The Commercial Project Manager is responsible for managing customer-facing commercial projects from proposal support through execution, delivery, and closeout. This role serves as the primary coordination point between customers, technical teams, operations, and leadership to ensure project scope, schedule, resources, and deliverables are clearly defined and effectively managed.
This position will create and maintain project schedules, coordinate technical inputs, communicate project status, identify resource needs, and help ensure that commitments to customers are realistic, visible, and achievable. The role requires strong organization, communication, and cross-functional coordination skills in a technical manufacturing environment where priorities, resource demands, and project requirements may change quickly.
RESPONSIBILITIESProject Planning & Execution - Develop and maintain project plans, schedules, milestones, and deliverables for customer-facing commercial projects
- Coordinate project activities across engineering, operations, manufacturing, quality, licensing, and other technical teams
- Track project progress against schedule, scope, and budget expectations
- Identify risks, delays, resource constraints, and execution issues early and communicate impacts to leadership and stakeholders
- Maintain organized project records, action item trackers, schedules, and closeout documentation
Customer Communication & Relationship Management - Serve as a primary point of contact for assigned customers during project execution
- Coordinate regular customer updates, project reviews, and technical status meetings
- Communicate project progress, risks, schedule changes, and deliverable status clearly and professionally
- Ensure customer expectations are understood, documented, and aligned with internal execution capabilities
- Help maintain strong customer relationships through disciplined communication and follow-through
Technical Team Coordination - Work closely with technical leads to define work scopes, deliverables, assumptions, and execution plans
- Translate customer needs and project requirements into actionable tasks for internal teams
- Coordinate technical inputs required for project execution, reporting, and customer communication
- Support alignment between technical work, project schedules, and commercial commitments
- Track decisions, action items, open issues, and follow-ups across technical teams
Proposal & Commercial Support - Support proposal development by coordinating technical inputs, schedules, assumptions, resource needs, and deliverables
- Assist in developing project scopes, statements of work, timelines, and execution plans for commercial opportunities
- Work with leadership and technical teams to assess feasibility, resource demand, and execution risk before commitments are made
- Support handoff from proposal to execution once projects are awarded
Resource Planning & Capacity Awareness - Identify project resource needs across engineering, operations, manufacturing, quality, and support functions
- Communicate resource demand and project priorities to leadership to support planning and decision-making
- Help evaluate what work can be realistically accepted based on current workload, technical capacity, and operational constraints
- Maintain visibility into competing project demands and support prioritization discussions
SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS - Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, Project Management, Operations, or a related field
- 3-7 years of experience in project management, technical program management, commercial project execution, or customer-facing project coordination
- Experience managing projects in a technical, manufacturing, industrial, energy, aerospace, defense, or regulated environment
- Ability to coordinate across technical teams and communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Experience developing project schedules, tracking milestones, and managing deliverables
- Experience supporting proposals, statements of work, project scopes, or customer-funded projects
- Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, and stakeholders at the same time
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to identify risks, resource constraints, and schedule impacts early and communicate them clearly
- Familiarity with project management tools, scheduling software, ERP systems, or project tracking systems preferred
- Experience in nuclear, energy, manufacturing, aerospace, defense, or other regulated industries is a plus
BENEFITS - Health, Dental & Vision Insurance
- Disability and Life Insurance
WORK ENVIRONMENT This role is based in Oak Ridge, TN and involves a combination of office-based work and regular coordination with engineering, manufacturing, operations, quality, and commercial teams.
The position requires frequent communication with customers and internal stakeholders, development of project plans and schedules, and participation in technical and commercial project meetings. Occasional time in manufacturing, laboratory, or operational environments may be required to understand project scope, status, and execution needs. Reasonable accommodation will be provided to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
