Senior R&D Project Manager

Work Schedule

Environmental Conditions

Job Description

As part of the Thermo Fisher Scientific team youll discover meaningful work that makes a positive impact on a global scale. Join our colleagues in bringing our Mission to life every single day to enable our customers to make the world healthier cleaner and safer. We provide our global teams with the resources needed to achieve individual career goals while helping to take science a step beyond by developing solutions for some of the worlds toughest challenges like protecting the environment making sure our food is safe or helping find cures for cancer.

DESCRIPTION:

How you will make an impact:
The Senior R&D Project Manager will lead complex software development projects from initiation through release ensuring predictable execution clear visibility into progress and risks and successful delivery of commitments. This role is a senior individual contributor responsible for driving project execution across cross-functional teams without direct people management responsibility. Reporting to the Director Engineering Delivery & Excellence this role will support the organizations focus on delivery predictability execution discipline release readiness and continuous improvement. The Senior R&D Project Manager will manage projects across multiple software development lifecycle models including Agile Waterfall and hybrid approaches adapting project management practices to fit the project team product and business unit process.

What you will contribute:
Lead end-to-end execution of software development projects intended for commercial release ensuring delivery against committed scope schedule quality and business objectives.
Develop and maintain project plans schedules milestone plans dependency maps risk registers issue logs resource plans decision logs and status reports.
Manage projects across Agile Waterfall and hybrid delivery models applying the appropriate planning governance and execution practices for each project and SDLC process.
Facilitate project planning sprint or increment planning release planning risk reviews retrospectives and stakeholder alignment meetings as appropriate for the delivery model.
Partner with Engineering Product Management Program Management and other stakeholders to define project objectives deliverables success criteria and release expectations.
Define track and communicate project-level KPIs delivery metrics and data-driven project status updates that provide stakeholders with transparent visibility into project health including progress against plan milestone adherence delivery risks dependencies open decisions resource impacts and release readiness.
Establish and maintain project governance including meeting cadence decision forums escalation paths documentation expectations milestone tracking and release readiness reviews.
Proactively identify assess and manage risks issues assumptions dependencies and resource constraints; escalate with clear recommendations options and trade-offs when needed.
Drive accountability across cross-functional teams to ensure timely completion of deliverables and resolution of blockers.
Ensure project execution aligns with applicable SDLC processes business unit governance expectations quality requirements and other relevant standards.
Represent Engineering project management in cross-functional program forums as needed ensuring engineering plans risks dependencies and trade-offs are clearly communicated and understood.
Partner with the Director Engineering Delivery & Excellence and cohort to support improvements to project management practices operating mechanisms metrics templates and delivery reporting.
Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives that improve engineering delivery predictability efficiency quality and stakeholder visibility.
Serve as a senior project management resource and role model for execution discipline stakeholder communication risk management and structured problem solving.

REQUIREMENTS:

Required:
Bachelors degree in Engineering Computer Science Business Project Management or a related field
7 years of experience managing software development R&D technical or new product development projects
Experience managing software projects intended for commercial product release
Demonstrated experience managing projects using Agile Waterfall and hybrid delivery approaches
Strong understanding of software development lifecycle processes including requirements design development verification testing deployment and release
Experience leading cross-functional project teams in a matrixed organization without direct authority
Strong ability to manage scope schedule dependencies risks issues resources and stakeholder expectations
Ability to communicate project status risks options and trade-offs clearly to technical and non-technical audiences
Strong facilitation problem-solving decision management and escalation skills
Experience supporting global or distributed engineering teams
Proficiency with project management and collaboration tools such as Jira Azure DevOps Smartsheet Microsoft Project Confluence SharePoint or similar tools

Preferred:
PMP PMI-ACP Certified ScrumMaster SAFe or similar project management or Agile certification
Experience working in a regulated or quality-driven environment
Familiarity with quality management systems GxP ISO FDA 21 CFR Part 11 and cybersecurity expectations
Experience improving project management processes reporting metrics or SDLC execution practices
Experience with Power BI or similar data visualization/reporting tools
Practical understanding of AI-assisted engineering and analytics to improve software delivery visibility project health monitoring and reporting efficiency

Key Competencies:
Software project execution leadership
Delivery predictability and operational discipline
Agile Waterfall and hybrid SDLC fluency
Cross-functional stakeholder alignment
Strategic thinking and ability to self-prioritize
Risk issue and dependency management
Influence without direct authority
Clear communication and leadership-ready reporting
Comfort operating in ambiguity
Continuous improvement mindset
Systems thinking across complex delivery environments
Strong ownership and accountability
Able to build and facilitate a high-trust collaborative workplace culture