Director, Project Management

Role Description

The Director, Project Management is a senior leadership role responsible for enterprise-level governance, prioritization, and execution of new product development (NPD) and strategic initiatives across the global Diagnostics business. This role elevates project management from operational oversight to a strategic capability, ensuring disciplined execution, cross-functional alignment, and delivery against Meridian Bioscience’s growth and innovation objectives. Reporting into senior commercial leadership, the Director serves as the central point of accountability for project execution excellence—owning portfolio-level visibility, resource alignment, and decision support for leadership. The role partners closely with R&D, Marketing, Clinical, Regulatory, Quality, Operations, and Supply Chain on a global scale to drive predictable, high-quality outcomes in a regulated medical device environment.

Key Duties

• Enterprise Project & Portfolio Leadership
  • Own governance and execution oversight for the global Diagnostics project portfolio, including NPD, lifecycle, and strategic initiatives.
  • Establish portfolio-level visibility across timelines, resources, dependencies, and risk.
  • Drive prioritization recommendations and scenario planning to support leadership decision-making.
  • Ensure projects are aligned to business strategy, commercial priorities, and capacity constraints.
• Project Management Excellence & Governance
  • Define, implement, and continuously improve project management frameworks, tools, and standards across Diagnostics.
  • Lead and enforce a disciplined phase-gate / stage-gate governance process for new product development through commercialization.
  • Ensure consistent application of best practices across all projects, balancing rigor with speed and agility.
  • Act as escalation owner for complex, high-risk, or cross-portfolio issues.
• Cross-Functional Execution & Alignment
  • Partner with functional leaders to ensure clear ownership, accountability, and decision-making across project teams.
  • Proactively identify and resolve execution risks, resource conflicts, and interdependencies.
  • Facilitate effective communication between project teams and executive leadership.
  • Enable timely trade-off discussions and course corrections to keep programs on track.
• Team Leadership & Capability Building
  • Lead, develop, and scale a team of project managers and senior project managers to support company project pipeline and initiatives.
  • Set performance expectations, career pathways, and succession planning for the project management function.
  • Coach and develop project managers to operate as strategic business partners, not just task managers.
  • Foster a culture of accountability, transparency, and continuous improvement.
• Strategic Partnership to Leadership
  • Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership on execution feasibility, timelines, and risk.
  • Provide concise, actionable portfolio updates and recommendations to executive stakeholders.
  • Support strategic planning, annual operating plans, and long-range roadmap development.
• Compliance & Quality Alignment
  • Ensure project execution complies with applicable regulatory, quality, and design control requirements.
  • Partner with Quality and Regulatory Affairs to embed compliance into project planning and execution.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.
• Project management certification (PMP) or equivalent required.
• 10-15+ years of experience in project management.
• 5+ years of people leadership experience managing project managers or program leaders.
• Demonstrated experience in IVD design and development within U.S.-based regulated environments, with strong knowledge of FDA design controls and experience project managing within a formal design control framework.
• Proven success operating at portfolio and enterprise levels, influencing senior leaders.
• Enterprise project and portfolio management.
• Strategic thinking with strong execution discipline.
• Executive communication and influence.
• Risk management and decision facilitation.
• Cross-functional leadership in regulated environments.
• Talent development and organizational scaling.
• Travel: <25%.