Project Manager, Product Development

Refeyn Ltd; Oxford; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 55,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Salary £45k–£55k per year

Company bonus scheme

25 days annual leave

Employer matched pension (up to 7%)

Private health insurance

Job summary

Refeyn Ltd is seeking a Project Manager to join the PMO and own end-to-end programmes within a growing development portfolio, interfacing with R&D, Operations, Quality and Commercial. You will manage scope, schedule and risk with clear ownership and governance in a matrix organisation.

You will translate strategy into executable workstreams, drive cross-functional accountability, and ensure stage-gate readiness and design control activities are tightly managed across regulatory environments.

Qualifications

• Experience delivering in a matrix organisation.
• Familiarity with stage-gate development and design control fundamentals (V&V, change control).
• Ability to discuss with R&D specialists and manage cross-functional teams.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills for both bench scientists and senior leadership.
• Proficiency with project/portfolio tooling and disciplined status/risk tracking.
• Smartsheet experience is an advantage.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end project plans for assigned development programmes from concept through launch with defined stage gates.
• Translate strategy into executable workstreams and sequence delivery against priorities and dependencies.
• Drive cross-functional accountability across R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Quality, Regulatory and Product Management.
• Manage scope, schedule, budget and risk with a single source of truth for status and critical path.
• Coordinate design control activities ensuring documentation, verification and validation are planned in a regulated environment.
• Support engagement with external partners and suppliers including cadence, deliverables and escalation.
• Run governance: steering reviews, gate decisions, status reporting and minutes for alignment of leads and stakeholders.
• Identify blockers and manage dependencies to avoid critical path delays.
• Contribute to PMO standards, templates and ways of working across the portfolio.

Skills

Influence delivery

Stage-gate process

V&V familiarity

Design transfer

Change control

Stakeholder management

Project tooling

Smartsheet

Tools

Smartsheet

Job description

Refeyn is scaling its mass photometry platform from a research instrument into a bioprocessing-grade analytical capability. That ambition runs through a growing portfolio of development programmes across instrument, consumables and software, each with its own dependencies, readiness gates and stakeholders.

We are looking for a Project Manager to join the Project Management Office (PMO) and take ownership of programmes within that portfolio, working at the interface of R&D, Operations, Quality and Commercial. You will own delivery end-to-end, ensuring each programme reaches its gates with clear ownership, controlled cost and managed cross-workstream dependencies.

This is a delivery-focused role in a matrix organisation. You will not have direct authority over the functional specialists you coordinate. Your impact comes from structure, accountability and clear communication.

Primary responsibilities for this role include:

• Own end-to-end project plans for assigned development programmes, from concept through to launch, with defined stage gates and readiness criteria at each phase.
• Translate strategy into executable workstreams, sequencing delivery against our priority domains and their technical dependencies.
• Drive cross-functional accountability across R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Quality and Regulatory, and Product Management.
• Manage scope, schedule, budget and risk, maintaining a single source of truth for status, dependencies and critical path. Surface trade-offs early to leadership.
• Coordinate design control activities where applicable, ensuring documentation, verification and validation are planned and on track for a regulated environment.
• Support engagement with external partners and suppliers, including cadence, deliverables and escalation.
• Run effective governance: steering reviews, gate decisions, status reporting and minutes, keeping functional leads and senior stakeholders aligned.
• Identify and remove blockers, anticipating dependency conflicts across workstreams before they hit the critical path.
• Contribute to the development of PMO standards, templates and ways of working, applying them consistently across the portfolio.

We are ideally looking for someone with the following skills and experience:

• Track record of working in a matrix organisation, securing delivery through influence rather than direct authority.
• Strong grasp of a stage-gate or phase-gate development process, and familiarity with design control fundamentals (V&V, design transfer, change control).
• Enough technical comfort to support estimates, interrogate risk and hold a credible conversation with R&D specialists.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication: direct, structured and clear, able to brief both bench scientists and senior leadership.
• Fluency with project and portfolio tooling and a disciplined approach to status, risk and dependency tracking.
• Smartsheet experience would be an advantage but is teachable

Why work for Refeyn?

Compensation and core benefits

• We anticipate a salary between £45,000 and £55,000 for this role, depending on candidate experience
• Company bonus scheme
• 25 days annual leave per year in addition to bank holidays
• Up to 7% employer matched pension contribution
• Private health insurance from day one plus Medicash, critical illness cover, income protection and life insurance
• Give as You Earn and Cycle to Work salary sacrifice schemes.
• Annual Company and Individual bonus scheme
• Paid volunteer day each year

Family Friendly Benefits

Refeyn offers YellowNest Nursery Scheme to all employees once probation is passed, and new parents can benefit from up to 17 weeks fully paid maternity, adoption and shared parental leave, 4 weeks fully paid paternity leave, plus an annual allowance for emergency childcare.

Supporting your Development

All employees receive access to Linkedin Learning which offers thousands of courses to support their personal and professional development. We also run frequent training sessions on both hard and soft skills.

Creating an Engaging Culture

Refeyn supports hybrid working where the role allows and offers flexible start and finish times. We also have a subsidised weekly lunch for onsite employees and a vibrant social calendar which includes holiday parties and midsummer festivals plus an annual team budget for managers to plan team-building activities.

Values-Led

Refeyn is committed to celebrating each other’s differences and creating a dynamic, driven and diverse culture where everyone can flourish. We are proud to have been awarded Committed Status by the Inclusive Employers Standard in 2024 and are working hard to create a safe and empowering environment for all.

We firmly believe that there is great strength in building teams with different voices, experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds so that we can continue to share the team workload and enable our customers to succeed, and we welcome applicants from all sections of society to join us on our mission to advance discovery through innovation.

Expected Interview Plan

• Initial Teams call with a member of the PMO team (30 minutes)
• Onsite panel interview with a case study and site tour (90 minutes)
• Final call with Chief Product and Marketing Officer (30 minutes)

Refeyn is proud to use anonymised hiring practices. Identifying information such as a candidate's name, email address, date of birth and photo will not be visible to the hiring manager when they review CVs.

Applications will be reviewed week commencing 07 September.