Sr. Project Manager, Engineering
About this opportunity
Bring your experience, leadership, and strategic mindset to a role where your work directly enables the delivery of innovative therapies to patients around the world. As a Sr. Project Manager, Engineering at Novartis, you will lead a complex portfolio of capital projects within a regulated manufacturing environment, guiding teams through ambiguity and technical challenges with confidence. You will serve as a trusted partner to site leadership, drive decisions that shape long‑term manufacturing strategy, and champion operational excellence while balancing cost, quality, and schedule. This role offers the opportunity to influence at scale, mentor teams, and leave a lasting footprint across the site’s capital portfolio.
Key Responsibilities:Lead multiple capital projects from initiation through close‑out, ensuring delivery on time, within budget, and to quality standardsAct as primary client contact, proactively managing stakeholder expectations and maintaining strong working relationshipsManage project scope, schedule, and budget changes with clear impact assessments and documented approvalsOversee contractors and internal teams, ensuring safe, compliant, and effective project executionResolve project issues, risks, and resource constraints in partnership with site leadershipPrepare and manage project budgets, forecasts, and funding documentationDevelop project objectives aligned with business plans and user requirementsCoordinate planning and scheduling across project teams and manufacturing operationsCommunicate project performance, risks, and mitigation plans to site and senior leadershipDrive operational excellence by capturing lessons learned and supporting continuous improvement initiativesEssential Requirements:Bachelor’s degree in Chemical, Electrical, or Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent experienceNine years of experience supporting pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical manufacturing operations in regulated environmentsDemonstrated experience leading FDA‑regulated and GMP‑compliant projects within highly regulated facilitiesStrong knowledge of FDA regulations and Good Manufacturing Practice systemsExperience delivering capital improvement projects, including process and production layout developmentExperience managing Good Manufacturing Practice construction activities in brownfield and renovation environmentsApplied knowledge of Quality by Design, Six Sigma, and operational excellence methodologiesExcellent written and verbal communication skills, including strong technical writing capabilitiesNovartis Compensation and Benefit Summary:The salary for this position is expected to range between $108,500 and $201,500 annuallyThe final salary offered is determined based on factors like, but not limited to, relevant skills and experience, and upon joining Novartis will be reviewed periodically. Novartis may change the published salary range based on company and market factors.Your compensation will include a performance-based cash incentive and, depending on the level of the role, eligibility to be considered for annual equity awards.US-based eligible employees will receive a comprehensive benefits package that includes health, life and disability benefits, a 401(k) with company contribution and match, and a variety of other benefits. In addition, employees are eligible for a generous time off package including vacation, personal days, holidays and other leaves.#LI-Onsite
Job details
How this role compares
Computed from every other active Manufacturing & CMC role in our database, not just this employer's listings.
We currently track 276 comparable Manager Manufacturing & CMC roles across 50 biopharma companies.
Salary context
94 of 276 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)
Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 276 comparable roles
+ 17 more countries
Seniority mix
276 of 276 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
0 of 276 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
No peers with a known therapeutic area yet.
Similar opportunities
The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.
Open in 4 locations
Open in 2 locations
How we calculate "similar"
No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.
Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.
0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.