Project Manager at Danone

To lead innovations and productivity projects for the DSA CBU.

Act as project lead for new Product Development Projects such as:

• Development of new and improved primary and secondary packaging.
• Extensions to existing ranges such as new flavours and formats.
• Breakthrough innovations
• Reformulations for superiority
• Product relaunches.
• Responsible for co-ordinating the activities of all the key contributing departments to ensure that the project is delivered on time, on budget, and in line with the brief.
• Providing updates to key stakeholders, including presenting gate change requests at PST and CODEV internal meetings.
• Minimising scope creep to prevent delays and additional costs.
• Challenging decisions made to ensure that the best possible solutions are found to problems encountered on the project.

Act as project lead on Productivity Projects such as:

• New supplier homologation.
• Reformulation for cost saving.
• Shelf life extensions.
• Responsibilities as per project lead for new product development.

Champion correct project management process

• Ensure Danone GOOSE process adhered to and that stage gate approval is obtained at the appropriate point in time.
• Assumptions used for volume and P&L projections are robust and that all key stakeholders have input prior to freezing the assumptions.
• Train new employees in partner functions on the GOOSE process and their role within it.
• Identify and implement lessons learned

Tracking & Reporting

• Produce reports tracking project KPI’s
• Develop and track project timelines

Communication

• Manage all stakeholders according to their needs, and CBU need for Project Management Performance.
• Arrange project meetings as required and follow up with meeting minutes

Qualification:

• Undergraduate degree in engineering, business or other relevant discipline required.
• Project Management Professional certification preferred.
• 4 years of project management experience in an FMCG company or similar environment (high number of projects interacting together; big projects and fast pace of change) required.
• Technical background in manufacturing; marketing or research and development  preferred.
• Experience in project management software preferred.
• Well-developed communication skills (oral, written and listening).
• Proven ability to manage cross-functional projects
• This role requires the co-ordination of different disciplines within the business to see complex projects through from start to completion in a fast paced and highly changeable environment.
• Short shelf life products; food safety requirements; technical requirements at the factory.