Global Senior Project Leader - Electrical & Data Center

Korn Ferry; Williamsburg (VA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Korn Ferry is assisting in recruiting a Senior Project Manager to lead a portfolio of complex, high-value customer projects across international operations. The role requires accountability for scope, schedule, cost, quality, and safety, while developing and guiding a team of Project Managers across multiple sites.

You will interact with Engineering, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Commercial, and Finance, ensuring projects are delivered on time and within budget.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of project-management experience in industrial, engineering, manufacturing, construction, infrastructure, or engineered-product environments.
• Proven experience leading complex, high-value customer projects from handover through planning, execution, delivery, and closeout.
• Experience managing or leading Project Managers responsible for multiple concurrent projects.
• Strong customer-facing experience, including senior stakeholder engagement, project reviews, issue resolution, negotiation, and escalation management.
• Demonstrated ownership of project financial reporting, including budgeting, forecasting, cost control, cost-to-complete, cash flow, margin, profitability, and change impacts.
• Strong understanding of project governance, scheduling, risk management, change control, contract management, and performance reporting.
• Commercially astute, balancing customer requirements, technical considerations, delivery constraints, and financial objectives.
• Excellent leadership and people-development skills for a project team.
• Excellent communication, problem-solving, negotiation, and decision-making skills.
• Ability to operate effectively with senior management, customers, and cross-functional teams across multiple sites or regions.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering, Project Management, Construction Management, Business, or related discipline, or equivalent experience.
• Fluent English with strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Willingness to travel between sites and customer locations as required.
• Experience in power systems, electrical infrastructure, switchgear, data centers, pharmaceuticals, or comparable engineered sector.
• Experience delivering projects across multiple sites or international operations.
• Knowledge of engineer-to-order or manufacturing project delivery.
• Experience with customer contracts, claims, variations, and commercial negotiations.
• Knowledge of U.S. electrical industry practices, UL standards, NEC codes.
• Recognized project-management certification such as PMP, PRINCE2, or equivalent.
• Experience using project controls, ERP, reporting, or data-analysis tools to improve visibility and forecasting.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end delivery of complex, high-value customer projects, ensuring scope, schedule, cost, quality, safety, and customer expectations are met.
• Provide oversight across multiple concurrent projects, monitoring dependencies, priorities, risks, resources, and overall delivery performance.
• Coach and develop a team of Project Managers, setting expectations and enabling high-quality execution.
• Act as a senior point of contact for customers, leading project reviews, escalations, negotiations, and key delivery discussions.
• Engage with senior leadership and cross-functional stakeholders to provide updates, recommendations, and issue escalation for business decisions.
• Establish and maintain project plans, schedules, milestones, governance routines, and success criteria aligned with commitments.
• Own and report on project and portfolio financial performance, including budgets, forecasts, cash flow, cost-to-complete, margin, and profitability.
• Identify variances and risks early, implementing recovery actions to protect commitments and commercial outcomes.
• Lead contract, scope, and change management with documented variations reflecting in forecasts.
• Coordinate with Engineering, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Commercial, and Finance to align readiness and delivery plans.
• Ensure risks/issues/actions are managed with robust contingency planning and timely escalation.
• Oversee subcontractor, supplier, and external delivery performance with quality, cost, schedule compliance.
• Lead executive and customer project-performance reviews with clear reporting and recommendations.
• Drive project-management standards, reporting discipline, lessons learned, and continuous improvement across the team.
• Ensure compliance with technical, quality, safety, regulatory, contractual, and customer requirements.

Skills

Project management

Leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Financial reporting

Risk management

Contract management

Cross-functional leadership

Vendor management

Communication

Travel readiness

PM certifications

Engineering background

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s in Engineering / PM or related field

Tools

ERP systems

MS Project / Primavera

Data analysis tools

Job description

Korn Ferry is assisting in recruiting a Senior Project Manager to lead a portfolio of complex, high-value customer projects across international operations. The role requires accountability for scope, schedule, cost, quality, and safety, while developing and guiding a team of Project Managers across multiple sites.

You will interact with Engineering, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Commercial, and Finance, ensuring projects are delivered on time and within budget.