Implementation Project Manager

The ideal candidate can be located in the East or Central time zones.
The Implementation Project Manager is responsible for leading and coordinating the successful implementation of Stago instrumentation, automation, digital solutions, and related services at customer sites from commercial handoff through successful go-live and transition to ongoing support.
Serving as the primary project management point of contact for the customer, the Implementation Project Manager develops and manages the comprehensive implementation plan and coordinates activities across the customer and Stago's Sales, Clinical Applications, Field Service, Digital Solutions/IT, Supply Chain, Customer Service, and other functional teams. The position is accountable for ensuring implementation milestones, dependencies, customer requirements, risks, and resources are actively managed to achieve an efficient, predictable, and high-quality customer go-live.
The Implementation Project Manager does not replace the functional expertise or responsibilities of Clinical Applications, Field Service, Digital Solutions, or other departments. Rather, the position provides end-to-end project ownership, ensuring that all workstreams converge against an aligned implementation plan and targeted go-live date.
Success in this role requires strong project management discipline, customer communication, cross-functional leadership, problem solving, and the ability to anticipate and resolve obstacles before they impact the customer experience or implementation timeline.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Implementation Planning & Project Ownership

Own the end-to-end project management of customer implementations from commercial handoff through successful go-live and transition to ongoing support.
Develop and maintain a comprehensive implementation project plan identifying key milestones, timelines, dependencies, responsibilities, customer commitments, resource requirements, and targeted go-live dates.
Establish a clear implementation governance structure and cadence appropriate to the size and complexity of each project.
Serve as the primary project management point of contact for the customer throughout the implementation lifecycle.
Lead customer implementation kickoff meetings, recurring project meetings, readiness reviews, and post-implementation reviews.
Manage multiple customer implementations concurrently, effectively prioritizing activities based on customer commitments, business priorities, project complexity, and risk.
Manage complex, multi-site, IDN, reference laboratory, and enterprise implementations requiring coordination across multiple customer and Stago stakeholders.
Cross-Functional Coordination

Coordinate activities across Sales, Clinical Applications, Field Service, Digital Solutions/IT, Supply Chain, Customer Service, Marketing, Finance, and other functions necessary for successful implementation.
Establish clear roles, responsibilities, deliverables, and deadlines for each implementation workstream.
Ensure functional teams have appropriate visibility to upcoming implementation requirements and resource needs.
Facilitate communication and decision-making between internal teams and customer stakeholders.
Lead through influence across functions without direct reporting authority.
Escalate resource constraints, competing priorities, or unresolved dependencies when they create risk to customer commitments or go-live timelines.
Customer Readiness & Go-Live Management

Partner with customer stakeholders to establish and monitor customer readiness requirements, including site preparation, laboratory workflow, facilities, IT/network connectivity, staffing, training, validation, and other prerequisites.
Coordinate instrument delivery, installation, connectivity, validation, training, and go-live activities with the appropriate functional owners.
Maintain visibility to customer-owned activities and proactively communicate when incomplete customer requirements place implementation timelines at risk.
Develop and manage formal go-live readiness criteria and facilitate readiness reviews prior to conversion.
Coordinate cross-functional go-live support plans to ensure appropriate resources are available during critical implementation periods.
Facilitate go/no-go discussions when project readiness or risk requires formal assessment.
Ensure customer expectations are clearly established and proactively managed throughout the project lifecycle.
Proactively identify project risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies that could affect implementation timing, quality, cost, or customer satisfaction.
Maintain appropriate project risk and issue documentation and ensure mitigation plans, owners, and deadlines are established.
Drive timely resolution of project barriers through appropriate functional owners.
Escalate significant risks before they jeopardize customer commitments rather than after milestones have been missed.
Facilitate structured problem solving for complex implementation challenges involving multiple internal or customer stakeholders.
Ensure appropriate leadership visibility for high-risk or strategically important implementations.
Implementation Forecasting & Performance

Maintain an accurate rolling forecast of planned installations, validation activities, training, and customer go-live dates.
Regularly assess forecast confidence and identify implementations at risk of delay.
Communicate changes to implementation timing promptly and ensure downstream business impacts are understood.
Track and report implementation performance metrics, including project cycle time, milestone adherence, forecast accuracy, on-time go-live performance, implementation delays, and other established KPIs.
Identify recurring implementation barriers and trends and recommend process improvements to increase implementation speed, predictability, quality, and customer satisfaction.
Support resource-capacity planning by providing visibility to future implementation demand and timing.
Customer Experience & Project Closeout

Maintain proactive, professional communication with customers throughout the implementation process, including regular updates regarding project status, upcoming milestones, responsibilities, risks, and decisions.
Ensure the customer has clear expectations regarding Stago responsibilities and customer responsibilities throughout implementation.
Coordinate resolution and ownership of outstanding issues prior to project closeout.
Conduct a structured post-go-live review for appropriate projects to identify lessons learned and improvement opportunities.
Ensure all remaining actions have clearly identified owners and timelines before transitioning the customer to routine operational support.
Identify and communicate systemic opportunities to improve the Stago implementation experience.
Develop, maintain, and continuously improve standardized implementation tools, templates, project plans, readiness assessments, communication plans, risk-management tools, and project closeout processes.
Partner with functional leaders to identify and eliminate recurring implementation friction and unnecessary handoffs.
Capture lessons learned from implementations and translate them into scalable improvements to processes, SOPs, tools, and training.
Support development of implementation best practices for different customer segments, instrument configurations, and project complexity levels.
Lead or contribute to special projects as assigned by senior leadership.
Complete, maintain, and process all required reports and records in a timely manner.
Education and/or Experience:

Associate's Degree in related field with 5 or more years related experience required; or Bachelor's Degree in Business, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Engineering, Project Management, or a related field preferred, with minimum of 3–5 years of project management, implementation, customer operations, clinical laboratory, medical device, diagnostics, healthcare technology, or related experience required.
Experience within the clinical diagnostics, IVD, medical device, laboratory automation, or healthcare technology industry required.
Experience managing the installation and implementation of capital equipment in hospital, reference laboratory, or clinical laboratory environments.
Knowledge of clinical laboratory operations, workflow, validation, quality requirements, and regulatory considerations.
Experience coordinating laboratory information systems, middleware, networking, automation, or other healthcare IT integrations.
Experience managing complex multi-site, health system, IDN, or enterprise customer implementations.
Experience developing project artifacts such as project charters, implementation plans, communication plans, RACI matrices, risk registers, readiness assessments, and project status reporting.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications and project management tools such as Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, or equivalent platforms.
Experience with CRM, ERP, Power BI, Smartsheet, Microsoft Project, or similar business and project-management
PMP, CAPM, PRINCE2, Lean Six Sigma, or other relevant project management certification preferred.
Ability to travel up to 40% to customer locations as required to support implementation planning, major milestones, and go-live activities.
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each qualification satisfactorily. The requirements listed above are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
This job requires the individual to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, absent a legally required accommodation, as determined by customer requirements.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship, disability or protected veteran status.
Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws.For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.

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