Project Manager

Equipment & Controls, Inc.; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) with company match

Retirement savings program

Job summary

Equipment & Controls, Inc. is seeking a Project Manager to lead complex, customer-facing industrial automation projects from proposal handoff through startup and closeout.

You will own scope, schedule, cost, forecast, margin, risk, change control, and customer communication across multiple concurrent initiatives. The role requires strong cross-functional leadership, excellent communication, and the ability to travel to project sites as needed.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience leading industrial automation projects.
• Ability to manage scope, schedule, cost, and risk.
• Strong stakeholder and customer communication.
• Experience with multi-discipline teams and vendors.
• Experience with project controls, earned value, and change management.

Responsibilities

• Lead multiple concurrent industrial automation projects from kickoff to closeout.
• Define execution strategy, governance, milestones, and decision structure.
• Validate scope, pricing, and handoff details with customers; close gaps upfront.
• Build trusted relationships with customers, engineering, vendors, and subcontractors.
• Own the integrated schedule across engineering, fabrication, testing, installation, and startup.
• Monitor budgets, forecasts, and margins; report variances and actions.
• Manage risk, issues, actions, and change control with clear accountability.
• Lead project reviews and status reporting for customers and management.
• Coordinate FAT, site installation, commissioning, and handoffs between phases.
• Drive continuous improvement and share lessons learned across programs.

Skills

Project management

Cross-functional leadership

Communication

Risk management

Financial acumen

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering or related field

Tools

Microsoft Project

IFS

Procore

SharePoint

Job description

Description

Equipment & Controls, Inc. is a successful and innovative Emerson Impact Partner. ECI provides an entrepreneurial opportunity for each employee to achieve our common mission of Delivering Successful Customer Outcomes 100% of the Time. Our customer base includes oil and gas, chemical, power, food and beverage, mining and metals, life sciences, pulp and paper, refining, petrochemical, OEM and nuclear industries. With offices in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, ECI is the region’s leader in process control and industrial automation products and solutions. We seek individuals that share our passion for excellence.

Business Unit/Department:

Process Systems & Solutions Group

Location:

Lawrence, PA

Job Summary:

ECI is seeking a Project Manager to lead the execution of complex, customer-facing industrial automation projects. This role owns project delivery from proposal handoff through engineering, procurement, fabrication, testing, site execution, commissioning, startup, and closeout. The Project Manager is accountable for scope, schedule, cost, forecast, margin, risk, change control, customer communication, and overall project health across multiple concurrent projects. The successful candidate will be comfortable operating at both strategic and detailed levels: setting direction for cross-functional teams, making timely decisions, anticipating risk, protecting commercial outcomes, and removing obstacles that affect customer commitments.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead multiple concurrent industrial automation projects of varying size and complexity from kickoff through closeout.
• Establish the project execution strategy, governance, communication cadence, milestones, deliverables, and decision-making structure.
• Validate customer expectations, proposal assumptions, scope, pricing, terms, schedule, and deliverables at project handoff; identify gaps before execution begins.
• Serve as the primary customer-facing project leader and build trusted relationships with customers, internal leadership, engineers, technicians, vendors, and subcontractors.
• Own the integrated project schedule and coordinate engineering, procurement, manufacturing or fabrication, testing, installation, commissioning, and startup activities.
• Manage project budgets, cost forecasts, resource plans, invoicing schedules, margin performance, and financial projections; communicate variances and corrective actions early.
• Establish and maintain a disciplined risk, issue, action, and change-control process. Quantify impacts, assign owners, track mitigation, and elevate when thresholds are exceeded.
• Evaluate scope changes for technical, schedule, cost, resource, and contractual impact; document decisions and update project baselines and forecasts after approval.
• Lead project reviews and status reporting that give customers and management a clear view of progress, risks, decisions, commitments, and recovery actions.
• Facilitate cross-functional problem solving and make timely tradeoff recommendations when priorities, resources, technical requirements, or customer expectations conflict.
• Coordinate factory acceptance testing, site installation, commissioning, startup, and issue resolution, including readiness planning and handoffs between project phases.
• Monitor project health and take ownership of recovery plans when projects are at risk of missing scope, schedule, budget, quality, or customer commitments.
• Complete project closeout, financial reconciliation, customer acceptance, lessons learned, and continuous-improvement actions.
• Contribute to project-management standards, estimating and handoff practices, resource planning, risk management, and team development across the organization.

Requirements

Required Qualifications:

• Ten or more years of progressive project-management experience, including significant direct ownership of industrial projects.
• Demonstrated experience leading projects in process manufacturing, industrial automation, controls, instrumentation, electrical systems, or a related engineering or manufacturing environment.
• Experience managing projects through multiple lifecycle phases, including engineering, procurement, fabrication or integration, FAT, site execution, commissioning, startup, and closeout.
• Direct accountability for project scope, schedule, budget, cost forecasting, risk, change management, customer communication, and project reporting.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple complex projects while prioritizing resources, dependencies, decisions, and customer commitments.
• Strong understanding of project financials, contract and purchase-order alignment, change orders, invoicing milestones, and margin or profitability drivers.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and external partners without relying solely on direct reporting relationships.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate technical and commercial information to varied audiences.
• Ability to travel to customer and project sites as required for project execution, testing, commissioning, startup, and issue resolution.
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, project management, business, or a related technical discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Experience leading large, multi-discipline projects involving customers, engineering teams, vendors, subcontractors, and site personnel.
• PMP certification or equivalent demonstrated project-leadership experience.
• Experience with Microsoft Project, IFS, Procore, SharePoint, or similar project-management and ERP systems.
• Experience with structured risk registers, change-control processes, earned-value or project-controls practices, and customer-facing project reviews.

Core Competencies:

• WORK COLLABORATIVELY - Promote an inclusive and positive work environment that encourages collaboration and team building across all levels of the organization. Work with others to resolve obstacles that may prevent the organization from achieving its mission.
• CUSTOMER FOCUS - Demonstrate the desire and knowledge to understand customer needs. Provide personalized, professional and courteous service, accurate information, continuous communication and the ability to handle customer concerns in an appropriate manner.
• INTEGRITY - Behave ethically, act fairly and take responsibility for accomplishing work goals.

Additional Details:

We provide our team with everything needed for success, including world-class products, excellent initial and ongoing training and top notch work equipment. We reward hard work and success with a competitive base salary and benefits package, as well as a retirement savings program, which includes 401(k) with company match and profit sharing. Salary is based on experience. EEO/AA/M/F/Veteran/Disability