Senior Project Manager

Job Description

Position Summary

Reporting to the Director of Marketing, the
Senior Project Manager
is responsible for leading complex, high-impact, cross-functional initiatives that drive strategic growth across branded and private label portfolios within the food CPG category. This role oversees project planning, execution, commercialization, and post-launch evaluation while guiding cross-functional teams and ensuring alignment with corporate, marketing, and product roadmaps. The Senior Project Manager is a seasoned operator who brings structure, foresight, and strategic judgment to fast-paced environments, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders, anticipate challenges, and facilitate decision-making.

The ideal candidate has deep experience managing CPG project lifecycles—from concept through commercialization—within food manufacturing environments. They demonstrate leadership, cross-functional mastery, operational excellence, and the ability to drive continuous improvement across processes and teams.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Project Leadership

• Own the oversight and delivery of complex, multi-phase CPG projects—including innovation, renovation, packaging changes, private label development, and process improvements—from initiation through commercialization and handoff to brand teams.
• Lead strategic scoping, prioritization, and resourcing discussions with Marketing, R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, and Executive Leadership.
• Establish and manage project governance structures, including stage-gate documentation, risk registers, resource plans, projections and critical-path timelines.
• Ensure all regulatory, packaging, quality, and compliance requirements are built into project plans specific to food CPG product development.

Advanced Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Serve as a senior liaison between Marketing, Sales, R&D, Quality Assurance, Procurement, Operations, and external co-manufacturers or suppliers.
• Facilitate alignment across competing priorities, ensuring cross-functional clarity, accountability, and timely decision-making.
• Present recommendations, trade-offs, and resource needs to key stakeholders to remove bottlenecks and enable project velocity.

Co-Manufacturing Project Leadership

• Lead all project management activities related to co-manufacturing opportunities, serving as the primary interface between internal teams and external partners.
• Evaluate co-manufacturing feasibility by coordinating with R&D, QA, Operations, Procurement, Finance, and Sales to assess technical, financial, and operational fit.
• Drive onboarding, capability assessments, trials, scale-up plans, and commercialization activities with co-manufacturers.
• Manage timelines, deliverables, risk mitigation, and communication to ensure seamless integration of co-manufactured products into the company's portfolio.
• Serve as the escalation point for resolving issues related to formulations, specs, sourcing, production capacity, or quality during third-party manufacturing.

Commercialization & Operational Excellence

• Lead commercialization milestones including pilot runs, sensory evaluations, product cuttings, shelf-life testing, packaging reviews, and launch readiness.
• Identify operational challenges early and partner with Supply Chain & Ops to ensure feasibility, cost targets, and manufacturing readiness.
• Support Sales and Marketing teams with launch materials, pricing alignment, customer presentations, and retailer-specific requirements.

Process Optimization & Continuous Improvement

• Analyze existing project management processes and implement enhancements to improve speed-to-market, cross-functional coordination, and documentation quality.
• Build and maintain standardized tools, templates, dashboards, and best practices for the project management function.
• Mentor junior project managers and project coordinators, providing guidance and supporting capability development across the team.

Risk Management & Strategic Problem Solving

• Anticipate risks related to timelines, cost targets, ingredient availability, regulatory shifts, or operational constraints—propose clear mitigation strategies.
• Lead change management activities, ensuring scope adjustments and implications are communicated and agreed upon across leadership teams.
• Capture lessons learned and drive organizational learning to prevent recurrence of systemic issues.

Communication, Reporting & Executive Visibility

• Deliver polished, data-driven updates to senior leadership, highlighting progress, risks, mitigation actions, and strategic dependencies.
• Develop executive-ready presentations, dashboards, and KPIs to track portfolio-level project health.
• Serve as the communication hub, ensuring transparency and alignment at all stages of the project lifecycle.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Operations, or related experience; MBA or PMP certification is preferred.
• 7+ years of project management experience
  within the
  CPG industry
  , with a strong preference for food and beverage product development.
• Demonstrated experience managing commercialization cycles, stage-gate processes, and cross-functional initiatives in branded and private label environments.
• Strong familiarity with Nielsen, IRI, or other syndicated data, category insights, retail trends, and customer-specific requirements.
• Proficient in project management tools (e.g., MS Project, Smartsheet, Asana) and advanced Microsoft Office Suite, especially PowerPoint and Excel.
• Experience influencing senior stakeholders and navigating complex organizational structures.
• Prior experience working with co-manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, and regulatory/quality teams in food manufacturing is a significant asset.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong strategic thinking with the ability to connect project work to broader business objectives.
• Exceptional leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills across all organizational levels.
• Highly analytical, with strong problem-solving skills and the ability to make data-informed decisions under pressure.
• Strong financial acumen, with experience evaluating cost scenarios, margins, and resource allocations.
• Expert organizational skills with the ability to lead multiple high-priority projects simultaneously.
• High degree of professionalism, confidentiality, resilience, and emotional intelligence.
• Comfortable leading in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with evolving priorities and tight deadlines.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Applicants must be legally entitled to work in Canada.
• We thank all applicants; however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.
• Summer Fresh Salads welcomes and encourages applications from individuals with disabilities. Accommodation is available upon request for candidates to take part in all aspects of the selection process.