Program Manager

Position Summary:

The Program Manager is a highly visible, hands-on role responsible for leading cross-functional programs from initial concepts through Post-Launch. Working across R&D, Marketing, Packaging, Regulatory, Quality, Operations, Supply Chain, Sales, Finance, and other functional teams, this position drives alignment, execution, risk management, and accountability throughout the product development lifecycle.

The Program Manager will lead domestic and international new product development, commercialization, front-end innovation, business support, and select merchandising display programs using Carma Laboratories’ Stage Gate processes. This role owns integrated program schedules, facilitates cross-functional decision-making, proactively identifies risks and resource constraints, and keeps teams aligned to approved scope, timing, cost, quality, and business objectives.

The Program Manager partners with the Senior Manager of Program Management and functional business leaders to support portfolio prioritization, resource capacity planning, product roadmaps, process governance, and continuous improvement in support of corporate goals and objectives.

This is a 100% hands-on role requiring someone who is equally comfortable building a detailed program plan, facilitating a cross-functional team, driving accountability without direct authority, and communicating program risks and recommendations to senior leadership.

Reports to: Senior Manager of Program Management

Functional Responsibilities:

• Collaborates with program sponsors, the Senior Manager of Program Management, organizational leadership, and senior cross-functional representatives to define program scope, user and business requirements, deliverables, resources, resource demand versus capacity, schedule, budget, success measures, and timing for new initiatives.

• Leads programs from initial planning through execution and closeout, ensuring work is completed within approved scope, timing, budget, quality standards, and Stage Gate requirements.

• Independently develops and maintains detailed, integrated program schedules that define activities, sequencing, dependencies, decision points, milestones, critical paths, and functional commitments.

• Establishes and maintains effective program governance, including meeting cadence, agendas, decision and action tracking, program documentation, schedule updates, lessons learned, and timely stakeholder communications.

• Schedules and facilitates cross-functional core team meetings and working sessions; drives clear decisions, ownership, commitments, dependencies, due dates, and follow-through.

• Drives cross-functional accountability through influence rather than direct authority and escalates unresolved barriers, resource conflicts, decisions, and risks at the appropriate time and level.

• Proactively identify, assess, document, and manage program risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies, and opportunities using risk-based project and program management methods.

• Monitors program progress and performance, recommends corrective actions, and revises plans through documented change-control practices when approved scope, timing, resources, cost, or requirements change.

• Provides concise, decision-oriented program updates to the Senior Manager of Program Management and presents program status, tradeoffs, risks, recommendations, and required decisions to senior management as appropriate.

• Supports portfolio planning and prioritization by evaluating resource demand, capacity constraints, dependencies, risks, costs, strategic alignment, and business priorities; provides data-driven recommendations to Program Management and functional leadership.

• Partners with functional leaders to identify and secure appropriate team resources, financial requirements, capital needs, and specialized capabilities for prioritized programs.

• Leads or supports resource demand and capacity assessments and communicates current constraints, forecasted gaps, and proposed mitigation plans to management.

• Works directly with Finance to ensure program financial requirements, including P&Ls, COGS, margin assessments, budgets, and performance metrics, are current and incorporated into team reviews and decisions.

• Reviews program deliverables and outcomes with cross-functional teams to verify they meet agreed requirements, program standards, quality expectations, and Executive Leadership Team expectations.

• Provides timely, constructive feedback to cross-functional team members, reinforces effective team behaviors, recognizes wins, and raises recurring performance or process concerns through the appropriate functional leadership channels.

• Partners with the Senior Manager of Program Management, R&D leadership, and cross-functional teams to strengthen collaboration, trust, transparent discussion, disciplined problem solving, and solution-oriented behaviors.

• Recommends and implements improvements to program management, Stage Gate, commercialization, ideation, governance, portfolio, resource planning, and metric-tracking processes.

• Develops and maintains program tools, templates, records, histories, dashboards, training materials, and process documentation to support consistent execution, knowledge transfer, and organizational learning.

• Ensures new program participants receive appropriate orientation to program objectives, roles, responsibilities, governance expectations, tools, and relevant Carma Laboratories policies and practices.

• Leads or supports brainstorming, core team development, process training, and other working sessions as needed.