Program Manager

Job Details:

Job Location:

Corporate Office - Franklin, WI 53132, Position Type:
Full Time, Education Level: 4 Year Degree, Job Category:
Marketing,

Position Summary:

The Program Manager is a highly visible, hands-on role responsible for leading cross-functional programs from initial concepts through Post-Launch. Working across R&D, Marketing, Packaging, Regulatory, Quality, Operations, Supply Chain, Sales, Finance, and other functional teams, this position drives alignment, execution, risk management, and accountability throughout the product development lifecycle.

The Program Manager will lead domestic and international new product development, commercialization, front-end innovation, business support, and select merchandising display programs using Carma Laboratories’ Stage Gate processes. This role owns integrated program schedules, facilitates cross-functional decision-making, proactively identifies risks and resource constraints, and keeps teams aligned to approved scope, timing, cost, quality, and business objectives.

The Program Manager partners with the Senior Manager of Program Management and functional business leaders to support portfolio prioritization, resource capacity planning, product roadmaps, process governance, and continuous improvement in support of corporate goals and objectives.

This is a 100% hands-on role requiring someone who is equally comfortable building a detailed program plan, facilitating a cross-functional team, driving accountability without direct authority, and communicating program risks and recommendations to senior leadership.

Reports to:

Senior Manager of Program Management

• Collaborates with program sponsors, the Senior Manager of Program Management, organizational leadership, and senior cross-functional representatives to define program scope, user and business requirements, deliverables, resources, resource demand versus capacity, schedule, budget, success measures, and timing for new initiatives.
• Leads programs from initial planning through execution and closeout, ensuring work is completed within approved scope, timing, budget, quality standards, and Stage Gate requirements.
• Independently develops and maintains detailed, integrated program schedules that define activities, sequencing, dependencies, decision points, milestones, critical paths, and functional commitments.
• Establishes and maintains effective program governance, including meeting cadence, agendas, decision and action tracking, program documentation, schedule updates, lessons learned, and timely stakeholder communications.
• Schedules and facilitates cross-functional core team meetings and working sessions; drives clear decisions, ownership, commitments, dependencies, due dates, and follow-through.
• Drives cross-functional accountability through influence rather than direct authority and escalates unresolved barriers, resource conflicts, decisions, and risks at the appropriate time and level.
• Proactively identify, assess, document, and manage program risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies, and opportunities using risk-based project and program management methods.
• Monitors program progress and performance, recommends corrective actions, and revises plans through documented change-control practices when approved scope, timing, resources, cost, or requirements change.
• Provides concise, decision-oriented program updates to the Senior Manager of Program Management and presents program status, tradeoffs, risks, recommendations, and required decisions to senior management as appropriate.
• Supports portfolio planning and prioritization by evaluating resource demand, capacity constraints, dependencies, risks, costs, strategic alignment, and business priorities; provides…