PMO Manager

Ventura Foods; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 109,000 - 172,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Prescription, Dental, Vision

Profit Sharing and 401(k) matching

Paid Vacation, Sick Time, Holidays

Employee Appreciation Events

Annual bonus

Job summary

Ventura Foods is seeking a PMO Manager in Irvine, CA to lead critical programs across manufacturing and commercialization initiatives. You will drive project planning, governance, and execution with cross-functional teams and senior leadership alignment.

The role requires 5+ years in project management within a CPG environment, strong process-improvement skills, and proficiency with PM tools such as MS Project. Travel up to 20% and close collaboration with site leadership are expected.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree preferred; in lieu of a degree, 8+ years of relevant experience.
• 5+ years of project management experience in a CPG/manufacturing environment highly desirable.
• PMP or MBA preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead all aspects of a project from planning to hand-off with defined scope, schedule, budget, and risk plan.
• Mentor and manage the project team and stakeholders; ensure resources and allocations.
• Develop and present detailed project plans and status updates for leadership up to CEO.
• Drive ongoing process improvement and change management across functions.
• Travel up to 20%.

Skills

Project management

People management

PM software

Process improvement

Stakeholder communication

Education

Bachelor's degree preferred

PMP or MBA preferred

Tools

MS Project

Job description

PMO Manager

Location: Irvine, CA, US, 92618

Position Summary:

Project Managers are responsible for the management and execution of the company's most critical projects, ensuring that they are delivered on time, within budget and to the company's expectations. Projects will include strategic initiatives, commercialization projects, execution of Capex projects, and initiative spanning multiple manufacturing facilities. In addition to project execution, this role will support process improvement, change management, and systems integrations.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Project Management: Responsible for all aspects of a project from the planning stage, through execution and final hand-off to the process or functional owner. Partners with business lead to define project scope, minimum viable product, schedule, budget, and risk mitigation plan involving all relevant stakeholders and ensuring technical feasibility and managing changes.
• People Management: Creates a working environment that allows everyone to work to the best of their abilities. Successfully manages the relationship with the project team and all stakeholders. Ensures resource availability and allocation. Providing mentorship/training to project leads outside of PMO. Shares best practices to increase organizational efficiency and nimbleness.
• Visibility Management: Measures project performance using appropriate tools and techniques. This includes writing up all project documentation, submitting progress reports to stakeholders and senior managers and setting the standards and methodology to be used in a project as aligned with the Project Management Office processes, reports and escalates to management as needed, in accordance with the Project Management Office escalation protocol. Develops a detailed project plan to monitor and track progress of the team(s). Prepares materials for and facilitate senior leadership team project reviews, up to the CEO, depending on project scope.
• Ongoing Improvement: Utilizing manufacturing, operations, and commercialization process knowledge, provide guidance and recommendations to functional business leads on the handling of complex projects and processes including facilitation of kaizens, development of process maps, value stream maps, RACIs, risk mitigation plans, and communication plans.
• Travel up to 20%

Education and Experience:

Bachelor's degree preferred; in lieu of a degree, a minimum of 8 years of relevant experience is required.

5+ years of project management experience within a CPG environment highly desirable. Experience managing end-to-end business processes within a manufacturing environment preferred.

• PMP or MBA preferred.
• Experience in process engineering, commercialization, innovation, product life cycle management (PLM) or technical project management experience is a plus.
• Strategic planning and business transformation experience highly preferred.

Strong proficiency in project management methodologies and software required.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Proven working experience in project management in the consumer products and food sectors preferred.
• Solid technical background with understanding and/or hands‑on experience in new and existing product launches, capital projects, process and continuous improvement projects, infrastructure and operational IT projects.
• Demonstrated ability to independently develop project plans, define workstreams and milestones, manage dependencies, and drive project execution with minimal guidance.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong project management skillset including experience with PM software, PM methodologies, and project/process tools (e.g.: MS Project or equivalent).
• Project & Portfolio Management (PPM) or Activity Management systems expertise and experience preferred.
• Solid organizational skills including attention to detail and multi-tasking skills.
• Sound business and financial acumen with strong understanding of operational cost factors /analysis. (ROI, IRR, ROTA, etc).

Why Join Us:

Ventura Foods innovates and manufactures food solutions for foodservice and retail businesses. We make exclusive products for the world's most iconic restaurants and retailers, we provide ready‑to‑go product solutions for professional kitchens, and we make consumer brands everyone knows and loves. When you work for Ventura Foods, you get a strong foundation of training, a manager who cares about you and celebrates your success, a safe environment, and challenging work. As part of our team, your future is limited only by how much you’re willing to push yourself to get there. We invest in your growth because you invest in ours.

Ventura Foods offers career growth opportunities as well as competitive compensation and benefits:

• Medical, Prescription, Dental, & Vision – coverage beginning on your 1st day for eligible employees
• Profit Sharing and 401(k) matching (after eligible criteria is met)
• Paid Vacation, Sick Time, and Holidays
• Employee Appreciation Events and Employee Assistance Programs
• Salary Base Range of$109,060.95-$171,773.09*
• Annual bonus (based on the incentive program terms and conditions)

*The “base salary range” provided above is a good faith estimate of what we expect to pay for this position in the specified markets. Ventura Foods reserves the right to pay outside of the given range based on a variety of factors including but not limited to: candidate skills and experience, complexity of the job, budgetary factors, and location/geography. Ventura Foods conducts regular reviews of compensation ranges and therefore reserves the right to alter this range at any given time.

Our Culture

Our Culture reflects our commitment to treating every employee with respect and creating an environment where people can do their best work. We rely on a variety of strengths, backgrounds, and experiences across our teams to help us innovate, grow, and deliver for our customers. By fostering a workplace that is supportive, collaborative, and grounded in integrity, we continue to attract strong talent and meet the high expectations of a rapidly evolving marketplace.

Ventura Foods is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Ventura Foods may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted tools at certain stages of our hiring process, including identifying & sourcing candidates, reviewing applications and matched candidates on job boards and websites, and generating screening questions to help us work more efficiently and consistently. We regularly review our tools to promote fairness and reduce the risk of bias. However, while these tools support our process, every hiring decision is made by a real person on our team. Applicants in the State of New York may request an alternative process by contacting us at [e-mail] .

Nearest Major Market: Irvine California

Nearest Secondary Market: Los Angeles