Project Controls - Engineer III/Lead Engineer

PerkinElmer; Pennsylvania; Hybrid; USD 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Travel opportunities

Professional development

Diverse working environment

Job summary

PerkinElmer, through Project Farma, is seeking a skilled Project Controls - Engineer III / Lead Engineer to enhance project management capabilities. The role involves developing and maintaining detailed project schedules, performing cost analysis, and ensuring effective communication among project stakeholders.

This full-time, salaried position requires previous experience in project controls and a willingness to travel frequently for client projects. Candidates must hold a relevant degree and demonstrate a collaborative mindset, ideally with a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.

Qualifications

• Advanced experience in project control processes and methodologies.
• 2 to 7 years of relevant experience required.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain project schedules and cost models.
• Monitor project performance and report on variances.
• Communicate project progress to stakeholders and teams.

Skills

Advanced project controls expertise

Strong communication skills

Technical problem-solving

Data analysis

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering or related discipline

Tools

Microsoft Project

Oracle Primavera P6

Microsoft Excel

Smartsheet

Job description

Project Controls - Engineer III / Lead Engineer

Location Upper Providence, Pennsylvania | Annapolis, Maryland | Boston, Massachusetts | Richmond, Virginia | Trenton, New Jersey | Washington, DC

Job ID REQ-057696

Project Farma is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability status, age, or veteran status or any other characteristics protected by applicable law. PerkinElmer is committed to a culturally diverse workforce.

This is a full‑time salaried position with Project Farma, a PerkinElmer company. The successful candidate will reside in one of Project Farma's primary markets and be willing to travel domestically to meet client project requests.

Project Farma’s purpose is to improve patient lives by accelerating the delivery of life‑changing therapies. We accomplish this through the successful execution of high‑quality life sciences projects across the full project lifecycle. Project Farma (PF) team members collaborate with cross‑functional teams to build trusted client relationships, deliver an exceptional customer experience, and contribute to business growth by identifying opportunities and applying data‑driven insights to support project planning, cost, schedule, and performance management.

All team members are expected to embody Project Farma’s values by being curious, personable, and unselfish, while maintaining a strong commitment to a Patient Focused and People First mindset.

The Project Controls – Engineer III / Lead Engineer is an advanced individual contributor with demonstrated depth in their technical discipline and a growing record of leading complex workstreams. This role applies strong subject‑matter expertise to solve high‑impact technical and operational challenges, supports technical decision‑making, and contributes to the evolution of standards, methods, or best practices within their area. The Principal Engineer works with a high degree of independence, mentors junior and peer engineers, and partners closely with project and people leaders—while remaining focused on technical delivery rather than formal people management.

Key Responsibilities

As a Project Controls Engineer III / Lead Engineer, you will work collaboratively with clients, vendors, contractors, and other Project Farma Team Members to support projects related to biomanufacturing across the entire engineering lifecycle. You will apply your advanced technical skills to meet project team and client needs for developing / maintaining project schedules and monitoring project performance. This work will include interfacing directly with project management, client management and site personnel for the development of detailed integrated schedules. You will be responsible for delivering high quality work, forming and maintaining valuable, long‑term relationships with our clients, and continually strengthening your technical and industry knowledge. This position will lead key project controls deliverables including but not limited to:

• Summary project plans and milestone management reports
• Detailed project execution schedules
• Activity tracking and variance reports
• Budget estimates, project cost reports and forecast trend analysis reports
• Issue, risks and scenario analysis reports
• Scope and change management impact analysis reports
• Comprehensive monthly project status reports

PROJECT CONTROLS EXECUTION

• Analysis of complex project data and then deliver clear, articulate and concise messages in a compelling manner to support decision making.
• Communicate project information internally in a timely manner and relay in‑field project decisions to highlight long‑range, down‑stream project and team impacts.
• Independently prepare project controls reports, dashboards, and management summaries.
• Utilize inputs from Project Coordinators, field teams, and other disciplines while retaining accountability for final project controls outputs.
• Provide hands‑on support and troubleshooting for clients navigating the engineering life cycle of cutting‑edge equipment and manufacturing processes.
• Maintain project tools such as site dashboards, detailed schedules, deliverable trackers, etc.
• Perform due diligence and quality checks on subject domains to generate high‑quality project deliverables.
• Proactively identify and elevate roadblocks and utilize critical thinking skills and knowledge of problem‑solving skills to identify creative solutions to those problems and roadblocks.
• Create alignment with cross‑functional client departments including but not limited to Design, Construction, Validation, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Engineering groups.
• Continually develop a technical aptitude of project controls services within the life‑science space including but not limited to:
  • Capital project management (CAPEX) for new/existing facility builds
  • Facility shutdowns/turnarounds
  • Technology transfers
  • Enterprise system integrations
  • Validation Life Cycle, including Commissioning and Qualification, Process Validation, Computer System Validation, etc.
  • Quality, Regulatory, and Compliance
  • GxP Automated Systems
  • Quality Control, including commercial and construction
  • Operational readiness

SCHEDULE, COST & PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

• Directly develop, maintain, and update project schedules, cost models, progress tracking tools, and performance reports.
• Perform detailed schedule logic updates, progress status, forecasting, variance analysis, and recovery planning.
• Maintain the integrated project schedule, including baseline management, updates, and look‑ahead planning.
• Track installed quantities, productivity, and earned value to support accurate cost and schedule forecasting.
• Monitor cost performance, change impacts, and forecast trends in coordination with the Project Manager.
• Identify schedule and cost variances, risks, and opportunities, and recommend mitigation or recovery actions.

REPORTING & ANALYTICS

• Prepare and issue weekly, monthly, and ad‑hoc internal and external project controls reports.
• Develop and maintain project dashboards and performance metrics aligned with project and corporate requirements.
• Conduct in‑depth analysis of schedule, cost, and performance data to support proactive decision‑making.

SYSTEM, STANDARDS & DATA INTEGRITY

• Implement and maintain approved project controls systems, coding structures, and procedures on the project.
• Ensure accuracy, consistency, and integrity of all project controls data across systems and reports.
• Provide guidance to project teams on project controls processes, data requirements, and reporting standards.
• Support continuous improvement of project‑level controls workflows and reporting efficiency.

Experience Required

• Bachelor’s Degree (and/or Masters) in technical Sciences, Engineering, Regulatory or related discipline OR a combination of equivalent experience project controls, general construction, cGMP facility start‑up, project management and/or comparable military experience.
• Advanced experience with Microsoft Excel; Microsoft Project, Oracle Primavera P6, and/or Smartsheet a plus.
• 2–7 Years of Experience required.
• Willingness to travel as required for client project assignments.

Other Preferred

• Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification.

Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a full‑time basis. We will not sponsor applicants for current or future work visas for this position. This position may require significant travel to support project and business needs. We cannot employ anyone with an invalid driver's license.