The Role
Manages EMEA transformation projects across commercial, operational, and technical functions. Responsibilities include defining scope, schedules, budgets, governance, risks, dependencies, business cases, and benefits realization; coordinating cross-functional stakeholders; improving processes; supporting organizational change; reporting portfolio performance; and developing enterprise project management practices.
Summary Generated by Built In
Be yourself at Protolabs
Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. We are an equal opportunity employer, and we are committed to building a diverse team that feels they are valued in the workplace. So do you feel you do not meet every single requirement but still intrigued? We encourage you to still apply! You can help make our company even better. We do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, age, mental or physical ability, or any way you represent yourself. We strongly believe diversity makes for more successful teams.
Why Protolabs?
We are the leaders in digital manufacturing. We hire doers, makers, and creative thinkers who tackle our roles with an entrepreneurial spirit. Our culture is centered around meaningful work that brings new and innovative products to market at unprecedented speeds. We are a diverse team that comes from all walks of life and take pride in our team who is smart, genuine, humble, and passionate about what we do. It’s our people who fuel our creativity and make our culture feel like home.
We are accepting applications from candidates based in the Netherlands, and this is a hybrid role requiring weekly onsite presence.
The EMEA Transformation Project Manager provides professional project management and execution support across the EMEA transformation portfolio, spanning operational and commercial improvement initiatives. The role provides project management methodology, structure and constructively challenges the team to deliver measurable results. Working alongside sponsors and transformation leadership, the project manager helps translate business problems into well-scoped projects, maintains consistent governance and execution cadence and make progress, risks, dependencies and decisions visible across programs in alignment with Protolabs project delivery framework.
Transformation initiatives often change how people work, who owns decisions, and how functions interact; this role therefore pairs delivery discipline with strong business acumen, structured problem solving, and change management fluency. The role requires close coordination across sales, marketing, customer service, engineering, pricing, supply chain, partner operations, and internal factory operations teams to deliver measurable business outcomes on an ambitious timeline. As the transformation program scales, this position will help shape the project management framework that additional PMs will follow.
What You Will Do:
- Define project scope, goals, success metrics, deliverables, and project boundaries aligned to business objectives.
- Develop and manage project plans, timelines, budgets, resource requirements, milestones, dependencies, and monthly commitments.
- Drive accountability for deliverables, monitor financial performance against forecasts, and maintain effective portfolio planning and reporting practices. Problem Definition & Business Case Support
- Apply structured problem-solving to identify root causes, validate improvement opportunities, and prioritize initiatives based on measurable business impact.
- Ensure teams clearly define problems and desired outcomes before moving to solution design.
- Support business case execution by tracking benefits realization and connecting project outcomes to operational and financial performance. Process Improvement & Business Acumen
- Partner with process owners to analyze current and future-state workflows, identify inefficiencies, and uncover improvement opportunities across functions.
- Challenge assumptions, drive data-based decision making, and establish meaningful process performance metrics.
- Translate process insights into actionable implementation plans with defined owners, milestones, and measurable business benefits. Cross-Functional Coordination & Organizational Change
- Lead and align cross-functional teams across commercial, operational, and technical functions to achieve project objectives.
- Coordinate stakeholder engagement and support organizational change efforts impacting processes, roles, and operating models.
- Facilitate communication, decision-making, and alignment while managing competing priorities and dependencies across workstreams. Governance, Reporting & Risk Management
- Establish project governance structures and ensure adherence to enterprise project management standards, tools, and methodologies.
- Monitor and communicate project status, milestones, financials, risks, dependencies, and portfolio performance to leadership.
- Proactively manage risks, resolve barriers, escalate critical issues, and drive accountability for commitments and decision-making. Continuous Improvement
- Evaluate project outcomes and identify opportunities to improve business processes, operational performance, and delivery methodologies.
- Contribute to the ongoing development of ePMO practices, templates, governance frameworks, and project management capabilities.
Project Planning & Execution
What You Bring:
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Supply Chain, Operations, Engineering, or related field; equivalent experience considered.10+ years of project management experience leading cross-functional transformation, process improvement, or operational initiatives.
- Proven success delivering complex projects on time, within budget, and to quality expectations in matrixed organizations.
- Experience managing multiple concurrent projects, including initiatives involving third-party vendors, contract manufacturers, or outsourced providers.
- Demonstrated ability to drive organizational change, partnering with process owners and change management practitioners.
- Proficiency with project management tools such as Asana, Jira, Azure DevOps, or similar platforms.
- Strong business acumen with the ability to understand and influence cross-functional operations across commercial, technical, and manufacturing teams.
- Experience with process mapping, analysis, and continuous improvement methodologies, including Lean, Six Sigma, BPMN, value stream mapping, or equivalent.
- Skilled in structured problem solving, root-cause analysis, and translating findings into actionable business improvements.
- Ability to develop, evaluate, and track business cases, benefits realization, and measurable operational and financial outcomes.
- Strong analytical and financial acumen, including performance metrics, budget management, and cost tracking.
- Knowledge of organizational change management principles and stakeholder engagement best practices.
- Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and relationship-building skills across all organizational levels.
- Strong influence, critical thinking, and decision-making abilities, with a track record of driving accountability through collaboration and coaching.
- Ability to navigate organizational complexity and build alignment across global, cross-functional teams.
- Formal project management training and experience working within Agile, hybrid, waterfall, or similar delivery frameworks.
What Sets You Apart:
- PMP or PgMP certification (PMI)
- Formal change management training or certification (e.g., Prosci, ACMP)
- Lean, Six Sigma (Green Belt or higher), or A3 problem-solving training
- Strong understanding of manufacturing operations, supply chain processes, and vendor/partner management principles
- Experience in digital manufacturing, CNC machining, injection molding, 3D printing, or related manufacturing processes
- Understanding of pricing models, quoting systems, or commercial operations (e.g., RFQ-to-order) in a manufacturing context
- Experience with sales organization design, customer segmentation, or go-to-market transformation
- Experience with ERP, CRM, or related commercial systems.
What's In It For You:
- Part of our incredible journey is clearly down to our amazing team, and we strongly believe in giving people a space to truly, authentically be themselves. We also believe that treating our employees well and sprinkling a great place to work with some nice perks can make work a little sweeter.
- Annual company bonus. We celebrate success together! Employees are not only rewarded for their achievements but also for contributing to the overall success of the business.
- Wellness and well-being with access to OpenUp psychologists, practice mindfulness with Headspace and tons more.
- Doggo-friendly office. We are big pet lovers and fully encourage hanging out with your (and your colleagues’) furry friends in the office
- Daily Lunch and snacks are provided in the office; it's a moment for our teams to connect and recharge. Shared meals strengthen our bonds and fuel collaboration.
- We offer learning and development days to be used for training or on volunteering, money to spend on learning courses, events, trainings, Access to our in-house LEARN platform with diverse courses, training, and workshops, In-house 3D Printing and much more!
- Follow us on Instagram to see what Life at Protolabs is all about!
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain, Operations, Engineering, or a related field; equivalent experience considered
- 10+ years of project management experience leading cross-functional transformation, process improvement, or operational initiatives
- Proven success delivering complex projects on time, within budget, and to quality expectations in matrixed organizations
- Experience managing multiple concurrent projects involving third-party vendors, contract manufacturers, or outsourced providers
- Experience driving organizational change with process owners and change management practitioners
- Proficiency with Asana, Jira, Azure DevOps, or similar project management tools
- Strong business acumen across commercial, technical, and manufacturing operations
- Experience with process mapping, analysis, and continuous improvement methodologies such as Lean, Six Sigma, BPMN, or value stream mapping
- Structured problem-solving, root-cause analysis, and business improvement skills
- Ability to develop, evaluate, and track business cases, benefits realization, and operational and financial outcomes
- Strong analytical and financial acumen, including performance metrics, budget management, and cost tracking
- Knowledge of organizational change management and stakeholder engagement principles
- Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and relationship-building skills
- Strong influence, critical thinking, decision-making, collaboration, and coaching abilities
- Ability to build alignment across global, cross-functional teams
- Formal project management training and experience with Agile, hybrid, waterfall, or similar delivery frameworks
- PMP or PgMP certification
- Formal change management training or certification, such as Prosci or ACMP
- Lean or Six Sigma Green Belt or higher, or A3 problem-solving training
- Understanding of manufacturing operations, supply chain processes, and vendor or partner management
- Experience in digital manufacturing, CNC machining, injection molding, 3D printing, or related processes
- Understanding of pricing models, quoting systems, or commercial operations in manufacturing
- Experience with sales organization design, customer segmentation, or go-to-market transformation
- Experience with ERP, CRM, or related commercial systems
Protolabs Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Protolabs and has not been reviewed or approved by Protolabs.
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Healthcare Strength — Medical, dental, and vision options are broadly available and described as good to excellent. Additional protections like short- and long-term disability and life insurance bolster the overall package.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — A starting PTO allotment plus paid holidays, along with added wellness and volunteer time, is emphasized, with some roles noting PTO growth over tenure. Paid caregiver leave appears in postings and supports flexibility for life events.
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) with company match and immediate vesting is offered, supporting long-term savings. This foundation is frequently cited alongside core financial benefits as a strong element of total rewards.
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The Company
What We Do
Protolabs is the world's fastest digital manufacturing source for rapid prototyping and on-demand production. The technology-enabled company produces custom parts and assemblies in as fast as 1 day with automated 3D printing, CNC machining, sheet metal fabrication, and injection molding processes. Our digital approach to manufacturing enables accelerated time to market, reduces development and production costs, and minimizes risk throughout the product life cycle. 3D Printing Our 3D printing service offers a wide selection of materials and technologies to create prototypes and end-use parts with complex geometries and detailed features. With tight process controls, careful design reviews, and extensive quality monitoring, we ensure precise and repeatable 3D-printed parts, every time. CNC Machining We use 3- and 5-axis milling along with turning to machine parts from commercial-grade plastics and metals. Our online quoting system and automated manufacturing process enable us to ship parts within 24 hours, helping customers accelerate development and reduce time to market. Sheet Metal Fabrication Protolabs is an industry leader in quick-turn sheet metal parts for both prototyping and low-volume production. Our digital approach to manufacturing enables us to fabricate sheet metal parts in as fast as 5 days. Additionally, we can support our customers’ development efforts with component assemblies, several finish options, and screen printing. Injection Molding Our injection molding service offers two options—prototyping and on-demand manufacturing—which provide customers a tooling solution that aligns with their project’s requirements. It’s used for quick-turn prototyping, bridge tooling, and low-volume production of up to 10,000+ parts in 15 days or less.
