Project Manager- New Product Development - Air Cooling (51384)

Gradian is an engineering-led, full-line thermal solutions partner serving data center and other mission-critical, commercial, and industrial markets. Headquartered in Maple Grove, MN, with additional facilities across North America, we design and manufacture liquid cooling systems, air handling equipment, heat rejection units, and modular, factory-assembled thermal management solutions.

Gradian was founded through the unification of four complementary, established brands: MAS HVAC, Daedex, DeepCoolAI, and EcoChillers. Together, we act as a single-source provider, deploying cooling technologies as scalable systems optimized for efficiency, spatial constraints, and overall performance. With a vertically integrated engineering and manufacturing model, we pair rapid design turnaround with precision fabrication, so customers can move faster on complex projects where reliability, timeline, and quality all matter.

Why work here

At Gradian, you'll work alongside others who get genuinely fired up by complex problems, see your work go from first sketch to job site in weeks, not years, and know that while we're developing the technologies critical for AI infrastructure to scale, our culture remains people-first by design.

It is core to our identity that we operate as one team — driving to win together, energizing others, and building lasting relationships that make the work fun and rewarding.

Position Summary:

 The NPD Project Manager – Air Cooling Technologies is responsible for leading new product development (NPD) projects within the Product Development team, with a focus on innovative air cooling solutions. This role owns the full project lifecycle from concept initiation through design validation and product launch, ensuring on-time, on-budget delivery while maintaining alignment with Gradian's engineering standards and strategic objectives.

The position reports directly to the Director of Operations Engineering and maintains a dotted-line relationship with the Project Management Office (PMO) to ensure consistency in project management processes, tools, and governance across the organization.

Key Responsibilities:

Project Leadership & Execution

• Lead cross-functional NPD projects for new air-cooling technology from concept through commercialization, using a structured stage-gate or agile development process
• Develop comprehensive project plans including scope definition, schedules, resource plans, risk registers, and budget forecasts
• Drive project execution by coordinating activities across Engineering, Industrial Design, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, and Marketing
• Monitor project performance against plan; proactively identify risks, develop mitigation strategies, and escalate blockers as appropriate
• Conduct regular project status reviews with stakeholders and present updates to Advanced Development leadership

Process & Governance

• Partner with the PMO to adopt and maintain consistent project management practices, templates, and reporting standards across NPD efforts
• Maintain accurate and up-to-date project documentation throughout the project lifecycle
• Facilitate stage-gate reviews, ensuring deliverables meet defined criteria before progressing to the next phase
• Support continuous improvement of Gradian's NPD process based on lessons learned and industry best practices

Collaboration

• Serve as the primary point of contact and communication hub for assigned NPD projects
• Build strong working relationships with R&D engineers, product managers, manufacturing engineers, and external suppliers or partners
• Coordinate with Supply Chain and Operations to ensure design-for-manufacturability (DFM) considerations are addressed early in the development process
• Collaborate with Quality to ensure new products meet applicable performance, safety, and regulatory requirements

Resource & Budget Management

• Manage project budgets and track expenditures against approved plans; provide regular financial forecasts and variance explanations
• Coordinate resource allocation across project teams; surface resource conflicts and work with functional managers to resolve them

Qualifications & Requirements:

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical discipline or equal amount of relevant experience
• PMP certification (Project Management Professional) or equivalent formal project management education (e.g., a degree program with a concentration in project/program management) or equal amount of relevant experience
• Minimum of 5 years of progressive experience in project management, with at least 3 years leading NPD or product development projects in a manufacturing or engineering environment
• Demonstrated proficiency with project scheduling tools (e.g., Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, or equivalent)
• Strong understanding of stage-gate product development processes
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills

Preferred:

• Experience in HVAC, thermal management, or related mechanical systems industries
• Familiarity with air-side or fluid-side heat transfer principles (air cooling, AHUs, fan coils, heat exchangers)
• Experience working within or alongside a PMO structure
• Background in design-for-manufacturability (DFM) or design-for-quality (DFQ) methodologies
• Proficiency with PLM or ERP systems
• Six Sigma or Lean certification

Key Competencies:

• Ability to engage meaningfully with engineering teams on product design, testing, and performance trade-offs
• Strong sense of ownership; bias toward action and on-time delivery
• Ability to manage complexity, prioritize competing demands, and keep projects organized under ambiguity
• Skilled at leading cross-functional teams without direct authority
• Clear and concise communicator, both written and verbal, with the ability to tailor messages to technical and executive audiences alike
• Actively seeks to improve processes, tools, and team effectiveness