Project Manager, Change Leader

About the role

Hayward Holdings Inc. (NYSE "HAYW") is a leading manufacturer of residential and commercial swimming pool equipment. The Change Leader is a Project Manager responsible for Hayward’s portfolio of product engineering sustaining opportunities, ranging from large projects to routine product changes. This role manages the front-end of the global product improvement process, from opportunity identification and definition through disposition and prioritization. The Change Leader works with stakeholders and engineering resources across all North American sites, balancing project delivery cycle-times, customer requirements, and quality portfolio decisions.

Responsibilities

• Lead cross-functional sustaining, VAVE, regulatory, quality, supply chain, and product improvement projects from opportunity identification through implementation and closure.
• Manage project scope, schedule, budget, resources, risks, and dependencies to ensure successful delivery against business objectives and customer requirements.
• Drive prioritization and execution of a diverse portfolio of engineering change opportunities, balancing business value, technical complexity, resource constraints, and organizational priorities.
• Facilitate collaboration across Engineering, Operations, Quality, Sourcing, Manufacturing, Product Management, and Supply Chain teams to achieve project goals and resolve issues.
• Lead evaluation and implementation of cost reduction, value engineering, product reliability, manufacturability, and compliance improvement initiatives while maintaining product performance and customer expectations.
• Establish and maintain project governance processes, including status reviews, risk management, change control, escalation management, and executive reporting.
• Identify, develop, and implement process improvements, automation opportunities, and best practices that improve efficiency, visibility, and overall project execution effectiveness.
• Support enterprise transformation initiatives, including PLM, ERP, and change management process enhancements, ensuring successful adoption across the organization.
• Create industry-leading processes using the latest technologies, including:
  • Investigation and Change Request Process to identify and document opportunities and define solutions.
  • Enterprise Change Assessment process to assess internal and external requirements and validate change costs and impacts.
  • Change prioritization and disposition process, including Change Review Board for managing high-risk and high-impact opportunities.
• Define criteria for identifying opportunities requiring additional oversight, including board membership, roles, responsibilities, and decision-making procedures.
• Identify and implement process key performance indicators and visual controls measuring conformance to key process elements.
• Analyze, compile, and present both quantitative and qualitative data and recommendations, including configuration management process, compliance audits, and change management metrics.
• Maintain, lead, and foster a “kaizen” mindset by collaborating with cross-functional teams to enforce, analyze, and support adoption of configuration management requirements.
• Evaluate new technologies or methodologies and apply them to company projects.
• Identify opportunities for improvement in PMO and CM processes and lead continuous improvement activities.
• Participate in global improvement and standardization of CM processes through data-driven decisions and requirement-driven solutions.
• Actively support the transition from localized MRP systems to a global PLM and ERP.
• Develop and maintain playbooks for CM standards to be used in PLM, MRP, and ERP migrations.
• Comply with and support health, safety, and environmental programs, policies, and procedures.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Comfortable working autonomously to resolve complex challenges where no precedent exists.
• Understanding of manufacturing environments, operations, and supply chain processes.
• Enterprise Organizational Change Management (OCM) experience, including driving organizational changes related to major technology efforts.
• Strong analytical, communication, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to see multiple perspectives.
• Ability to clearly communicate complex ideas patiently in a transformative environment.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously.
• Business process development and documentation experience.
• Prior experience working with engineering and/or manufacturing business systems and applications.
• Experience with MS Office applications, including advanced Excel.
• Working knowledge of PLM, MRP, MES, and/or ERP systems.

Qualifications

• B.S. or degree in an Engineering or Manufacturing-related discipline.
• 5+ years of experience with Program Management or Engineering Configuration Management.
• In the absence of a degree, 7+ years of related experience is required.

Schedule

This position is located in North Kingstown, RI and is in-office 5 days per week. Travel is less than 10%.