Program Manager

Location: Bellwood - Illinois - USA

The Program Manager is the accountable business leader for assigned customer programs from pursuit and award through development, launch, production stabilization, engineering changes, and closeout. The role leads a global, cross-functional team without relying on direct reporting authority and is responsible for delivering customer and business commitments for safety, quality, timing, cost, cash, and launch performance. The Program Manager establishes clear governance, anticipates and closes risk, enables timely decisions, and maintains transparent communication with customers, suppliers, plant leadership, and senior management.

Program Strategy and Governance

• Own the integrated program plan, scope, assumptions, milestones, deliverables, decision rights, and success measures in alignment with the BorgWarner product development process and customer-specific requirements.
• Lead program kickoffs, recurring cross-functional reviews, phase-gate reviews, executive updates, and formal program closeout.
• Manage multiple programs or workstreams with clear priorities, resource requirements, interdependencies, and escalation paths.

Launch, APQP and Customer Readiness

• Drive disciplined APQP execution and readiness for design validation, process validation, PPAP, safe launch, start of production, and production ramp-up.
• Confirm that product, process, tooling, capacity, supplier, logistics, packaging, quality, training, maintenance, and operational-readiness deliverables are complete and validated.
• Lead recovery planning when milestones, quality, capacity, or customer commitments are at risk.

Financial and Commercial Performance

• Build and maintain the program business case, budget, capital plan, resource plan, and financial forecast.
• Monitor program profitability, investment, tooling, engineering cost, launch cost, warranty exposure, cost-change impacts, and cash milestones; drive corrective actions when performance deviates from plan.
• Partner with Sales, Finance, Purchasing, and Engineering to support quotations, customer negotiations, change recovery, and commercial decisions.

Risk, Change and Issue Management

• Maintain an active risk and opportunity register covering technical, timing, quality, supply, capacity, financial, regulatory, and customer risks, with owners, due dates, and mitigation plans.
• Lead structured problem solving and fact-based decision making using appropriate methods such as 8D, root-cause analysis, lessons learned, and contingency planning.
• Control scope and engineering changes by assessing cross-functional impacts, securing approvals, updating plans, and communicating decisions.

Cross-Functional and Stakeholder Leadership

• Lead and influence Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, Purchasing, Sales, Finance, Operations, suppliers, and other stakeholders to meet program commitments.
• Create a high-accountability team environment with clear ownership, constructive challenge, rapid issue resolution, and inclusive decision making.
• Represent BorgWarner professionally with customers and suppliers, building trust through transparency, responsiveness, and reliable execution.

Digital Program Management and Reporting

• Use approved program-management and collaboration systems to maintain a single, current source of truth for timing, cost, risks, actions, decisions, and deliverables.
• Use dashboards and data analytics to identify trends, forecast outcomes, highlight exceptions, and support timely management decisions.
• Ensure program records, approvals, changes, and customer deliverables are accurate, traceable, audit-ready, and protected in accordance with applicable requirements.

Continuous Improvement and Sustainable Execution

• Conduct post-launch and lessons-learned reviews; convert learning into improved standards, tools, estimates, and future program plans.
• Challenge the team to improve manufacturability, quality, cost, delivery, energy/resource efficiency, and lifecycle value while meeting customer and regulatory requirements.
• Support knowledge transfer, talent development, and repeatable program-management practices across the organization.

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Salary Range

$125,600 - $172,700

Internal Use Only: Salary

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