Program Manager

Program Manager - Injection Molding & Customer Solutions Position Summary The Program Manager is a high-energy technical leader responsible for bridging the gap between shop-floor execution and strategic account growth. This hybrid role is designed for a motivated professional with a background in Engineering, Mold Making, or Machining, who seeks to elevate their career by combining technical project ownership with customer-facing sales support. You will lead jobs 'from A to Z' maintaining an active presence on the floor to ensure timelines are met, while also serving as a key partner to the sales and estimating teams. By leveraging strong technical expertise, you will identify upsell opportunities, maintain and grow existing accounts, and ensure solutions are aligned with customer production needs. Serving as the primary liaison between customers, suppliers, engineering, manufacturing, and internal teams, you will drive alignment, accountability, and execution excellence throughout the entire tooling lifecycle. Essential Duties & Key Responsibilities: • Serve as the primary point of contact for assigned customer accounts, ensuring clear, accurate, and timely communication while building long-term relationships. • Identify and develop upsell opportunities within existing accounts by leveraging technical expertise and positioning company capabilities as solutions. • Support sales and estimating teams by providing technical input, scope alignment, and customer insight. • Act as a technical advisor to customers, aligning tooling solutions with their production and business objectives. • Proactively manage customer issues through resolution with coordinated internal support. • Maintain commitments and escalate risks early to prevent delays or quality concerns. • Provide consistent, reliable, and fact-based updates, strengthening customer trust. • Lead end-to-end project delivery across scope, schedule, budget, and quality, from kickoff through production readiness. • Maintain an active, hands-on presence on the manufacturing floor to monitor progress, resolve issues in real time, and ensure adherence to timelines. • Develop and manage detailed project plans, including critical paths, dependencies, and risk mitigation strategies. • Coordinate cross-functionally with engineering, machining, assembly, and quality teams to ensure alignment with customer expectations and delivery schedules. • Partner closely with engineering on DFM reviews, tooling design, and manufacturability. • Oversee the full tooling lifecycle, including design, machining, assembly, sampling, and modifications. • Lead validation activities (T1/T2 trials, debugging, and measurement reviews) to ensure acceptance criteria are met. • Ensure all drawings, approvals, documentation, and deliverables meet required standards and timelines. • Own project and tooling budgets, including cost tracking, forecasting, and variance management. • Manage customer change orders and ensure accurate financial documentation and reconciliation. • Maintain accurate project tracking, reporting, and CRM (Salesforce) updates. Qualifications • Bachelor's degree in engineering, Business, Project Management, or related field preferred (equivalent industry experience considered). • 2-5 years of experience in program/project management within the injection molding or tooling industry, with customer-facing responsibilities. • Hands-on experience in mold making, CNC machining, or tool build environments is strongly preferred. • Demonstrated ability to support sales and estimating teams by leveraging technical expertise to position solutions and build customer trust. • Strong commercial awareness with a proven ability to identify and capture upselling and account growth opportunities. • Solid understanding of DFM, tooling/mold manufacturing, T0/T1trials, and IQ/OQ/PQ processes • Exceptional communication, cross-functional coordination, and customer-facing skills. • High degree of time management and multi-tasking skills with a "boots on the ground" approach to managing high-pressure timelines. • Proven leadership, risk management, and proactive problem-solving skills to navigate complex project lifecycles. • Experience with ERP and CRM platforms (Salesforce preferred) and proficiency with project management tools and methodologies