Project Manager

Position Overview

Benshaw, a worldwide leader in industrial motor controls, is seeking an experienced Project Manager to lead complex research and development projects across the full product lifecycle. This role will oversee new product development and ongoing product improvements, including redesigns, component obsolescence, and cost reduction initiatives.

The Project Manager will guide cross-functional teams across multiple locations, establishing clear project scope, schedules, budgets, and milestones while proactively managing risks and resolving competing priorities. Working closely with Engineering, Product Management, Operations, and other key stakeholders, this individual will help prioritize the project pipeline, communicate progress and recommendations to leadership, and drive accountability for project commitments.

The ideal candidate combines strong project management skills with technical and commercial understanding, communicates effectively with both technical teams and executives, and leads through influence in a matrix organization. This position offers the opportunity to advance Benshaw’s product portfolio while strengthening project execution and continuous improvement across the organization.

Location- Onsite- Benshaw, 615 Alpha Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15238

Key Responsibilities

Project Leadership

• Lead complex R&D projects across the full product lifecycle, including new product development, ongoing development initiatives, and sustaining engineering (product updates, redesigns, component obsolescence, and cost reduction).
• Develop and execute corrective action plans for at-risk projects, presenting leadership with clear options, tradeoffs, and recommendations.
• Initiate new projects from concept, establishing scope, success criteria, and phase-gate milestones.
• Manage project scope, schedule, budget, and risk, and provide regular status updates to leadership.
• Support additional strategic and operational initiatives across the organization as business priorities change.
• Lead cross-functional project teams across multiple locations, setting clear expectations and securing commitments to project goals.
• Raise resource and priority conflicts to leadership with clear tradeoffs and recommended solutions.
• Track project budgets and product cost targets.

Project Pipeline

• Maintain visibility of upcoming projects, including scope, resource needs and how they fit with the timeline of current work.
• Work with leadership to prioritize and schedule upcoming projects.
• Identify technical and schedule risks early and lead mitigation.
• Manage scope changes through formal change control.
• Communication and Reporting
• Set up a regular communication rhythm across sites (stand-ups, status reviews, gate reviews) that works across locations and time zones.
• Maintain project dashboards and performance metrics.
• Lead lessons-learned reviews and feed the results into the process.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Project Management, Business, or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of project/product management in industrial or electrical equipment, with product development experience strongly preferred.
• A proven ability to lead through influence in a matrix organization, without direct authority.
• Experience coordinating engineering teams across multiple locations or remote teams.
• The ability to quickly learn a project’s technical and commercial background and identify gaps in documentation, scope or planning.
• Strong presentation skills for both executives and technical teams.
• Proficiency in Project Management processes and tools

Preferred Qualifications

• PMP certification.
• Experience leading a large, multi-year product development project.
• Experience with VFDs, soft starters, MCCs or power electronics.
• Familiarity with UL, CSA and IEC standards.
• Experience with ERP/MRP systems and product lifecycle management (PLM) tools.
• Experience with Agile or hybrid methods for firmware projects.

Travel

Up to 5-10%

Key Relationships

Engineering, R&D, Product Management, Operations, Supply Chain, Quality, Finance, Sales and leadership.

Since our founding in 1983, Benshaw has grown to become a recognized leader in the design, development and manufacture of mission critical motor controls and drives. That’s why, when the application is critical, and the environment harsh, customers specify Benshaw more than any other brand.