Senior Director, Global Program Management - NPD & Innovation

Job Description

Job Description

Let’s Go Beyond the Surface. Join Fluidra as our Sr. Director, Global PMO - Product Development & Innovation and play a pivotal role in transforming innovation strategy into commercial success. Based in Carlsbad, CA,  this highly visible global leadership position will drive the execution, governance, and optimization of Fluidra’s worldwide portfolio of product development initiatives across hardware, software, digital, and connected solutions. Partnering closely with executive leadership, you will build a world-class PMO function, accelerate speed-to-market, maximize innovation investments, and ensure the right products are delivered at the right time to fuel sustainable growth.

WHAT YOU WILL CONTRIBUTE  

The Sr. Director of the Global Project Management Office (PMO) for Product Development & Innovation is a senior leadership role responsible for orchestrating the execution, governance, and portfolio management of Fluidra's entire portfolio of product development and innovation projects across hardware, software, digital, and connected solutions worldwide. This role ensures that strategic investments in new product initiatives and innovation pipelines are prioritized, resourced, and delivered effectively to achieve business growth objectives, on time, within budget, and to the highest quality standards at global scale.

As the leader of the global PMO organization, this position drives cross-functional alignment, accelerates speed-to-market, optimizes resources utilization, and establishes world-class project and portfolio management practices.  The role serves as a critical link between strategy and execution, providing executive leadership with visibility, governance, and decision-making support to maximize the return on R&D investments and deliver a high-performing innovation pipeline.

This leader will build and mature a high-performing PMO function, set governance frameworks, champion a culture of execution excellence, and translate strategic ambitions into measurable project outcomes across business units and geographies.

Ultimately, the role exists to transform innovation strategy into commercial results by ensuring Fluidra consistently delivers the right products, at the right time, with the right resources, to drive profitable growth globally. 

Beyond ensuring disciplined execution, this leader will shape how Fluidra invests in innovation globally, optimizing the balance between strategic growth opportunities, technology investments and resource allocation. The role is expected to maximize portfolio value, accelerate innovation ROI and ensure every R&D investment contributes to sustainable, profitable growth. Additionally, you will: 

Portfolio Governance & Strategic Alignment

• Ensure successful delivery of new product development programs across all business units and regions
• Lead the global product development and innovation portfolio, ensuring alignment with Fluidra's growth strategy and the CPO's priorities.
• Establish and enforce portfolio prioritization frameworks, resource allocation models, and stage-gate review processes for Fluidra’s global innovation portfolio.
• Partner with the Chief Growth Officer and CPO Executive Committee to translate business strategy into a funded, executable project portfolio.
• Own the enterprise portfolio prioritization process, recommending investment decisions, project acceleration, postponement or termination based on strategic value, resource capacity and business impact.
• Optimize the balance between breakthrough innovation, platform investments and sustaining engineering initiatives to maximize long-term portfolio value.
• Ensure innovation investments are aligned with corporate growth strategy, capital allocation priorities and financial return expectations.
• Provide consolidated portfolio reporting, risk dashboards, and executive-level visibility across all active initiatives and product roadmaps.
• Establish best-in-class project management standards, methodologies, and tools

Innovation Pipeline Management & Strategic Prioritization

• Oversee the end-to-end product development pipeline from concept through launch, ensuring a healthy balance of short-term and long-term innovation investments.
• Collaborate and partner with Engineering, Software teams, Product Management, Marketing, Ops, and Commercial leaders to prioritize investments.
• Facilitate portfolio reviews, innovation governance forums, and executive decision-making processes
• Drive resource allocation decisions aligned with strategic growth priorities
• Ensure optimal balance of breakthrough innovation, platform development, and sustaining projects
• Continuously evaluate portfolio health through value-based portfolio management, ensuring the organization focuses resources on the highest-value opportunities.
• Track and report on pipeline health metrics (number of projects by stage, time-to-market, conversion rates, and revenue), risks, resource utilization, and financial performance.

Accelerate Speed-to-Market

• Identify and eliminate bottlenecks across the development lifecycle
• Leverage AI-enabled portfolio analytics and predictive project management tools to improve prioritization, forecasting accuracy and decision-making.
• Improve project predictability, cycle times, and launch readiness
• Implement leading practices in Agile, Stage-Gate, and hybrid development methodologies
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives across the global innovation organization

PMO Operations & Process Excellence

• Ensure consistent project lifecycle management from ideation and business case through commercialization and post-launch review.
• Drive adoption of project management best practices across regions and business units, including training and capability development.
• Oversee project management platforms and data quality to enable reliable decision-making.
• Drive enterprise-wide simplification of governance processes, reducing unnecessary complexity while increasing execution speed and organizational agility.

Team Leadership & Talent Development

• Lead, coach, and develop a global PMO team
• Foster a high-performance culture built on accountability, collaboration, execution excellence, and continuous improvement.
• Define career paths, competency frameworks, and succession plans within the PMO function.
• Attract and retain top-tier project management talent globally.

Cross-Functional Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the primary interface between R&D, Engineering, Marketing, Operations, Finance, and Commercial teams for all innovation projects.
• Manage executive-level stakeholders, resolving escalations and ensuring sustained organizational commitment.
• Chair global project review boards and steering committees, facilitating decision-making and removing roadblocks.
• Champion a culture of transparency, proactive communication, and cross-functional ownership.

Partner with Finance

• Ensure rigorous business case development, benefits realization tracking, and financial accountability for all major programs.
• Support annual strategic planning and innovation investment processes
• Partner with Finance to align project budgets with annual planning cycles and rolling forecasts.

Enterprise Resource & Investment Management

• Own global resource capacity planning across Product Development and Innovation.
• Optimize allocation of critical engineering resources across strategic priorities.
• Partner with Finance to optimize innovation investments, balancing short-term delivery and long-term strategic growth.
• Ensure effective CAPEX/OPEX allocation across the innovation portfolio.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

Within the first 24 months, this leader will:

• Improve speed-to-market across key innovation programs
• Increase portfolio predictability and on-time project delivery
• Enhance resource utilization across global R&D teams
• Strengthen portfolio governance and prioritization processes
• Improve innovation ROI and investment effectiveness
• Establish a world-class PMO organization recognized as a strategic business partner

WHAT WE SEEK

• 15+ years of progressive project/program management experience in PMO, Product Development, Innovation, Engineering or Program Management, with at least 5 years in a senior PMO leadership role.
• Demonstrated success building or significantly maturing a global PMO function in a complex, multinational manufacturing or consumer goods company.
• Demonstrated experience managing enterprise product portfolios exceeding $500M in annual investment or equivalent organizational complexity.
• Experience supporting executive portfolio investment decisions and strategic capital allocation.
• Proven track record managing large, cross-functional product development and innovation portfolios.
• Experience leading diverse, geographically dispersed teams across multiple time zones and cultures.
• Strong financial acumen: business case development, CAPEX/OPEX management, ROI tracking, and budget governance.
• Fluency in both Agile and Stage-Gate methodologies
• Exceptional executive communication and stakeholder management skills — confident presenting to C-Suite
• Proficiency in portfolio management tools (Planview, Clarity, Jira, or equivalent) and MS Office / Power BI.
• Fluent in English; Spanish is an advantage.

Desirable

• Experience in the pool, wellness, water technology, or adjacent consumer durables / home improvement sector.
• PMP, PgMP, SAFe, or equivalent professional certification.
• Experience operating within a