Pharma Operational Readiness Lead for Facility Startups

Blackfield Associates; Indiana; On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Blackfield Associates are seeking an Operational Readiness Project Manager for a 12-month contract based in Indiana. You will lead readiness strategies, coordinate cross-functional teams, and drive schedules across engineering, facilities, automation, quality, and EHS to ensure timely startup and handover.

Strong PM, risk management, and stakeholder engagement are required. Experience in pharmaceutical facility startups and readiness programs is highly desirable.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical field.
• Experience in project management within pharmaceutical/regulated environments.
• Experience supporting operational readiness, facility startups, commissioning, qualification, or large-scale capital projects.
• Strong understanding of PM principles, readiness methodologies, and startup planning.
• Experience coordinating multidisciplinary teams across engineering, operations, automation, quality, facilities, and EHS functions.
• Proven ability to develop integrated schedules, manage priorities, and drive execution in fast-paced projects.
• Strong risk management, problem-solving, and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Experience with scheduling/tracking tools such as Smartsheet or equivalents.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and execution of operational readiness strategies to support facility startup and handover.
• Partner with site leadership and cross-functional teams to define readiness requirements, deliverables, and plans.
• Develop and maintain integrated readiness schedules aligned with milestones.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams to ensure timely readiness execution.
• Provide status updates, metrics, and reporting to stakeholders and site leadership.
• Identify risks, mitigate, and drive actions to achieve project objectives.
• Support startup processes, business systems, procedures, training plans, and organizational readiness initiatives.
• Drive continuous improvement of readiness frameworks and tools.
• Facilitate stakeholder alignment, issue resolution, and decision-making across functions.
• Promote project management best practices and guide readiness teams.

Skills

Project management

Stakeholder engagement

Risk management

Scheduling

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Chemistry, Life Sciences, or related technical discipline

Tools

Smartsheet

Job description

Blackfield Associates are seeking an Operational Readiness Project Manager for a 12-month contract based in Indiana. You will lead readiness strategies, coordinate cross-functional teams, and drive schedules across engineering, facilities, automation, quality, and EHS to ensure timely startup and handover.

Strong PM, risk management, and stakeholder engagement are required. Experience in pharmaceutical facility startups and readiness programs is highly desirable.