Life Sciences Senior Project & Innovation Portfolio Manager

Job Title: Life Sciences Senior Project & Innovation Portfolio Manager

Job Location: Brecksville, OH

Job type: Full-time

Type of role: Hybrid

 

About Lubrizol

The Lubrizol Corporation, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is a specialty chemical company whose science delivers sustainable solutions to advance mobility, improve wellbeing and enhance modern life. Founded in 1928, Lubrizol owns and operates more than 100 manufacturing facilities, sales, and technical offices around the world and has about 8,000 employees. For more information, visit www.Lubrizol.com.

We value diversity in professional backgrounds and life experiences. By enabling a consistent, unbiased, and transparent recruitment process, Lubrizol seeks to create a positive experience for candidates so we can get to know them at their best. We recognize unique work and life situations and offer flexibility, ensuring our employees feel engaged and fulfilled in every aspect of life.

Join Our Thriving Team at Lubrizol as Life Sciences Senior Project & Innovation Portfolio ManagerLife Sciences Senior Project & Innovation Portfolio Manager

Unleash Your Potential. At Lubrizol we're transforming the Life Sciences industry and looking for exceptional talent to join us on this journey. If you are ready to join an international company with talent around the world, and want to make a real impact, we want you on our team.

 

This position enables Lubrizol Life Science’s (“LLS”) Beauty, Home, Pharma & Nutra businesses to drive sustainable growth by taking a critical leadership role in implementing and overseeing the organization’s innovation project portfolio and processes.  Managing innovation projects can be tricky – in order to succeed here, you need to be able to: bring clarity to ambiguity; provide analysis to drive decisions based on tangible indicators of a project’s success; and, build and manage relationships across a complex, global and matrix organization (working with technical, marketing, and commercial teams).

 

More specifically, as the LLS project and portfolio manager, your job is to plan, budget, oversee and document all aspects of the identified strategic Beauty, Home, Pharma & Nutra projects. You will be the hands on team lead for a team of project managers and will work closely with business and technical leadership team members to: identify the scope and direction of each project; ensure projects maintain scope and timelines; and, increase the effectiveness of the portfolio process, guiding the business to improve  innovation success rate. Because this role is both a “player” and “coach” you will be accountable for your own projects, as well as coaching and developing your team and influencing project management effectiveness cross functionally too.  You will also be responsible for project management of some high-impact commercial projects on occasion, using the same skillsets as innovation projects. 

  

What You Will Do: 

• With an understanding of the value proposition for each project (risk/returns) including the marketing plans (positioning, placement, pricing and promotion), defines business results expected from each project, expressing results in terms of quality, time, scope and cost.  
• Establishes, maintains and improves strong operating mechanisms, including tools and processes, to manage and improve the effectiveness of the innovation project portfolio for LLS business segments.
• Develops project plans and implementation plans, including project risk assessments and contingency plans to allow for and accommodate unforeseen events and changes in strategy.
• Leads and coaches the project management team in the overall project planning and execution, balancing scope, schedule and budget; models project management best practices and works to elevate project and portfolio management skills of team through coaching.
• Identifies and onboards new project managers as needed.
• Evaluates risk/reward trade-offs; communicates timely and effectively about risks that could impact objectives and deliverables.  
• Negotiates with resource managers; resolves identified resource limitations. Demonstrates independent decision making.
• Chairs and coordinates portfolio and stage-gate decision board meetings.

 

Skills That Make a Difference:

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university (Bachelor’s in Science degree, preferred)
• Minimum 7 years’ relevant experience in project leadership for large complex projects, with preference for leading projects from innovation to commercialization
• Minimum 5 years’ experience working within a matrix organization
• Accomplished in leading organizational change
• Experience co