Operations NPI Project Manager

Project management: Lead the Operations elements of the NPI process from project initiation through production launch, first customer shipment, and into volume production.

- Represent Operations on the cross functional NPI project team - Drive integrated project planning to establish work commitments and dependencies between Operations and other functions - Lead the Operations team to execute to the requirements of the Product Development Process (PDP), including functional deliverables to support project goals - Drive Operations execution to plan including:

- Alignment and documentation of project goals and metrics - Project resourcing - Management of work commitments across the Operations team, ensuring required deliverables are completed on time - Project expense (capital and operational) forecasting and performance to plan - Capacity planning and production ramp planning

Cross-functional collaboration: Coordinate and manage a diverse operations team, including test engineering, manufacturing engineering, and supply chain; coordinate requirements and deliverables across four geographically dispersed R&D teams (Bothell, Indianapolis, Ottawa, St. Etienne), the extended internal team (product line management, service, finance, etc.), and external T&A manufacturing partners in China and Thailand.

Process and tool alignment: Evaluate and drive convergence of NPI tracking and requirements management across all four R&D sites - currently split between Jira (Bothell) and VIAVI's standard Product Development Process (Indianapolis, Ottawa, St. Etienne) - to a single unified tool, a standardized PDP instance, or an agreed hybrid solution.

Manufacturing launch and production ramp: Ensure manufacturing requirements for production launch and ramp, at either a VIAVI or a CM factory, are met during the NPI process.

- DFx and Supply Chain reviews are executed at appropriate phase of the NPI process - Drive Supply Chain and manufacturing process development concurrently with product development - Manufacturing process development is complete and validated prior to pilot build

Risk management: Proactively identify project risks, develop mitigation strategies, and resolve issues that arise during the NPI process to keep projects on track.

Stakeholder communication: Provide clear and regular communication to stakeholders and senior leadership on project status, progress against milestones, and resource utilization.

Continuous improvement: Conduct post-mortem analysis of completed projects to identify lessons learned and drive continuous improvement in NPI processes and tools.

Technical knowledge: Strong understanding of manufacturing processes, engineering design, and product lifecycle management.

Methodology proficiency: Experience with project management tools and methodologies (e.g., Phase-Gate, Lean, Agile).

- 5 years of project management leading teams to achieve aggressive cost, quality, and schedule targets

- 5 years of NPI project management experience in a cross functional environment (R&D, Operations, PLM, Service, etc.)

- Experience managing teams across multiple countries and continents, including coordination across North American and European time zones and cultures

- Strong understanding of the CM environment through direct experience managing CM operations or through successful transfer of products into a CM

- Working knowledge of Jira and phase-gate product development processes; experience evaluating, selecting, or harmonizing project management tools across distributed teams

Education: Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical field.

Professional qualification in Risk Management, Six Sigma, Lean, CPI

Familiarity with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

Experience in fiber optics, test and measurement, or a related photonics field.

Exceptional qualifications, experience and location may impact salary. VIAVI offers a competitive benefits package that includes paid time off , health, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and a bonus program.