Senior Project Manager (m/f/d)

Das ist der Job

The industry currently consumes >13% of all fossil resources, most of them during the manufacturing.

Darum lohnt es sich

We are a small but mighty team which is dedicated to fulfil our mission: Based on the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry we aim to build a green chemical‑pharmaceutical industry. We need your help to lead the development of our greener processes and bring them into manufacturing as part of our Chemistry & Engineering Team.

In this role, you will own a development project, lead the execution and coordinate the project team with experience in managing complex development projects within the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. You will lead the project team and be accountable for its success.

Project leadership and team coordination: Full responsibility and accountability for all operational and reporting aspects in leading a cross‑functional project team to deliver on all scope objectives on time and with high quality.

Direct and motivate a multi‑disciplinary (chemistry, analytics, engineering) project team, holding members closely accountable to deliver detailed results within the agreed governance structure. Act as the primary liaison between project teams, management, and external partners to align on project goals.

Monitor project health and inform the team of potential impacts, proactively addressing challenges and escalating when necessary. Experience: 5+ years of experience in project management with a proven track record using traditional or agile methods and multi‑functional teams.

Soft Skills: Ability to work collaboratively with cross‑functional teams in a fast‑paced environment. Benefits We regard your skills as well as your conscience as our highest assets. We provide every team member with a veto right on projects, for example if you do not want to work for a specific customer for moral reasons.

You will be part of an extremely motivated interdisciplinary team, giving you all the possibilities to further develop yourself and help us to build an industry anew. Who we are DUDE CHEM is a Green Chemistry startup with its origins in the German Cluster of Excellence in Catalysis at the University of Technology Berlin. Our aim is to change this.

In order to achieve this goal, we have built a strong IP portfolio and validated the tech onto the market in order to reduce or reuse expensive resources in the production of chemicals and pharmaceuticals. We believe that digitalization can be an integral tool for the implementation of greener, more sustainable production processes.

This is why we combine both scientific disciplines – digitalization and sustainability – in all of our projects. Why we need you We are working on bringing our first, greener manufactured chemicals into commercial scale. Further, many customers are approaching us to get our support and help them to source in a more sustainable and controlled way.

You will be responsible for planning, executing and controlling all aspects of the development project to ensure delivery within time and budget, and for communication and management of all stakeholders.

Responsibilities As a Senior Project Manager, you will own the development project of a green manufacturing process from early development to implementation in the plant. Define project goals, scope, deliverables, and success metrics in collaboration with stakeholders.

Develop, implement, and manage project plans, timelines, key activities, milestones, budgets, and resource requirements, ensuring alignment with organizational objectives and successful implementation of all project goals. Ensure project completion within the defined scope, timelines, quality standards, and budget.

Lead all aspects of project communications, agree on achievements, and conduct lessons‑learned exercises. Conduct project meetings, workshops, follow‑up activities and daily stand‑ups, sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives.

Resource management: Identify and manage resources (people, equipment, external service providers) to ensure the right individuals are assigned to meet project requirements and deadlines. Evaluate trade‑offs to balance competing demands and optimize resource allocation.

Stakeholder management: Manage external service providers such as manufacturers and developers. Ensure transparent and efficient communications towards internal and external stakeholders. Address stakeholder concerns and manage expectations effectively.

Risk management: Identify internal and external risks, issues, bottlenecks, and road blockers early and develop and implement mitigation strategies. Documentation and reporting: Ensure full documentation of technical results.

Prepare and present project status and progress reports to senior management and collaborators, ensuring transparency and accountability. Continuous improvement and quality: Drive continuous improvement through retrospectives and feedback sessions.

Find opportunities to improve processes and implement best practices of different project management methodologies to enhance efficiency and outcomes. Qualifications Education: Sc. or PhD in a natural science or engineering discipline of the life sciences or a related field.

Strong understanding of the pharmaceutical and CDMO industry, especially development of pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing processes. Experience with pharmaceutical regulatory requirements and compliance. Proven track record of managing CDMOs and other external service providers.

Technical Skills: Strong understanding of project management methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, etc.) and tools (MS Project, Asana, Jira, Trello). Expertise in chemical process development, scale‑up methodologies and manufacturing. Familiarity with goal frameworks (e.g. OKRs) and experience setting goals, metrics and tasks.

Outstanding communication, presentation, moderation and interpersonal skills, capable of influencing and negotiating at all levels. Structured, organized and highly goal‑and result‑oriented with a high degree of commitment and a hands‑on mentality. Experience working in a matrix organization structure.

Ability to manage multiple priorities and excellent time‑management skills. Effective presentation of status updates and business correspondence. Effective listening and responding to external customers, partners and colleagues at all levels. Effective communication of client needs and escalations.

Ability to operate with significant autonomy and discretion. Demonstrated bias for action and ability to deal with ambiguity. Excellent oral and written communication in English is a must; German a plus. Exceptional interpersonal skills, influencing peers and senior management.

Certifications: Qualification in project management (PMP certification), agile methodologies or equivalent is a plus. There were several occasions where our CEO used this right. We offer you an unlimited work contract and flexible working hours (results orientation), with the option to work from home at least one day per week.

DUDE CHEM strives to be a diverse and inclusive workplace where we can ALL be ourselves. We encourage job applications from people of all genders, backgrounds, and communities. Unfortunately, we neither can pay you BASF salaries, nor are we able to pay them to ourselves.

However, we will do our best to pay you a competitive salary, considering your individual needs and the specific circumstances you are in.

Additionally, you will receive stock options from our employee stock option pool so that you can participate in the success of the company. 28 days holiday per year, as well as an entirely paid for annual ticket for the public transport (“Deutschlandticket”) come on top of that.

We provide you with organic fruits, snacks, coffee & tea and non‑alcoholic drinks in our offices and labs in Berlin. It is important for that you develop professionally, thus we support and offer coaching and job‑relevant trainings to you. Lastly, we have frequent company socials to have some fun. #J-18808-Ljbffr