R&D Project Manager - IDC

The opportunity:

Join our R&D team and lead the planning, governance, and execution of complex product-development programs for high-power conversion platforms used in renewable-energy, energy-storage, and other demanding industrial applications.

You will work in a global, cross-functional environment spanning multiple technical workstreams, functions, locations, and suppliers.

In this role, you will translate program objectives into executable project plans with clear scope, deliverables, milestones, resources, budgets, dependencies, risks, and decision points.

You will work closely with R&D, product management, supply chain management, procurement, quality, manufacturing, operations, validation, and finance to keep commitments transparent and achievable.

How you’ll make an impact:

• Lead end-to-end execution of complex R&D product-development projects from initiation through development, validation, industrialization, release, and closure, owning scope, objectives, deliverables, milestones, assumptions, constraints, and acceptance criteria.
• Translate the product roadmap into an integrated project plan covering engineering, prototypes, documentation, validation, certification, procurement, industrialization, manufacturing readiness, and release, and maintain the associated schedules, work packages, resource and cost plans, risk registers, and action trackers.
• Ensure every major deliverable has a named owner, target date, required inputs, dependencies, and review criteria, and coordinate work across electrical, mechanical, power electronics, controls, embedded software, validation, cybersecurity, certification, industrialization, quality, and manufacturing workstreams, and across global engineering centers, factories, laboratories, and suppliers.
• Monitor progress against the approved project baseline and initiate recovery actions when scope, cost, schedule, quality, resource, or delivery commitments are at risk.
• Establish and run the project governance model, including core-team meetings, workstream reviews, risk reviews, steering-committee reviews, gate reviews, and management escalations.

Plan and coordinate project gates in line with applicable product-development and new product introduction processes, ensuring the required technical, financial, quality, regulatory, validation, industrialization, and business deliverables are available, and track resulting conditions and actions through closure.

• Own the complete project budget covering internal labor, external engineering, prototypes, materials, equipment, testing, certification, travel, and services, managed in the applicable project portfolio and financial reporting tools.
• Maintain approved budget, actual cost, commitments, forecast-to-complete, and expected final cost, prepare monthly cost forecasts, analyze deviations, and identify overruns, unused budget, incorrect cost allocations, and funding gaps early; prepare additional-funding and budget-change requests with a clear explanation of business need, scope, timing, alternatives, and project impact, and ensure reported financials are consistent with the approved project-reporting system.

Responsible for ensuring compliance with applicable safety, integrity, quality, cybersecurity, regulatory, financial, and procurement requirements, as well as internal procedures and guidelines.

• Living Hitachi Energy’s core values of safety and integrity, which means taking responsibility for your own actions while caring for your colleagues and the business

Your background

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Project Management, Business Administration, or a related discipline.
• At least 8 years of experience in R&D project management, product development, engineering project management, new product introduction, or complex technology programs, including multidisciplinary projects spanning multiple engineering functions and organizational locations.
• Experience managing product-development projects from initiation through prototype development, validation, industrialization, release, and closure.
• Strong knowledge of project planning, scheduling, work-package management, resource planning, risk management, change control, and project governance.
• Experience managing project budgets, actual cost, commitments, forecasts, and financial deviations, with hands-on use of project portfolio, cost-management, or financial-reporting systems.
• Practical experience coordinating timesheets, project codes, work-package charging, planned versus actual effort, and resource forecasts.
• Experience coordinating procurement and supply-chain activities for R&D materials, prototypes, components, test equipment, engineering services, or capital equipment, including tracking purchase requisitions, purchase orders, supplier commitments, delivery schedules, goods receipt, and invoices.
• Experience preparing and presenting project updates for steering committees, project gates, management reviews, finance, and senior stakeholders, and a strong understanding of gated product-development and new product introduction processes.