PPI & Digital Project Manager

Work Schedule

Standard (Mon-Fri)

Environmental Conditions

Office

Job Description

DESCRIPTION

Join the PPI Digital Transformation organization at Thermo Fisher Scientific as a Digital Project Manager, where you will be responsible for the end-to-end delivery of digital initiatives across manufacturing sites.

In this role, you will translate business and operational needs into executable digital projects, coordinating cross-functional teams that include Data Engineering, Data Science, IIoT, IT, Automation, and site stakeholders.

You will own execution, planning, risk management, and change management for assigned initiatives, ensuring that solutions are delivered safely, compliantly, and with verified business impact.

The position operates in a multi-site, matrix environment and works in close collaboration with technical domain leads and senior technical experts, while reporting directly to the PPI Digital Transformation leadership.

Strong stakeholder management, execution discipline, and focus on value realization are critical for success.

Key Responsibilities

Digital Project Delivery

• Manage the full lifecycle of assigned digital initiatives, from opportunity framing through deployment and value realization.
• Translate business needs into clear project charters, scope, milestones, resource plans, and success criteria, using PPI and Lean principles.
• Build and maintain detailed project plans, RAID logs, and status reporting; proactively identify risks and define mitigation actions.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams and external partners to ensure on-time, on-budget, and in-scope delivery.

Digital Roadmap & Portfolio Support

• Support the prioritization and sequencing of digital use cases in alignment with site strategy, PPI targets, and divisional roadmaps.
• Provide visibility on capacity, dependencies, and constraints across parallel initiatives to enable realistic planning.
• Contribute to annual and multi-year digital planning activities.

Business Case & Benefits Realization

• Develop robust business cases for digital initiatives in collaboration with site functions.
• Track benefits using a bottom-up approach aligned with site PPI savings plans.
• Define and monitor KPIs for each initiative; ensure benefits are validated with Finance and business owners.
• Provide accurate input to digital and PPI performance reviews and dashboards.

Stakeholder Engagement & Change Management

• Act as the primary point of contact for assigned digital initiatives at site level.
• Lead change management activities, including stakeholder mapping, communication plans, training coordination, and adoption tracking.
• Facilitate workshops, Kaizens, and design sessions to define current state, future state, and implementation roadmaps.
• Ensure digital solutions are embedded into standard work and PPI routines, avoiding isolated pilots without sustained adoption.

Governance, Compliance & Standards

• Apply divisional PPI & Digital governance models, standards, and templates consistently.
• Ensure alignment with IT/OT architecture, cybersecurity, data standards, and validation requirements.
• Coordinate with IT, OT, and Data & Analytics teams to ensure data quality and compliance with GxP, data integrity, and privacy requirements.

Site & Collaboration Model

The role supports digital initiatives across multiple manufacturing sites, operating in a distributed, cross-site model and collaborating with stakeholders across EU and APAC locations. Occasional travel to sites may be required.

REQUIREMENTS

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Life Sciences, Business, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in project management, continuous improvement, operations, or digital transformation roles within manufacturing or regulated environments.
• Proven experience delivering digital, automation, data/analytics, or manufacturing IT initiatives.
• Strong project management skills, including scope definition, planning, stakeholder management, and risk control.
• Solid understanding of GMP manufacturing and quality processes.
• Fluency in English and Italian.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a relevant field.
• Experience in pharmaceutical, biotech, CDMO, or other highly regulated industries.
• Familiarity with MES, LIMS, historians, data platforms, and BI tools.
• Experience with Agile or hybrid delivery approaches.
• Lean / Six Sigma / PPI certification (Green Belt or equivalent).
• Formal project management certification (PMP, PRINCE2).
• Change management certification (e.g. PROSCI).

Key Competencies & Soft Skills

• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills across all organizational levels.
• Ability to work effectively in a matrix and cross-functional environment.
• Structured, analytical, and results-oriented mindset.
• Ability to balance execution discipline with flexibility and “test & learn” approaches.
• High learning agility and curiosity toward digital technologies and new ways of working.
• Strong commitment to safety, quality, compliance, and company values.

Additional Information

• Travel may be required (up to 30%).