Job Title: Program Manager

Type of Contract: Long-term, At-Will

Hire Date: July 2026

Location: Anderson, South Carolina

Responsibilities

Lead cross-functional automotive projects from award through launch, ensuring achievement of customer requirements, timing, cost, quality, and profitability objectives.

Drive execution of the validated customer scope, Statement of Work, OPTIMAP project plan, and overall development budget throughout all project phases.

Coordinate and monitor the activities of multidisciplinary project teams, ensuring deliverables, milestones, and departmental responsibilities are achieved according to plan.

Establish and maintain the master project schedule, consolidating functional timing plans and ensuring alignment with customer expectations and internal commitments.

Manage project financial performance by monitoring development costs, investments, production costs, cash flow, tooling expenditures, and overall profitability targets.

Lead risk identification and mitigation activities, ensuring threats and opportunities are proactively managed and corrective actions are implemented when necessary.

Facilitate communication and collaboration across engineering, manufacturing, quality, purchasing, finance, logistics, and customer interfaces.

Organize and lead project reviews, phase gate reviews, customer meetings, and governance reporting activities.

Manage project scope changes, budget updates, and expenditure tracking while ensuring compliance with internal procedures and business group requirements.

Ensure successful project launches through strong leadership, coordination, issue resolution, and lessons-learned implementation.

Maintain compliance with all company policies, safety requirements, and mandatory training obligations.

Support additional business needs and perform other responsibilities as assigned.

Activities

Project Planning & Execution

Lead the full project lifecycle from project definition through industrialization and launch.

Develop and maintain the master project timing plan and ensure all project milestones are achieved.

Monitor project deliverables, work packages, and action plans across all functions.

Coordinate project reviews, gateway meetings, and end-of-phase validations.

Financial & Profitability Management

Achieve and sustain project profitability targets.

Monitor development hours, investments, production costs, tooling expenditures, and cash flow.

Track financial performance and provide project forecasts and updates.

Manage project budgets in accordance with business group processes and approval requirements.

Risk & Issue Management

Identify project risks, threats, and opportunities across all departments.

Develop and implement mitigation plans to minimize impact on scope, timing, cost, and quality.

Manage corrective action plans and drive issue resolution through cross-functional teams.

Escalate critical risks and deviations through appropriate governance channels.

Customer & Stakeholder Management

Maintain strong customer relationships throughout all phases of project execution.

Ensure customer requirements are clearly understood, communicated, and achieved.

Provide regular project status updates to customers, leadership, and key stakeholders.

Manage customer-driven scope changes and project modifications.

Cross-Functional Team Leadership

Lead and coordinate multidisciplinary project teams.

Define responsibilities, deliverables, and accountability for project stakeholders.

Drive collaboration, communication, and alignment across all functional areas.

Facilitate problem-solving and decision-making to support project success.

Launch Management

Ensure successful program industrialization and production readiness.

Coordinate launch activities and support achievement of a non-event production launch.

Monitor project readiness against timing, quality, cost, and customer requirements.

Capture lessons learned and support continuous improvement initiatives following project completion.

Profile

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, Program Management, or a related field preferred.

Minimum of 3 years of experience in the automotive industry, ideally within Program Management, Engineering, Manufacturing, Industrialization, or Commercial functions.

Strong experience managing automotive projects, customer deliverables, timing plans, budgets, and cross-functional teams.

Knowledge of IATF 16949 quality standards and customer-specific automotive requirements.

Proven success delivering automotive projects from development through launch while meeting business objectives.

Experience managing project profitability, budgets, investments, tooling costs, and financial reporting.

Strong leadership skills with the ability to influence and align multidisciplinary teams toward common objectives.

Excellent communication, stakeholder management, customer-facing, and presentation skills.

Demonstrated ability to identify risks, develop action plans, and drive corrective actions to completion.

Strong organizational, analytical, and problem-solving abilities in a fast-paced environment.

Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Project, and project management/reporting tools.

English required; additional languages are a plus.