Sr. Manager, Program Management - QSC, LLC

QSC’s Pro Audio division is seeking an experienced and dynamic Senior Manager of Program Management who will be responsible for managing and mentoring a small team of Program Managers as direct reports, while also providing hands-on Program management for one or more critical development projects. Reporting directly to the VP of Product Development, the successful candidate will be an influential member of the product development leadership team within the Pro Audio division. The role requires someone capable of successfully leading highly skilled, cross-functional teams to on-time and on-budget project completion in a fast-paced and demanding work environment.

Typical responsibilities include overseeing the PMO function, managing shared engineering resources across multiple concurrent programs, tracking and communicating progress of multiple concurrent programs, solving complex problems, facilitating solutions across department boundaries, standardizing processes across different project teams, mentoring staff, driving a sense of urgency and commitment across all programs and generally building excellence into the PMO function.

The position requires the individual to work closely and seamlessly with multiple departments including Engineering, Product Management, Sales, Marketing, Quality, NPI, Supply Chain, offshore Manufacturing, and Executive Leadership. The role requires someone with outstanding communication, leadership, facilitation, organizational and problem-solving skills, in addition to their advanced Program Management experience.

The candidate must be capable of creating and delivering effective communications relevant for all levels of the organization.

Base Salary Range 160,000 – 185,000

The above reflects the pay range that QSC reasonably expects to pay for this role. This pay range also depends on various factors such as job duties and requirements, relevant experience and skills and geographic location. In addition to the base salary range, QSC offers a comprehensive package including but not limited to health benefits, 401K or Roth retirement plans, generous time off and profit sharing

We will be accepting applications until a final candidate is identified.

Program Management:

• Act as a hands-on program manager, leading and driving multiple cross-functional project teams, each with software and SQA dependencies.  Orchestrate and facilitate cross-functional and stakeholder meetings, fostering effective communication and collaboration to ensure cproject milestones are effectively met.
• Manages and prioritizes the work of the multiple project teams by establishing schedules, task assignments, and tracking tasks of team members to maintain forward momentum to ensures deliverables are met.           
• Responsible for simultaneously leading several programs that are relatively diverse in nature.  Ensures that electronic deliverables with software dependencies are aligned.
• Serves as the primary point of contact (POC) with our Contract manufacturing (CM) or Joint-development manufacturing (JDM) partners, facilitating clear and effective communication channels.
• Defines and documents acceptance criteria and test plans with JDM partners
• Responsible for effectively navigating and harmonizing the differing processes and practices of QSC with those of our JDM partners. This involves skilled negotiation, alignment, and collaboration to ensure seamless project execution.
• Uses verbal and written communication skills to convey complex and/or detailed information to multiple individuals/audiences with differing knowledge levels. May require strong negotiation and influence, frequently communication to large groups

Persists in accomplishing objectives despite obstacles and setbacks, mitigates and resolves issues that surface as defined below.

Problem-solving:

• Identify risks and roadblocks then proactively facilitate problem-solving with the team for mitigation to ensure the project is completed as per the expected timeline.
• Escalates issues in a timely manner and proposes corrective action.

• Cultivates a proactive and solutions-oriented mindset within each project team.
• Provides timely communication of any critical concerns - up, down, and across the organization

Tracking & Reporting:

• Tracks and communicates progress of multiple concurrent programs.
• Monitors and manages all key metrics and KPIs pertaining to a program and identifies when metrics deviate significantly from Plan of Record; escalates issues in a timely manner and proposes corrective actions.
• Tracks budgetary spending to measure project successes

• Creates effective communications relevant for all levels of the organization

Leadership & Management: 

• Leads, mentors, and develops a high-performing PMO function.
• Fosters a collaborative and inclusive team culture, encouraging cross-functional teamwork and knowledge sharing.

• Implements rigorous data-integrity practices within the PMO team, ensuring the accuracy and cleanliness of PLM data and deliverables through systematic scrubbing procedures

Process Improvement:

• Assesses current methodologies, identifies and rationalizes gaps vs. best practices and continuously improves processes to increase efficiency in line with the business needs.

Education: 

• B.S. Degree in Engineering, preferably mechanical or Electrical
• Master's Degree in a technical field is a plus
• PMP certification preferred

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of experience as a Program Manager managing large programs in an electronics manufacturing company
• Deep experience in Product development methodologies and best practices, in particular working in an Agile/Scrum environment
• Experience working with operating budgets, resources, and/or project financials
• Experience with both electronics and software development projects
• Strong operational acumen - ability to work well with all levels of internal management and staff, as well as outside suppliers and independent contractors
• Broad experience managing programs that utilize offshore joint-development manufacturing (JDM) and offshore contract manufacturing (CM) resources
• A solid understanding of Quality Assurance (QA) principles, methodologies, and performance metrics.
• Passion for the music/audio industry required
• Experience with audio mixing consoles or other Pro audio equipment is a plus

Knowledge and Skills:

• Superb project and portfolio management skills related to hardware electronics products
• Superior problem solving skills: issue identification, problem structuring, analysis, and developing recommendations
• Analytical Skills - manages complex analyses including collection of information across a variety of sources and identifying fundamental patterns/trends. Manages analyses to identify where an issue has occurred (or may occur) and makes recommendations for how to address the issue/potential issue.
• Strong leadership with the ability to use soft skills to build consensus, skilled at resolving conflicts and disagreements among others
• Strong decision making abilities
• Exceptional facilitation skills, especially across departments
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Office including Project, Excel, PowerPoint
• Proficient in SharePoint and Confluence to implement workflows, streamline business processes and facilitate knowledge sharing.
• Experience with resource management tools (Microsoft PWA/Project Online preferred)