Project Manager, Product Development

Project Manager, Product Development

Location: St. Louis, MO

Time Type: Full time

Posted On: February 24, 2025

End Date: March 11, 2025 job requisition id: B020814

Gates Ag One

Agriculture has the power to sustain us all, but that power is dependent on equitable access to the tools and products needed to increase productivity and support food security as climate change, population growth, and gender inequality pose increasing threats. Gates Agricultural Innovations (Gates Ag One) is a new nonprofit dedicated to ensuring high-quality, cutting-edge crop innovations are available and accessible to those who need them most.As a wholly owned, not-for-profit affiliate of the Gates Foundation, Gates Ag One drives to empower the small-scale producers of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia by amplifying the translation of innovative crop science research into affordable products for the public good. Gates Ag One pioneers new development pathways for the most exciting crop science happening today. Through catalytic public-private sector partnerships and the careful stewardship of innovation, the organization harnesses the developed world's commercial engines to research that prioritizes low-income countries and their most important food sources. This results in increased yields from game-changing seeds that promote food production and income where factors such as population growth and climate change pose mounting challenges – agriculture that benefits farmers, society, and the environment.We are committed to ensuring groundbreaking agriculture products, like climate-resilient, yield-enhancing seeds and traits, are affordable and accessible to smallholder farmers. We are redrawing the map between discovery and market access – connecting ideas and action with an unwavering focus on smart product development.

Your Role

Working with the Product Development (PD) functional group, the Project Manager leads the planning and execution of large, complex, and or strategically significant projects supporting improvements and change across business processes, teams, and functions. Provides project management training, project management support and partnering with cross-functional teams and external partners/organizations to ensure crop biotechnology project and program leads deliver the expected scope and business value, complete on budget and schedule, and deliver with quality. Using plant biology/agriculture background, excellent communication, collaborative ways of working and project management skills to build trusting partnerships, manage and drive projects and deliverables in support of the Product Development team and pipeline. The Project Manager will report to the Director of Operations and will receive functional guidance from the Director of Product Development.This full-time role with salary and benefits is located in our office in St. Louis, MO. Applications will be accepted until 5 PM Pacific Time on Monday, March 10, 2025.What You'll Do

• Understands the strategic and business benefits of PD projects and the linkages between platform/program/project goals and organizational strategy and drivers.
• Support multiple PD programs, projects and reconcile interdependencies with other functional teams and projects to ensure cross functional operational alignment. Support development and implementation of project management tools (e.g., charters, project designs, Gannt charts, milestone and advancement decisions, risk analysis and mitigation, etc.).
• Drives operational excellence and productivity in the team. Compares actual performance with planned performance and implements appropriate corrective action if needed.
• Support the development of reporting dashboards and ensures execution of activities to meet the defined scope, schedule, budget, and resources.
• Organize technical internal and external Product Development meetings and record meeting notes and action items. Support the Product Development planning process by organizing bi-annual meetings, providing accurate forecasts and updated operational plans informed by projects in the portfolio. Attend Product Development and Operation meetings where applicable.
• Coordinates with other function project managers, operations staff, contractors, and support staff to ensure projects are appropriately resourced and/or tools are effectively leveraged to achieve project objectives.
• Responsible for ensuring projects align with established enterprise project portfolio management governance processes, including intake, periodic reviews, and annual planning.
• Working closely with the Operations team as Product Development lead for engagement and implementation of IT enterprise applications.

Your Experience

• Bachelor's or other advanced degree and 5 years of experience, in plant biotechnology research & development or agriculture industry operations. PMP certification a plus.
• Strong Project Management (PM) skills and PM tool implementation and customization is required, Project Management Professional certification is desired.
• A strong technical background in plant biology and plant biotech product development.
• Proficiency in project management tools (e.g. SmartSheet, Power BI, Confluence, Jira) and familiarity with reporting systems (e.g. Tableau). Familiarity with reporting systems (e.g. Tableau) is preferred.
• Experience in managing external partnerships including key partners.
• Deep experience and expertise applying standard project management and change management frameworks and tools for successful project delivery across the full project lifecycle.
• Ability to make sound decisions and provide proper direction to other project resources.
• Customer-focused approach.
• Proven ability to mobilize and motivate teams; set direction and approach; resolve conflict; coach performance; deliver tough messages gracefully; implement with limited information and ambiguity.
• Proven ability to quickly earn the trust of colleagues, partners and key collaborators; and to listen to and understand their interests and concerns and proactively plan to address them.Applicants for this role will only be considered if they are able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

The salary range for this role is $140,200 to $210,200 USD. As a mission-driven organization, we strive to balance competitive pay with our mission and new hires are typically brought into the organization at a salary between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint. Actual placement in the range will depend on a candidate's job-related skills, experience, and expertise, as evaluated during the interview process.

Hiring Requirements

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

Candidate Accommodations

If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request here.

Inclusion Statement

We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We're committed to creating a workplace where employees thrive both personally and professionally. We also believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve—in race, gender, age, cultures and beliefs—and we support this diversity through all of our employment practices.All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, color, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.

Transparency in Coverage (Machine-readable files)

The Transparency in Coverage Final Rules require group health plans to disclose on a public website information regarding in-network provider rates and historical out-of-network allowed amounts and billed charges for covered items and services in two separate machine-readable files (MRFs). The MRFs for the benefit package options under the Gates Foundation Welfare Benefits Plan are linked below:https://sawus2prdticmrfrgawa.z5.web.core.windows.net/.*The plan reserves the right to change or terminate benefits or the plan(s) at any time.To apply: https://gatesfoundation.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/GatesAgOne/job/St-Louis-MO/Project-Manager--Product-Development_B020814 jeid-07910387a12e48ab8278feb5bade8b30