We are hiring a: Program Manager- Gas Delivery St. Louis, MO
Watlow is seeking a transformation Program Manager to join our Gas Delivery Platform organization in a highly visible role with a clear mandate: cut our front-end cycle time for modified standard products and make Watlow the easiest gas delivery supplier in the industry to start a new project with. In this position you will own the entire quote-to-proto-to-HVM flow as a single, governed value stream, from customer requirement capture through configured quote, design, prototype, and release.
You will be responsible for driving results by orchestrating a cross-functional value stream you do not directly control, working through SLAs, governance, and executive sponsorship rather than command over every function. If you have led a real engineered-to-order to configure-to-order transformation with numbers to prove it, know how to build configuration logic and automation as the business owner, and want the opportunity to build a new discipline from the ground up, we would love to connect with you.
What You'll Do:- Value Stream Ownership: Own the global front-end value stream for modified standard and configurable products end to end, from customer requirement capture through configured quote, design, prototype, and HVM release.
- Cycle-Time Transformation: Drive the total front-end clock from 60 days to under 15 by advancing the automation program, the configuration architecture, and the customer approval model together, not in isolation.
- Configuration Architecture: Define and own the standard, configured, custom, and decline gate along with the customization selector logic that makes automation possible.
- Automation Program: Own the scope and sequence of the automation program, including configured quoting, design automation, and prototype capability build-out across sites.
- SLA & Performance Governance: Author step-level service agreements with each process owner and run the monthly scorecard that serves as the single source of truth for front-end performance.
- Customer Approval Model: Partner with major account teams to redesign the customer approval and review loops that make up roughly half of today's cycle time, without damaging the relationship.
- Cross-Functional Leadership: Shape the org design of quoting, applications engineering, and design functions, and guide the design capacity glidepath as automation reduces manual effort.
- Executive Alignment: Partner with senior leaders and your executive sponsor to secure buy-in, resolve escalations, and keep the transformation on track inside a hard matrix.
What you'll need to succeed?- Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related field
- 8+ years leading configure-to-order or quote-to-delivery cycle-time transformations in industrial or manufacturing environments
- Proven ability to own a cross-functional value stream without owning the underlying functions, delivering through SLAs, cadence, and executive sponsorship in a matrixed organization
- Experience building or product-owning configuration logic, CPQ, or design automation as the business owner, not the IT implementer
- Technical fluency strong enough to credibly challenge product architecture decisions with engineers and product managers
- Executive presence that holds up with demanding, technically sophisticated customers
- Global operating experience across both low-cost and technical centers
Preferred Qualifications:- Background in an industrial business that sells configured products through a selector or CPQ at scale
- Experience in semiconductor capital equipment or another high-mix, low-volume, components-or-subsystems environment
- AI-fluent and hands-on, with experience building and deploying tools, workflows, or agents that compress cycle time
- Track record of building a selector or configurator that the sales organization actually adopted
- Experience removing approval steps from a demanding customer's process without damaging the relationship
Benefits: The Watlow Total Compensation Plan The health, well-being and financial stability of you and your family is a high priority to us.The Watlow Total Rewards Plan includes competitive compensation and a
fullrange of life and career enhancing benefits:
- Annual Incentive Program
- 401(k) plan that includes a company match on your contribution and an annual company contribution that is tied to company performance
- Wellness incentives
- Employee Personal Assistance Program
- Dental, medical, vision and short-term and long-term disability insurance
- Paid holidays, personal time, and vacation
- Parental leave
- Tuition reimbursement
