Strategic Operations Project Manager

We prefer a candidate to work onsite in St. Louis, MO. We are also open to considering candidates in Westerville, OH.

About the Role

The Strategic Operations Project Manager is responsible for managing end-to-end delivery of global manufacturing footprint and capacity expansion initiatives — including new factory builds from scope definition phase through operational launch. This role coordinates across Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, and regional teams to ensure projects are delivered on time, within budget, and meet all operational readiness requirements.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end project management of manufacturing capacity expansion and new factory initiatives from scope definition, through design, construction, equipment installation, and operational launch.
• Develop and manage integrated project plans including scope, schedule, budget, resource allocation, and risk mitigation strategies.
• Drive project governance including stage-gate reviews, executive status reporting, and stakeholder communication across all organizational levels.
• Manage greenfield and brownfield manufacturing facility projects, ensuring alignment with global footprint strategy and long-term business growth objectives.
• Coordinate facility layout planning, manufacturing line design, equipment procurement, and installation activities for new and expanded sites.
• Ensure new facilities achieve target capacity, quality standards, and operational key performance indicators within defined timelines and budget.
• Develop and manage capital expenditure budgets for manufacturing expansion projects, ensuring financial discipline and return on investment targets are met.
• Prepare business cases, capital appropriation requests, and financial justifications for investment decisions presented to senior leadership.
• Track project expenditures against approved budgets and report variances with corrective action plans.
• Apply knowledge of manufacturing processes, line balancing, and production optimization to ensure efficient manufacturing system design in new and expanded facilities.
• Coordinate advanced manufacturing technology integration, including automation and digital factory solutions, into new and expanded facilities.
• Ensure design for manufacturability principles are incorporated during facility and line design phases to support quality and throughput targets.
• Partner with Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, and regional leadership to align project delivery with business objectives and capacity strategy.
• Coordinate vendor selection, equipment qualification, and technology transfer activities across regions, ensuring consistency and operational readiness.
• Manage cross-regional dependencies and ensure seamless handoffs from project delivery to plant operations teams upon facility launch.
• Leverage manufacturing and business intelligence data, including Manufacturing Execution Systems, Enterprise Resource Planning systems, and capacity planning tools, to drive strategic decisions.
• Develop and maintain models for manufacturing cost, utilization, and capacity scenario analysis to support footprint planning.

Requirements

• 5 or more years of professional experience in a manufacturing context.
• Demonstrated success leading large-scale manufacturing facility projects including greenfield and brownfield builds from scope through operational handover.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing processes, line balancing, production system design, and throughput optimization.
• Experience with capital expenditure budgeting, financial modeling, and capital project justification.
• Knowledge of advanced manufacturing technologies including automation, digital factory tools, and manufacturing execution systems.
• Proven ability to manage cross-functional, global project teams and influence at all organizational levels without direct authority.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to drive data-informed decisions and develop capacity scenario models.
• Proficiency with project management tools such as Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, or equivalent.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required: Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain Management, or related technical field.
• Lean Six Sigma certification (Green Belt or Black Belt) ideal but not required.
• Multi-industry or multi-product-line manufacturing experience (preferred).
• Experience in power, thermal management, or critical infrastructure manufacturing (preferred).
• Knowledge of global supply chain dynamics, geopolitical influences, and total landed cost analysis (preferred).
• Familiarity with Enterprise Resource Planning systems and manufacturing execution systems (preferred).

Schedule

• Travel: 10-25%

About Vertiv

Vertiv (NYSE: VRT) brings together hardware, software, analytics and ongoing services to enable its customers’ vital applications to run continuously, perform optimally and grow with their business needs. Vertiv solves the most important challenges facing today’s data centers, communication networks and commercial and industrial facilities with a portfolio of power, cooling and IT infrastructure solutions and services that extend from the cloud to the edge of the network. Headquartered in Westerville, Ohio, USA, Vertiv employs around 34,000 people and does business in more than 130 countries.