams.

Position Summary

The Head of Project Management, Americas is responsible for leading and standardizing project execution across MTCS Americas under the One Americas operating model. The role provides strategic and functional leadership for Project Management activities supporting engineered products, capital equipment, manufacturing projects, revamps, retrofits, and selected service projects throughout the region.

Reporting to the Head of Product Operations Americas and General Manager Mexico, the position serves as the regional Project Management Office (PMO) leader and is accountable for driving project execution excellence, customer satisfaction, profitability, cash collection performance, risk mitigation, resource utilization, and project governance across the Americas.

The role is responsible for establishing a consistent project execution framework across the region while ensuring projects are delivered safely, on time, within budget, in accordance with contractual requirements, and aligned with MTCS growth and profitability objectives.

Key Responsibilities

Project Management Leadership

• Lead the Americas Project Management organization under a One Americas operating model.
• Establish and maintain project management standards, governance processes, methodologies, tools, and reporting systems across the region.
• Develop a scalable PMO organization capable of supporting future business growth and increasing project complexity.
• Promote project execution consistency across the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Latin America.
• Establish departmental objectives, KPIs, development plans, and succession planning activities.
• Recruit, develop, coach, and retain project management talent throughout the region.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, customer focus, and execution excellence.

Project Acceptance & Execution Governance

• Establish project acceptance and order review processes across the Americas.
• Ensure customer Purchase Orders align with approved quotations, scope of supply, pricing assumptions, and contractual terms.
• Oversee project transfer from Sales to Operations and ensure execution readiness prior to project launch.
• Lead project kick-off governance processes and establish execution strategies based on project complexity.
• Ensure project scope, schedule, resource requirements, risks, and financial objectives are clearly defined at project initiation.
• Establish governance requirements for strategic, high-risk, and mega-project opportunities.

Project Portfolio Management

• Maintain visibility and oversight of the regional project portfolio.
• Lead project portfolio review meetings and regional project governance forums.
• Drive prioritization and allocation of project management resources across the Americas.
• Identify project risks, execution bottlenecks, capacity constraints, and resource conflicts.
• Support proactive mitigation strategies and escalation of critical project issues.
• Monitor project backlog health, execution capacity, and future resource requirements.
• Provide executive reporting on project portfolio performance.

Customer Project Execution

• Ensure projects are executed safely, on time, within budget, and in compliance with contractual requirements.
• Oversee project planning, execution, monitoring, and closeout activities.
• Establish consistent project communication and reporting standards across the region.
• Serve as executive sponsor and escalation point for strategic customer projects.
• Ensure customers receive timely communication regarding schedule performance, project risks, scope changes, and corrective actions.
• Drive customer satisfaction through disciplined project execution and proactive issue resolution.
• Support resolution of commercial, technical, contractual, and schedule-related issues.

Commercial & Financial Leadership

• Own project gross margin performance across the Americas project portfolio.
• Drive proactive identification and mitigation of project cost overruns.
• Monitor project financial performance including revenue, margin, cost, cash flow, billing, and collections.
• Partner closely with Finance to improve forecasting accuracy and project financial visibility.
• Ensure project managers actively identify opportunities for margin enhancement and cost reduction.
• Lead project financial reviews with Engineering, Manufacturing, Procurement, and Finance.
• Support contract review and commercial risk management activities.

Change Order & Risk Management

• Establish and standardize change order management processes across the Americas.
• Ensure customer-driven changes are properly evaluated, priced, documented, and approved.
• Drive timely recovery of commercial opportunities resulting from scope changes.
• Monitor change order conversion performance and project recovery actions.
• Lead project risk review processes and mitigation planning activities.
• Develop governance mechanisms to proactively identify execution and contractual risks.
• Ensure lessons learned from project risks are incorporated into future execution practices.

Cash Collection & Working Capital Management

• Partner with Finance to ensure timely milestone billing and invoicing.
• Monitor project cash flow performance throughout project execution.
• Support collection of customer milestone payments and final project payments.
• Escalate payment delays and collection risks impacting profitability or cash flow.
• Improve cash conversion and working capital performance throughout the project portfolio.
• Ensure project closure activities support prompt final invoicing and account settlement.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Coordinate execution activities between:
  • Engineering
  • Manufacturing
  • Procurement
  • Supply Chain
  • Quality
  • Service Operations
  • Sales
  • Finance
  • QESH
• Ensure alignment between customer commitments and operational capabilities.
• Facilitate collaboration between multiple sites and regional teams.
• Drive accountability for milestone achievement and project performance.
• Support successful handoff from Sales through execution and closeout.

Operational Excellence

• Establish project management KPIs, dashboards, and management review processes.
• Standardize project reviews, stage-gate processes, escalation protocols, and reporting structures.
• Drive implementation of project management systems and digital tools.
• Lead project lessons learned reviews and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Identify opportunities to improve execution efficiency, productivity, forecasting, and customer experience.
• Develop best practices and standard work across the PM organization.

Talent Development

• Develop project management career paths and competency frameworks.
• Mentor Project Managers, Senior Project Managers, Project Coordinators, and future PM leaders.
• Promote knowledge sharing and best-practice deployment throughout the region.
• Establish training plans covering project management, customer engagement, commercial acumen, risk management, and leadership development.
• Build organizational capability to support growth in large and complex projects.

What we offer you

Salary according to experience
Life insurance
Savings fund
Major medical expenses insurance
Interaction with international team
Career growth opportunities
 

Sulzer is an equal opportunity employer. We believe in the strength of a diverse workforce and are committed to offering an inclusive work environment.
 

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