PMO Manager

• Build and lead a newly established PMO for a well-known food & beverage company
• Own the infrastructure build and hands-on execution of a growing strategic project portfolio
• Hybrid role based near Salinas, CA; $140-150K base salary + bonus + benefits

Position Description

The PMO Manager is a newly created role designed to build and operate the company's Project Management Office from the ground up. Reporting to the Sr. Director of Corporate Strategy & Technology, the PMO Manager designs the tools, governance structures, and project cadences that define how the company executes its strategic initiative portfolio.

This role is equal parts execution and infrastructure build. The PMO Manager runs active projects while creating the governance structures, tools, and processes that will scale across the organization, with a longer-term goal of building project management capability in department leaders, not just within the PMO itself.

Responsibilities

• Manage day-to-day execution of active projects in the strategic portfolio, maintaining project plans, running project cadences, tracking commitments, surfacing blockers, and escalating issues before they become delivery risks.
• Maintain a single authoritative view of the portfolio: which projects are on schedule, which are behind with a recovery plan, and which require executive awareness or scope reassessment.
• Manage project-level budgets where applicable, maintaining visibility into spend and flagging variances from approved allocations.
• Co-design and build the PMO's Smartsheet infrastructure: portfolio dashboard, resource capacity tracking, project plan templates, RAID logs, and executive status reporting.
• Co-develop the PMO's project management methodology: documenting standards for gate reviews, status cadences, escalation protocols, and onboarding materials for functional PMs.
• Maintain ongoing visibility into resource commitments across the active portfolio: who is allocated to what, at what capacity, and through what timeline.
• Perform proactive resource checks before new projects are greenlit, enabling fact-based prioritization conversations at the executive level.
• Communicate project status clearly and consistently to executive stakeholders, including the Sr. Director, Executive Team, and CEO as appropriate.
• Coach department leaders and functional project managers operating inside the PMO framework, providing structure, accountability, and hands-on support.
• Hold project owners accountable to commitments with clarity, diplomacy, and follow-through.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of project management experience running cross-functional initiatives in a middle market or operationally complex environment required.
• Demonstrated ability to manage senior stakeholders and hold project owners accountable.
• Proficiency with professional-grade project and portfolio management tools; Smartsheet experience strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated comfort operating in ambiguous environments where the playbook does not yet exist and part of the job is writing it.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Capable of writing a crisp executive status update and facilitating a productive cross-functional working session with equal effectiveness.
• PMP certification or equivalent preferred.
• Prior experience establishing or building out a PMO preferred.
• Familiarity with CPG, food & beverage, or manufacturing environments preferred.
• Experience managing technically complex projects such as ERP implementations, platform migrations, or similar initiatives preferred.