Validation Manager
Company: Project Farma, a PerkinElmer company
Location: Remote, with onsite presence required at customer sites (candidate must reside in one of Project Farma's primary markets)
Employment Type: Full-time, salaried
Reports To: Market Director
Job Level: Tier 5
Travel: Willingness to travel domestically to support client projects
About Project Farma
Project Farma, a PerkinElmer company, exists to improve patient lives by accelerating the delivery of life-changing therapies. We deliver high-quality life sciences projects across the full project lifecycle. Our team members are curious, personable, and unselfish, and they bring a Patient Focused and People First mindset to everything they do.
Role Summary
The Validation Manager leads teams and oversees the execution of work aligned to project, client, and business objectives. This role balances people leadership with operational accountability, including coaching, performance management, resource planning, and high-quality delivery within defined scope, timelines, and budget. The Validation Manager partners with the Market Director and other senior leaders to drive continuous improvement, scalability, and organizational effectiveness. Project Farma team members collaborate with cross-functional teams to build trusted client relationships, deliver an exceptional customer experience, and contribute to business growth by identifying opportunities and applying data-driven insights to support project planning, cost, schedule, and performance management. The role contributes to financial performance, operational efficiency, and continuous improvement, and invests in people through mentorship, knowledge sharing, and professional development.
Key Responsibilities
Site Strategy
- Develop and own the site strategy to position the firm as a leader in Commissioning, Qualification, and Validation (CQV) services.
- Create a strategic roadmap to drive site growth and align with firm objectives.
- Proactively identify client needs to foster site expansion.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders, such as client executives and decision-makers, to secure long-term partnerships.
Business Growth and Development
- Drive site-level business expansion and development with a strategic focus on expanding services and opportunities.
- Work with Project Leads to maintain dashboards and pursue expansion opportunities.
- Own project extensions and proposal generation, and provide critical input into site RFPs.
- Participate in industry events to build a local network, and collaborate with the Market Director to expand client portfolios and secure high-value contracts.
- Monitor and achieve operational KPIs and targets.
- Analyze project performance metrics to ensure operational health and identify strategic opportunities for scaling.
- Lead, oversee, and execute client project initiatives that identify new and added services for the mutual benefit of the client and the organization.
- Support, review, and analyze business development, project delivery, and team member activities.
- Support the development, implementation, and execution of strategic plans to meet Project Farma business development and growth targets.
- Collaborate across Project Farma practice teams to develop solutions for joint business opportunities that meet business and client objectives.
- Monitor and manage budgets and planning needs to meet project requirements.
- Support the maintenance of new and existing client accounts, focusing on project delivery and account growth.
- Work with client business and technical leadership on workflow development, project scope development, risk assessment, issue resolution, and work forecasting and planning.
- Provide direction and innovation in service and process improvement, cost reduction, and business process optimization.
- Stay current on biomanufacturing industry trends and turn market changes into new business opportunities.
- Attend and represent Project Farma at ISPE and other networking events.
Leadership and Talent Development
- Oversee the career development and performance of the entire site team.
- Coach, mentor, and develop team leads to prepare them for leadership roles.
- Mentor, train, and coach team members in client engagement, relationship management, and leadership.
- Develop and maintain succession plans for team or project leads.
- Partner with Market Directors to share best practices across sites.
- Lead a high-performing team, fostering accountability, excellence, and collaboration, while setting performance goals and enhancing retention.
- Manage teams at various client sites and locations to ensure consistent technical services that comply with client and Project Farma processes and standards.
- Collaboratively identify and implement employee performance and development plans to meet individual development and organizational growth goals.
- Direct and manage teams executing projects within Project Farma practice areas, with overall responsibility for technical solutions, cost, quality, and client satisfaction.
- Strategically assign team members to accounts for mutual benefit, and identify succession plans to maximize the readiness of future leaders.
- Lead initiatives and projects by ensuring team members understand team and individual goals and responsibilities, managing priorities, and ensuring timely, high-quality completion of work.
- Serve as a subject matter expert who provides technical direction, training, career development, and performance assessments to ensure high-quality delivery.
- Identify professional development opportunities for team members.
- Build and maintain high-performing teams to ensure successful account management and growth.
- Strategically identify talent needs and support the recruitment and talent acquisition process.
Resource Management
- Drive resourcing decisions for the site and collaborate with Market Directors to ensure optimal staffing.
- Consult with the Market Director to forecast future resource needs and maintain a forward-looking resource plan.
- Proactively manage resource utilization and team mix to ensure high-quality project delivery within budget.
- Support project direction and strategy based on client vision and expected outcomes throughout the project delivery life cycle without oversight.
- Support and identify resource planning, and define project objectives and requirements needed to structure a project or activity.
- Analyze trends and ensure performance of project management tools, manage burn rates, identify the need for new proposals, and proactively communicate project performance.
- Proactively use earned value analysis to ensure success for clients and maximize performance for Project Farma.
- Drive efficiency through team member utilization and support cross-account and cross-region allocations.
Technical Delivery
- Oversee technical delivery for site or market projects, ensuring high-quality outcomes.
- Ensure appropriate staffing to meet project requirements and client expectations.
- Build dependence as a technical subject matter expert to the client and serve as an escalation point for technical issues.
- Ensure delivery of high-quality GMP engineering services that meet client specifications and regulatory standards.
- Own and delegate project execution, ensuring timelines and budgets are met.
- Continually develop technical aptitude in Project Farma's core services within the life science space.
- May be asked to assist with project controls and scheduling, including budget estimates, detailed project schedules and milestones, feasibility estimates, risks, forecasts and scenario analysis, and project cost reports and trend analysis.
Operational Performance and Billability
- Maintain 100% individual billability while ensuring the site or market team achieves forecast hours and targets.
- Ensure team performance aligns to billable hours in support of operational goals.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree (and/or Master's degree) in Life Science, Engineering, or a related discipline, or a combination of equivalent experience in CQV engineering, cGMP facility start-up, project management, or comparable military experience.
- 7 or more years of experience in advanced therapy, life science, pharmaceutical, or biotech environments.
- Minimum of 4 years managing high-performing teams.
- Minimum of 2 years of business development, lead generation, or sales experience.
- Willingness to travel as required for client project assignments and for business development and team member initiatives.
- Experience as a trusted strategic advisor to organizational decision-makers on short-term and long-term initiatives.
- Experience translating client vision into project direction, framing the project, providing clarity to direct reports and clients, and delivering results.
- Proven technical and managerial capability in developing solutions to engineering and business problems and managing deliverables and client expectations.
Attributes for Success
- Technical delivery: applies advanced technical knowledge and professional expertise.
- Innovation and continuous improvement: seeks better ways, adapts to change, and champions new ideas.
- Customer focus and professionalism: represents Project Farma with consistent professionalism, appropriate escalation, and respect for internal stakeholders, even in high-stress delivery situations.
- Integrity and humility: demonstrates self-awareness and puts the Project Farma mission above ego.
- Collaboration and communication: communicates clearly and proactively and drives transparent alignment with clients.
- Project execution: delivers reliably, manages priorities, and drives high-quality outcomes.
- Growth mindset: open to new ideas, feedback, and change.
Compensation
The annual compensation range for this full-time position is $110,000 to $130,000. The final base pay offered to the successful candidate will be determined by factors including internal equity, work location, and individual qualifications such as job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.
Additional Information
Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. We will not sponsor applicants for current or future work visas for this position. This position may require significant travel to support project and business needs. We cannot employ anyone with an invalid driver's license.
Equal Opportunity Employer
Project Farma is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability status, age, or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. PerkinElmer is committed to a culturally diverse workforce.
