Senior Project Manager, Automation in at Connors & Associates

Position Summary

The Senior Project Manager, Automation provides project and personnel leadership across consulting engagements in the US and internationally. The Senior Project Manager, Automation is instrumental in client delivery, presentations, account management, client satisfaction, and practice growth. The Senior Project Manager, Automation is accountable for delivering the agreed statement of work (SOW), identifying opportunities with current clients, developing trusted-advisor relationships, and supporting practice-wide initiatives.

For facility design and implementation engagements, the Senior Project Manager, Automation may lead or coordinate a multi-year, owner-side program spanning facility design, construction, material-handling equipment (MHE), systems integration, WMS/WCS/WES implementation, and operations readiness. The role coordinates interdependent workstreams, manages evolving scope and external partner interfaces, and maintains schedule, cost, risk, and go-live readiness discipline to help ensure the facility and supporting systems are prepared to operate and ship product on the planned launch date.

Duties and responsibilities

Our expectation is that you model the core values by which the Connors Group operates:

• Always demonstrate professional and ethical behavior
• Provide exceptional value to our clients
• Provide the highest quality of service through your work
• Contribute to making Connors Group a great place to work
• Contribute to helping make our communities better places to live

Job responsibilities:

• Serves as Project Manager for multiple projects - responsible for daily leadership, project management and expertise on project teams;
• Responsible for understanding a project’s deliverables and statement of work and responsible for articulating those details to the project team. Responsible for completing the project to the client’s satisfaction and meeting project metrics, on time and within budget.

• Leads or coordinates multiple concurrent facility implementation workstreams, aligning facility design, construction, equipment procurement and installation, systems integration, WMS/WCS/WES delivery, and operations readiness.
• Builds and maintains an integrated, critical-path schedule; tracks dependencies, float, milestones, and near-term decisions; and works with owners to resolve issues before they affect installation, testing, or go-live.
• Coordinates client leaders, general contractors, construction teams, systems integrators, IT, operations, HR, and other vendors. Clarifies decision rights, interfaces, deliverables, and escalation paths.
• Reviews facility layouts, equipment specifications, MHE sequencing, automation integration points, and relevant electrical and controls requirements with qualified client and vendor experts; identifies coordination gaps and escalates technical decisions to accountable specialists.
• Maintains formal risk, action, issue, and dependency tracking, as well as change-order and budget records. Evaluates proposed scope or schedule changes for cost, timing, operational-readiness, and go-live impacts.
• Tracks client-side capital costs, commitments, contingency, and forecast changes in coordination with the client’s finance and procurement leads. Escalates material variances and decisions promptly.
• Driving date discipline across the program, communicates the operational and financial implications of milestone changes, and supports mitigation and contingency planning.
• Reports program status clearly to executive and working teams, including schedule confidence, critical-path risks, cost and change exposure, decisions required, and readiness for launch.
• Plans and coordinates testing, commissioning, training, cutover, and operations-readiness activities so facility, equipment, systems, and teams are prepared for go-live.

Competencies:

• Leads multiple projects and large engagements and earns the respect of clients as an expert consultant. Models the standard for effective communication to all stakeholders.
• Develops a clear understanding of each client’s business and how our services can benefit operations. Guides teams to focus on what matters and develop meaningful business relationships with clients.
• Coordinates complex, interdependent workstreams and communicates critical-path status, dependencies, risks, decisions, and forecast impacts clearly.
• Uses structured project controls, including integrated schedules, formal RAID/dependency registers, change tracking, and budget forecasts.
• Works effectively across executive sponsors, client functional teams, general contractors, systems integrators, and other vendors; escalates decisions to the appropriate owners.
• Demonstrates working familiarity with facility design, construction sequencing, warehouse automation, MHE, and WMS/WCS/WES interfaces, while recognizing when specialist technical judgment is required.
• Develops comprehensive presentations at the appropriate level of detail.
• Effectively acts as a technical expert and technical leader and leads complex analytical work. Writes comprehensive client reports and internal standard practices.

• Demonstrates initiative, responsibility, and analytical thinking.
• Effectively writes technical summaries to explain your work.
• Demonstrates strong Excel-based abilities, use of regression analysis and other data-mining techniques.
• Flexibility to work alternative hours, including evenings and weekends.

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering, Business, or equivalent work experience

• 8+ years’ experience in a consulting role having led and managed client engagements across multiple industries.

• Strong communication and presentation skills; ability to drive deadlines on multiple projects.
• Demonstrated experience coordinating complex, multi-workstream facility, construction, automation, or supply-chain technology implementations, ideally through go-live.
• Experience with critical-path scheduling and dependency management using MS Project or Smartsheet; familiarity with Procore or comparable construction coordination tools.
• Experience maintaining RAID/dependency registers, change-order controls, and project or capital-budget forecasts.
• Working familiarity with warehouse automation and material-handling systems, including conveyors, sorters, and AS/RS, and with WMS/WCS/WES interfaces; able to coordinate technical stakeholders without substituting for engineering or systems-integration expertise.
• Experience coordinating general contractors, systems integrators, and multiple vendor or client contracts.
• PMP or CAPM preferred; facility or construction project-management training is an advantage.
• Strong understanding of Project Manager standards and approach to managing project budgets, travel expense policy, and travel coordination.
• Knowledge of change management principles, ability to create influence in implementing recommended solutions.
• Knowledge of and experience in implementing end-to-end project solutions, including industry and customer research, design and development of solution meeting SOW, and associated change management practices.
• Demonstrated leadership – with internal teams and clients, maintaining a positive attitude.
• Demonstrated ability to assess and solve problems.
• Ability to understand and create budgets.
• Knowledge of performance management program and practices, to provide project performance feedback.
• Strong work ethic and capability to work independently.
• Excellent knowledge of MS Office including: Word, PowerPoint, Project, Excel and Outlook
• Access to reliable auto transportation and a major US airport

Working conditions

This position, at times, must work in challenging, non-standard environments. This could include:

• Time of day: Evenings (5 PM - 10 PM), overnight shifts (10 PM – 6 AM),
• Day of week: Weekends (Saturday/Sunday)

This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive. Employee may perform other related duties as assigned to meet the on-going needs of the organization.