Sr R&D Project Manager

Job description

Work Schedule First Shift (Days) Environmental Conditions Office Job Description Department The Project Management team is part of the Global Life Sciences Portfolio team within the Research & Development organization. Our mission is to develop innovative technologies, modules, and software solutions that help deliver world-class products for demanding global markets and customers. As technology and industry expectations continue to evolve, the performance requirements for our systems, subsystems, and software platforms are constantly increasing. In close collaboration with Advanced Technology Development teams, global R&D groups, and selected external partners, our Life Sciences organization converts the most promising technological concepts into reliable products that enable our customers to make the world cleaner, healthier, and safer. Team As Senior Project Manager / Senior Product Owner, you will be a key individual contributor responsible for driving software delivery and strengthening project execution capability across Life Sciences product development. This role is especially important in building and scaling software delivery competence in India. You will work closely with global teams in Brno, Czech Republic, Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and other international R&D locations to ensure strong alignment, predictable execution, and effective collaboration across sites. You will operate in a scaled software delivery environment where multiple teams, product areas, and sometimes multiple Agile Release Trains contribute to the overall delivery of complex Life Sciences solutions. Success in this role requires strong coordination skills, clear understanding of dependencies, and the ability to connect team-level execution with program, portfolio, and product milestones. You will act as a senior delivery lead and trusted partner to global R&D stakeholders, helping define and embed consistent ways of working for software development, project management, and product ownership across local, offshore, and global teams. Position Responsibilities As Senior Project Manager / Senior Product Owner, you will be responsible for: Driving end-to-end delivery of software and module development projects across Life Sciences products, from requirements and planning through execution, validation, release, and sustaining. Acting as the responsible delivery lead for software workstreams, ensuring scope clarity, planning discipline, stakeholder alignment, risk management, dependency management, and high-quality execution. Demonstrating strong agency by proactively identifying delivery paths, clarifying ambiguity, removing blockers, and creating practical options when teams face uncertainty, constraints, or cross-functional complexity. Managing dependencies across teams, functions, sites, suppliers, and, where applicable, Agile Release Trains to ensure that integrated delivery plans remain realistic, visible, and actively governed. Contributing to the build-up of software delivery competence in India by helping define delivery practices, project governance, tools, templates, and collaboration models. Aligning offshore delivery teams with global R&D teams to ensure clear ownership, effective communication, predictable delivery, and strong integration with overall product development plans. Serving as a senior Project Manager or Product Owner for complex, multidisciplinary development initiatives involving software, systems, electronics, mechanical, and hardware engineering teams. Translating business, customer, and product needs into clear priorities, delivery plans, backlog structures, milestones, and execution roadmaps. Facilitating planning, prioritization, review, and decision-making forums with engineering teams, architects, product managers, project leaders, and senior stakeholders. Monitoring delivery progress, identifying risks and impediments, and driving timely resolution in collaboration with project teams and leadership. Supporting effort estimation, capacity planning, dependency tracking, and resource alignment for assigned projects or software workstreams. Using AI-enabled ways of working to improve delivery quality, speed, and clarity, for example in planning analysis, dependency mapping, risk identification, meeting preparation, backlog refinement, documentation, stakeholder communication, and decision support. Promoting consistent ways of working across projects, including Agile, Scrum, SAFe, hybrid project delivery, or other structured development methodologies. Coaching and mentoring project team members, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and engineering stakeholders on effective delivery practices, without direct people management responsibility. Contributing to continuous improvement of project execution, product ownership, software delivery maturity, AI-enabled productivity, and cross-site collaboration. Building strong working relationships with global R&D leaders, portfolio teams, business unit stakeholders, suppliers, and peer teams. Connecting with internal knowledge centers, universities, technology partners, industrial collaborators, and AI-enabled delivery communities to explore and apply state-of-the-art approaches in software, hardware, system development, and project execution. Qualifications We are looking for candidates with strong conceptual thinking, execution focus, and the ability to lead through influence in a multidisciplinary, highly technical global environment. The ideal candidate enjoys driving complex software and product development, building alignment across teams, and enabling high-quality delivery without relying on formal authority. Required qualifications: A university degree, preferably MSc, MTech, PhD, or equivalent, in Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, Electronics, Mechatronics, Physics, Computer Science, or a related technical field. 10+ years of Proven experience in project management, product ownership, software delivery, technical program management, or complex product development. Experience contributing to at least two to three full product or software development cycles, from requirements and design through implementation, validation, release, and sustaining. Strong understanding of software development ways of working, including Agile, Scrum, hybrid project delivery, or comparable methodologies. Experience working in, or strong ability to operate within, scaled software delivery environments where multiple teams or trains contribute to one integrated product, platform, or release. Ability to coordinate and influence multidisciplinary teams across software, systems, mechanical, electrical, and hardware engineering. Experience working with offshore, distributed, or global engineering teams. Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work effectively with senior leaders, global teams, customers, suppliers, and technical experts. Excellent communication, facilitation, influencing, coaching, and conflict-resolution skills. Ability to operate in a global matrix organization and build trusted relationships across cultures, locations, and functions. Practical AI literacy and a demonstrated ability to use AI tools responsibly to improve personal effectiveness, delivery quality, analysis, communication, and team productivity. Preferred qualifications: Experience in highly complex technology industries such as life sciences, semiconductor equipment, medical devices, analytical instruments, industrial automation, aerospace, automotive, or advanced manufacturing. Experience with SAFe or another scaled agile methodology is highly beneficial, especially in environments with multiple teams, complex dependencies, shared milestones, and integrated release planning. Knowledge of Design for Six Sigma, first-time-right development, quality-by-design, or other structured development and continuous improvement methodologies. Experience supporting the setup or scaling of software delivery capability in an offshore or global capability center environment. Experience using AI coworking, code-assist, knowledge-management, or automation tools beyond basic chat-based prompting, with clear use cases relevant to project management, product ownership, or scaled software delivery. Knowledge of Electron Microscopy or other advanced scientific instrumentation is an advantage, but not mandatory. Personal Attributes You are a senior, hands-on delivery professional who leads through expertise, ownership, collaboration, and influence. You are comfortable bringing structure to ambiguity, aligning diverse stakeholders, and driving execution in a complex global R&D environment. You show strong agency: you do not wait passively for perfect inputs, but proactively find the next useful step, clarify options, connect the right people, and help teams move forward with discipline and transparency. You combine strategic thinking with practical delivery discipline and are motivated by building strong ways of working that help teams succeed. You have a modern AI mindset. You understand AI as a practical coworker for improving thinking, execution, and communication, not only as a chat tool. You can identify meaningful AI use cases, apply AI responsibly, validate outputs, protect sensitive information, and use AI to increase the quality and efficiency of project management, product ownership, and scaled delivery. We value colleagues who demonstrate integrity, intensity, innovation, and involvement. Diversity in our teams is essential to creating an effective, inclusive, and challenging working environment where people can grow and deliver their best work. Why Join Us This role offers the opportunity to play a key part in building and shaping software delivery competence in India while working closely with talented global teams. You will contribute to advanced Life Sciences technologies and help deliver solutions that support our mission of enabling customers to make the world cleaner, healthier, and safer.