Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Nortek Data Center Cooling provides data center cooling solutions and is seeking a Vice President of Program Management. This executive will lead custom and configurable development and production programs across their full lifecycle, coordinating cross-functional teams to deliver customer, financial, schedule, quality, and commissioning commitments. The role also establishes scalable program governance, risk management, portfolio analytics, contract oversight, and organizational development practices.
Responsibilities
- Own end-to-end program health from opportunity identification through completion of product commissioning, ensuring all commitments established during the PAR, customer quotation, technical submittal, and budgeting processes are achieved
- Manage the cross-functional team to schedule with a relentless focus on critical-path items, driving flawless execution of development and production programs that exceed customer expectations for on-time delivery, quality, service, and sustainability
- Establish structured workflows for project kickoff, engineering release, drawing approval cycles, long-lead procurement, fabrication, assembly, testing, customer acceptance, installation, and commissioning
- Continuously refine program execution practices to reduce rework, minimize delays caused by engineering changes, and improve cross-functional predictability
- Define program intake and scoping processes that incorporate feasibility assessments, technical requirements, material constraints, and manufacturing capacity considerations
- Implement a robust program risk management process that establishes clear methodologies, governance, and expectations for Program Managers across all programs
- Deploy a standardized risk identification, escalation, and mitigation process across all major programs, targeting a 90% on-time closure rate for critical risks
- Maintain executive visibility to top program risks through monthly reviews and prevent significant schedule, cost, quality, or customer impacts resulting from unmanaged risks
- Ensure every high-risk issue has a documented mitigation plan and appropriate executive visibility
- Accountable for the financial health of the program and for program-level P&L execution and customer commitments—delivering revenue, margin, cost, cash, schedule, change orders, and overall program performance. Sales remains responsible for pricing strategy
- Ensure all financial commitments established during the deal model, quotation, contract negotiation, and budgeting processes are achieved, with Sales leading customer negotiation and pricing strategy
- Manage change orders, warranty exposure, and cash flow throughout the program lifecycle while proactively identifying and mitigating risks to profitability
- Partner with Commercial, Finance, Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, and Service teams to drive cost, schedule, and scope decisions that maximize both customer satisfaction and business performance
- Own the contract governance processes that provide visibility to key obligations, risks, change orders, opportunities, and customer commitments to optimize profitability and reduce contractual risk
- Ensure Service has visibility to installation schedules and customer requirements
- Ensure field resources, parts, and support plans are aligned with program commitments
- Coordinate and escalate warranty issues, field modifications, or customer concerns
- Track financial and customer impacts associated with post-delivery issues
- Remain engaged whenever there are material issues impacting customer commitments, schedule, economics, or customer satisfaction; support formal handoff to Service when programs are running smoothly
- Develop real-time dashboards that track critical ETO and NPD program indicators—engineering release progress, procurement status for long-lead items, fabrication readiness, machine/line capacity, and shop-floor schedule adherence
- Implement portfolio dashboards that visualize backlog health, load vs. capacity, customer delivery commitments, and risk areas across concurrent custom programs
- Collaborate with Engineering, Supply Chain, Production, Service, and Finance to consolidate data into a single source of truth for program performance, resource demand, and material readiness
- Ensure dashboards highlight bottlenecks—overdue drawings, supplier delays, part shortages, manufacturing constraints, and field/commissioning issues—to support proactive decision-making
- By year-end, build and develop a high-performing Program Management organization capable of successfully managing 100% of Nortek DCC development and production programs
- Establish standardized processes and templates for program execution, program-level P&L management, contract management, and risk management
- Manage, coach, and mentor Program Managers and cross-functional contributors to ensure consistent, high-quality program execution
- Foster a culture of accountability, proactive communication, and continuous improvement across the program organization
- Represent Program Management at the executive level, partnering with peers across Engineering, Operations, Commercial, Supply Chain, Finance, and Service to shape enterprise strategy and priorities
Skills
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, or related discipline; advanced degree preferred
- 12+ years of progressive experience in program or project management, including significant executive leadership responsibility over multi-program portfolios
- Demonstrated success owning program-level P&L execution, contract governance, and customer commitments on large, complex capital-equipment programs
- Proven success building, leading, and scaling program management organizations in a fast-growth environment
- Strong command of program management methodologies, governance frameworks, and tools (e.g., Monday.com, Microsoft Project, PLM systems)
- Deep experience managing complex, cross-functional new product development and engineer-to-order production programs, including installation and commissioning coordination
- Exceptional executive communication skills, with the ability to influence at every level of the organization and directly with customers
- Highly persuasive, proactive, adaptable, and capable of leading through change
- Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills across technical, commercial, operational, and service teams
- Ability to understand, adopt, and drive new technologies and processes
- Thrives in a fast-paced environment; able to prioritize, manage multiple initiatives, and consistently meet deadlines
- Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification or equivalent
- Experience establishing or leading an enterprise PMO or program governance function at scale
- Direct experience with engineered-to-order products, specifically large business-to-business sales of capital equipment
- Experience supporting hyperscale data center customers or other rapidly scaling B2B end markets
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