Senior Automation Project Manager

Description

Role: Senior Automation Project Manager

Department: Automation Implementation

Location: Remote

Employment Type: Full Time

• The Sr. Automation PM independently leads the execution of complex intralogistics and warehouse automation projects from contract handoff through final customer acceptance, closeout, and transition to After Sales Service. This role owns project scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk, safety coordination, commercial performance, stakeholder alignment, and customer satisfaction. The Sr. Automation PM provides clear leadership across Engineering, Controls, Software, Purchasing, Installation, Commissioning, Finance, Sales, suppliers, subcontractors, and customer teams to deliver safe, predictable, and commercially successful outcomes.
• OVERALL RESPONSIBILITIES:

Project Leadership & Governance

• •Lead multiple concurrent automation projects or one highly complex program with full accountability for delivery results.
• •Create and maintain the project execution plan, governance cadence, responsibility assignments, decision log, action log, and communication plan.
• •Lead internal kickoff, customer kickoff, recurring project reviews, executive updates, recovery meetings, and lessons learned sessions.
• •Establish clear priorities, ownership, and due dates across cross functional teams, suppliers, and subcontractors.
• •Mentor Project Managers and Project Coordinators and provide practical guidance on project controls, customer communication, and issue resolution.
• •Escalate material risks, missed commitments, and decisions requiring leadership support with facts, impact, options, and a recommended path forward.

Scope, Contract, and Commercial Management

• •Own the baseline scope and confirm alignment among the customer contract, proposal, specifications, drawings, assumptions, exclusions, schedule, and acceptance criteria.
• •Identify scope gaps, interface risks, and conflicting requirements before they affect execution.
• •Maintain disciplined change control, including documentation of scope, cost, schedule, risk, approval status, and customer authorization before work proceeds when contractually required.
• •Monitor project financial performance, including budget, forecast, commitments, contingency, cash flow, billing milestones, margin exposure, and cost to complete.
• •Partner with Finance and the Project Coordinator to support accurate and timely invoicing, payment milestone tracking, and project financial reporting.
• •Monitor contractual obligations, notices, deliverables, warranties, liquidated damages exposure, and acceptance requirements in coordination with leadership and appropriate business partners.
• •Support commercial negotiations and claims with complete records, objective impact analysis, and clear recommendations.

Schedule and Resource Management

• •Develop, baseline, and maintain an integrated project schedule covering design, approvals, procurement, fabrication, delivery, installation, controls, software, testing, training, commissioning, acceptance, and closeout.
• •Validate logic, dependencies, critical path, resource needs, customer prerequisites, supplier commitments, and recovery options.
• •Coordinate resource plans with functional leaders and identify capacity conflicts early.
• •Measure progress against the approved baseline, document variance, and lead corrective or recovery planning when milestones are at risk.
• •Provide reliable schedule updates to internal stakeholders, customers, suppliers, and leadership.

Technical Integration and Execution

• •Coordinate mechanical, electrical, controls, software, information technology, network, equipment, rack, conveyor, robotics, and building interfaces across the complete solution.
• •Ensure design reviews, submittals, approvals, requirements, interface documents, and working drawings are completed and distributed to the correct stakeholders.
• •Facilitate clarification of functional requirements, control narratives, software requirements, operating concepts, rate assumptions, and acceptance criteria.
• •Maintain working knowledge of warehouse automation technologies such as conveyor and sortation, automated storage and retrieval systems, shuttles, automated guided vehicles, autonomous mobile robots, robotics, warehouse control systems, and warehouse execution systems.
• •Coordinate site readiness, delivery sequencing, installation access, utilities, network availability, customer dependencies, and operational constraints.
• •Lead integration planning across suppliers so that responsibilities, data exchanges, interfaces, and testing ownership are clear.

Risk, Quality, Safety, and Compliance

• •Create and maintain the project risk and opportunity register with owners, mitigation actions, due dates, financial exposure, and escalation thresholds.
• •Lead issue resolution and root cause reviews for significant quality, performance, schedule, and integration problems.
• •Coordinate project quality planning, inspections, punch lists, nonconformance resolution, documentation, and verification of corrective actions.
• •Promote a strong safety culture and coordinate with site leadership, customers, suppliers, and subcontractors to confirm applicable safety plans, training, permits, and site requirements are addressed.
• •Stop or escalate work when unsafe conditions, unapproved scope, or material delivery risks are identified.
• •Maintain project records in accordance with company requirements and applicable contract obligations.

Installation, Testing, Commissioning, and Acceptance

• •Coordinate construction and installation activities with the site team, customer, suppliers, and subcontractors.
• •Lead readiness reviews for installation, power on, controls checkout, software integration, factory testing, site testing, performance testing, training, go live, and acceptance.
• •Confirm test plans trace to contractual requirements and define prerequisites, responsibilities, evidence, issue handling, and retest expectations.
• •Manage commissioning priorities, daily constraints, punch items, defect resolution, and customer communication during critical site phases.
• •Prepare and execute customer acceptance activities and secure required approvals and completion documentation.
• •Coordinate operational handoff, training, spare parts, as built documentation, warranties, open item ownership, and transition to After Sales Service.

Customer, Supplier, and Stakeholder Management

• •Serve as the primary project management contact for the customer throughout execution.
• •Build trusted relationships through clear expectations, timely communication, accurate reporting, and consistent follow through.
• •Lead supplier and subcontractor performance reviews covering scope, schedule, quality, safety, documentation, change control, and corrective actions.
• •Partner with Purchasing on supplier selection, award support, purchase order alignment, and performance management.
• •Coordinate with Sales on customer commitments, commercial strategy, account relationships, and future opportunities while protecting approved project scope.
• •Communicate difficult information directly and professionally while preserving constructive working relationships.

Reporting and Project Controls

• •Provide concise weekly project updates to internal and external teams and monthly reporting to leadership.
• •Report overall status, project health, completed work, upcoming milestones, financial outlook, critical path, major risks, decisions, dependencies, changes, customer actions, supplier actions, and leadership attention items.
• •Maintain accurate schedules, meeting records, action logs, risk registers, decision logs, change logs, forecasts, and document repositories.
• •Use project data to identify trends, challenge unsupported assumptions, and drive timely decisions.
• •Ensure project documentation is complete, current, traceable, and ready for customer acceptance, audit, warranty support, and closeout.

KNOWLEDGE & SKILL