Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. The company is a contract manufacturing and packaging provider serving CPG, food and beverage, and healthcare brands across North America and Europe. The Project and Bid Manager will lead new-business quotation and approval processes and manage projects from opportunity assessment through procurement, installation, validation, ramp-up, and stable launch. The role coordinates cross-functional teams, develops customer solutions, assesses risks and investments, and supports customer growth.
Responsibilities
- Own the quotation process for new business in the US, keeping inputs complete, consistent, traceable, and ready for commercial and P and L review
- Build direct labor assumptions from process definitions, time calculations, line balance, staffing, shift patterns, efficiencies, and ramp-up expectations
- Define operational and warehouse space requirements, layouts, utilities, material flows, storage concepts, and resourcing
- Coordinate supplier inputs across materials, equipment, tooling, services, and logistics
- Build startup, validation, training, waste, working capital, contingency, and ramp-up assumptions to fit the scope
- Prepare total cost and profitability inputs including pricing logic, margin considerations, CAPEX, depreciation, and investment payback
- Pull proposal inputs together from Procurement, Operations, Finance, Quality, Engineering, R and D, Planning, IT, Supply Chain, and Commercial
- Prepare and, where needed, co-lead internal opportunity development and approval reviews
- Translate customer requirements into an executable process flow, operating concept, layout, capacity model, and equipment and tooling scope
- Prepare investment estimates and technical assessments based on scope, complexity, volume, regulatory needs, and implementation risk
- Assess feasibility, capacity, automation opportunities, resource constraints, quality and supply risks, and operational readiness
- Define facility and building requirements in line with local law, company policy, applicable standards, and customer requirements
- Maintain risk assessments, assumption logs, decision records, technical documentation, and project databases
- Provide technical support on new equipment, machines, automation, tooling, technologies, and site development
- Lead new-business projects covering new customers, items, machines, technologies, lines, operating models, or sites from approval through stable launch
- Own the project charter, scope, deliverables, budget, milestones, critical path, resource plan, and governance cadence
- Coordinate procurement, installation, commissioning, qualification and validation, trials, training, readiness reviews, and production ramp-up
- Spot issues early, build mitigation and recovery plans, and escalate deviations appropriately both internally and to customers
- Deliver a controlled handover to Operations with agreed performance criteria, documentation, ownership, and open actions closed
- Provide weekly status reporting on progress, cost, risks, decisions, actions, and outlook
- Lead or support customer discovery, technical reviews, solution workshops, plant tours, proposal presentations, and startup governance meetings
- Distill customer needs, challenge unclear assumptions constructively, and shape practical solutions
- Navigate complex customer organizations and build credibility with operational, technical, procurement, finance, and executive stakeholders
- Support strategic account planning, retention, account growth, and annual growth or pricing objectives
- Monitor the contract manufacturing and packaging market for relevant changes, risks, technologies, and opportunities
- Support automation roadmap development for assigned plants where it connects to customer solutions
- Lead through influence across distributed, multi-site, cross-functional teams
- Work independently, prioritize competing opportunities, and apply sound commercial and technical judgment
- Lead internal and customer reviews at operational, functional, and executive levels
- Where assigned, lead and develop costing and project management team members
- Promote consistent RFQ, costing, governance, and startup practices across the region
Skills
- 5 or more years in contract manufacturing and/or contract packaging
- 5 or more years in CPG / FMCG, Food and Beverage, Healthcare, medical device, or another regulated manufacturing or packaging environment
- Demonstrated ownership of RFQ, RFP, quotation, or solution costing processes, not general project coordination alone
- Hands-on experience translating customer requirements into process, labor, layout, equipment and tooling, capacity, investment, risk, cost, and profitability assumptions
- Proven end-to-end delivery of new products, customers, lines, technologies, facilities, or manufacturing transfer and startup programs
- Strong project management background covering budgets, schedules, cross-functional teams, risk mitigation, governance, and escalation
- Strong financial and commercial understanding: costing, margin and P and L logic, CAPEX, budgets, investment decisions, and productivity or cost reduction delivery
- Customer-facing experience developing solutions, presenting recommendations, and supporting wins, growth, retention, or expansion
- Fluency across manufacturing, packaging and co-packing, warehousing, procurement, planning, quality, logistics, and supply chain
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in engineering, operations, supply chain, business, or a related field
- Approximately 20% travel, primarily domestic with occasional international
- Comfortable working across multiple sites, time zones, functions, and customer organizations
- Working knowledge of ISO, GMP, FDA, USDA, food safety, food defense, validation, design control, CAPA, or comparable regulated requirements
- Experience with shared, dedicated, in-plant, or in-distribution-center contract packaging and manufacturing models
- Lean, Six Sigma, continuous improvement, OEE, standard work, SMED, PDCA, or structured productivity experience
- Experience with automation, equipment acquisition, manufacturing transfers, site expansions, or facility startups
- Experience with ERP, WMS, TMS, project management, or costing systems
- The role may involve prolonged standing or walking, climbing, stooping or kneeling, and lifting or positioning loads up to 35 pounds, subject to applicable accommodation
Company Overview