Project Manager

Project Manager

Crane Engineering is a family-oriented Midwest based company; with locations in Wisconsin and Minnesota. As a result of our growth, we have a need for a Project Manager.

The Project Manager owns the end-to-end execution of custom-designed, engineered-to-order skid system projects from commercial handoff through engineering, procurement, fabrication, factory testing, shipment, field installation/commissioning, and closeout. The role is accountable for scope, schedule, cost, cash flow, quality, safety, risk, and customer communication across multiple concurrent projects.

What You Will Do-

Project Leadership and Governance

• Demonstrate and promote Crane's core values: Act with Integrity and Respect, Foster Teamwork, Focus on the Customer, Strive for Excellence and Innovation, Project Passion and Energy, and Have Fun.
• Own each assigned project from sales-to-execution handoff through final closeout. Ensure the contract scope, customer requirements, exclusions, assumptions, commercial terms, budget, schedule, deliverables, and acceptance criteria are understood and aligned before execution begins.
• Build and maintain an integrated project execution plan and detailed schedule with clear owners, dependencies, milestones, and critical-path activities, including design inputs, customer submittals and approvals, long-lead releases, design freeze, fabrication start, FAT, shipment, installation, startup, and final documentation.
• Lead internal and customer kickoffs, recurring project reviews, and stage-gate/readiness reviews. Maintain action, risk, issue, decision, and change logs; provide accurate status reporting; and escalate problems early.
• Help establish and improve project management standard work, templates, dashboards, meeting cadences, stage gates, and performance measures across the OptiFlow business. Coach team members in consistent use of these practices.

Engineering, Scope, and Delivery

• Review customer contracts, specifications, drawings, and technical requirements for execution risk, ambiguous obligations, acceptance criteria, documentation requirements, and schedule constraints. Coordinate process, mechanical, electrical/controls, and manufacturing resources to turn customer requirements into an executable design/build plan.
• Manage customer submittals, comments, approvals, revisions, design freeze, bill-of-material releases, and as-built documentation. Identify scope deviations, quantify cost and schedule impact, prepare change proposals, and obtain customer authorization before non-contracted work proceeds whenever commercially practical.
• Coordinate procurement priorities and long-lead material releases with Supply Chain. Track critical vendor commitments, submittals, delivery dates, and expediting needs against the project schedule. Work with fabrication, assembly, quality, and operations teams to resolve constraints before they affect throughput.
• Plan and lead FAT readiness, customer witness testing, punch-list closure, turnover documentation, and shipment release. Ensure quality issues, NCRs, and open items have clear owners and due dates. Coordinate shipment, site logistics, field installation, commissioning/startup, and warranty handoff as required by project scope.

Financial, Customer, and Team Leadership

• Establish the project cost baseline and manage committed cost, engineering and shop labor, subcontractors, freight, field costs, contingency, billing milestones, and cash flow. Review costs against estimate, forecast cost-to-complete and estimate-at-completion, identify margin risks, and implement recovery plans.
• Manage project invoicing milestones, customer payment requirements, change-order recovery, and collection support with Finance and the Account Manager. Evaluate risks and opportunities quantitatively where practical, maintain mitigation plans, and use contingency deliberately.
• Serve as the customer's primary execution contact. Communicate schedule, decisions, changes, risks, and required customer actions; set expectations clearly; and address difficult issues professionally. Drive accountability across Sales, Engineering, Supply Chain, Operations, Quality, Finance, subcontractors, and Field Service.
• Support proposal and pre-award reviews on higher-risk opportunities by challenging assumptions, schedules, execution strategy, estimated labor, procurement lead times, and project risk. Conduct project closeout and lessons-learned reviews, and use recurring causes of delay, rework, cost growth, and customer dissatisfaction to improve future project execution.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Engineering Technology, Construction Management, Business, Supply Chain, or a related field preferred. Equivalent relevant experience will be considered.
• Five+ years of experience in project engineering, project coordination, manufacturing, field service, construction, project management, or a related technical environment.
• Experience in engineered-to-order, make-to-order, industrial equipment, process systems, machinery, fabrication, or similar project-based manufacturing environment.
• Previous responsibility coordinating cross-functional project activities preferred.
• Experience working directly with customers.
• Previous formal supervisory experience preferred.
• Project management certification is beneficial but not required.

Required Skills and Competencies

• Strong organizational and time-management skills with the ability to manage multiple projects and competing priorities.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams without direct supervisory authority.
• Strong follow-through and personal accountability.
• Ability to identify project risks and escalate issues appropriately.
• Strong understanding of project schedules, milestones, dependencies, and critical-path concepts.
• Demonstrated financial acumen, including understanding budgets, estimates, actual costs, committed costs, and project variances.
• Demonstrated ability to interpret customer contracts, scope requirements, and change-order processes.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to address and resolve cross-functional and customer conflicts.
• Ability to read and understand technical drawings, bills of material, specifications, and equipment documentation.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, including Excel, Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint.
• Experience with Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, or similar scheduling/project-management tools preferred.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, engineered-to-order environment where project requirements and priorities may change.

Key Success Measures

Performance in this role will be measured by factors including:

• Achievement of project schedule milestones.
• Project performance relative to established budgets.
• Accuracy and timeliness of project status reporting.
• Early identification and communication of project risks.
• Timely engineering and customer approvals.
• Material readiness to support fabrication schedules.
• Effective coordination of FAT, shipment, and project closeout.
• Proper identification and documentation of scope changes.
• Customer communication and satisfaction.
• Quality and completeness of project documentation.
• Effectiveness of cross-functional project leadership.