Project Manager

Hunter Foundry Machinery is seeking a Project Manager to join our team in Bensenville, IL. This position will manage multiple customer machine-build projects from the point of sale through design, production, installation, start-up, post-installation support, and final handoff. Hunter designs and manufactures large, highly automated machines and material-handling systems for the metal casting industry. Each machine project requires close coordination between customers, engineering, purchasing, manufacturing, assembly, service, and leadership to ensure the equipment is designed, built, delivered, and installed successfully. The Project Manager will serve as the central point of coordination for assigned machine projects and will be responsible for keeping each project on schedule, identifying risks early, driving key decisions, and ensuring all major milestones and stage gates are completed. This role is designed for an early-career project professional with approximately 2–5 years of experience in industrial machinery, capital equipment, manufacturing, automation, engineering, or another project-based technical environment. What your day will look like: Take ownership of customer machine projects following the sale and manage them through completion and handoff. Develop and maintain a detailed project plan for each machine build, including major milestones, responsibilities, target dates, dependencies, and risks. Coordinate project kickoff meetings with sales, engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, service, and other key stakeholders. Review customer specifications, machine requirements, commercial commitments, and project scope to ensure internal teams clearly understand what has been sold. Coordinate finalization of mechanical, electrical, controls, and other engineering designs. Track customer drawing and design approvals and ensure required customer sign-offs are received before critical production activities begin. Coordinate changes to bills of material, machine configurations, components, and specifications based on customer requirements. Ensure engineering changes and customer-approved modifications are properly documented and communicated to affected departments. Work closely with purchasing and supply chain to ensure raw materials, purchased components, and long-lead-time items are identified and ordered early enough to support the project schedule. Track long-lead components and elevate supplier or material risks that could affect machine completion. Coordinate with production and manufacturing to establish and maintain key fabrication, machining, assembly, electrical, and controls milestones. Document critical machine-build dates and continuously compare actual progress to the project plan. Identify schedule risks, resource constraints, design delays, material shortages, and other issues early and coordinate corrective actions. Maintain an action-item log and ensure open issues have clear owners and completion dates. Establish and lead regular project-review meetings with engineering, production, purchasing, service, sales, and management. Use project stage gates to confirm that key requirements have been completed before moving to the next phase of the project. Provide concise project-status updates to senior management, including schedule, risks, open decisions, customer issues, and required actions. Coordinate machine inspection, internal testing, factory acceptance testing, and customer acceptance activities. Ensure punch-list items identified during testing or inspection are documented, assigned, and completed. Coordinate machine packing, shipping, and delivery schedules with customers and internal logistics personnel. Develop the installation and commissioning plan for the customer site, including timing, required personnel, equipment, tools, and customer responsibilities. Coordinate Hunter mechanical, electrical, controls, and service resources required for customer-site installation. Maintain close communication with the customer before and during installation to ensure site-readiness requirements are understood and completed. Track installation progress, start-up activities, testing, training, and final customer acceptance. Manage the post-installation hypercare period to ensure issues identified immediately following start-up are resolved quickly. Coordinate outstanding warranty, engineering, service, or technical items following installation. Ensure final project documentation, drawings, specifications, software, manuals, and other required materials are completed and provided as appropriate. Lead the formal project closeout and transition of the customer from the machine-build team to Hunter’s service and spare-parts support organizations. Conduct lessons-learned reviews following major projects and identify opportunities to improve future machine builds. Maintain organized project files, schedules, meeting notes, approvals, action lists, change documentation, and customer communications. Support continuous improvement of Hunter’s project-management processes, stage gates, documentation, and reporting. What we are looking for: Experience managing or coordinating projects in industrial machinery, automation, manufacturing, capital equipment, engineered products, construction, or another technical project environment. Strong project-planning and organizational skills. Ability to manage several customer projects simultaneously while maintaining attention to detail. Ability to build and maintain project schedules, milestone plans, action-item lists, and risk registers. Strong follow-through and willingness to hold team members accountable for commitments and deadlines. Comfortable working directly with engineers, manufacturing employees, purchasing personnel, service technicians, salespeople, suppliers, senior management, and customers. Ability to understand technical information well enough to coordinate mechanical, electrical, controls, production, and supply-chain activities. Strong problem‑solving skills and the ability to identify potential schedule or execution problems before they become critical. Ability to distinguish between routine project issues and items requiring management escalation. Strong customer‑service orientation and the ability to communicate professionally with customers throughout a long equipment‑build cycle. Comfortable discussing schedule delays, design changes, open technical issues, and other challenging project matters with customers and internal teams. Ability to lead recurring project meetings and keep discussions focused on decisions, responsibilities, and deadlines. Strong written and verbal communication skills. Ability to prepare clear project‑status reports for management. Comfortable spending time on the manufacturing floor and around large industrial machinery. General understanding of manufacturing processes, bills of material, purchasing, production scheduling, machine assembly, and engineering change processes. Familiarity with long‑lead material planning and supplier‑management concepts. Strong attention to documentation, change control, and customer approvals. Self‑motivated, organized, and comfortable operating in an environment where priorities can change quickly. Willingness to travel to customer facilities during machine installation, commissioning, and project closeout. Requirements: Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Engineering Technology, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations Management, Supply Chain, Project Management, Business, or a closely related field. Approximately 2–5 years of relevant professional experience in project management, project engineering, manufacturing, machinery, automation, operations, or a related technical environment. Previous experience coordinating projects involving engineering, purchasing, manufacturing, installation, or customer delivery is strongly preferred. Experience with industrial machinery, automation equipment, capital equipment, engineered‑to‑order products, or manufacturing systems is preferred. Experience developing and maintaining project schedules and tracking project milestones is required. Familiarity with bills of material, engineering drawings, purchasing, manufacturing processes, and production planning is preferred. Experience with project‑management tools such as Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Monday.com, ERP systems, or similar platforms is preferred. Strong Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook skills. Project Management Professional (PMP) or similar certification is not required but may be considered a plus. Ability to travel as required to support customer installations, start‑ups, and project meetings. Job Type: Full-Time About Hunter Foundry Machinery Hunter Foundry Machinery has been in business for over 60 years and is a world leader in matchplate molding machines and automated mold‑handling equipment for the foundry industry. Hunter equipment is designed and manufactured to help foundries improve productivity, consistency, safety, and efficiency through reliable industrial automation. We serve customers throughout the manufacturing, metal casting, automotive, aerospace, and heavy‑industry markets. This is an excellent opportunity for an early‑career project professional who wants to develop expertise managing complex industrial machinery projects from order through installation. The successful candidate will gain hands‑on experience across engineering, supply chain, manufacturing, machine assembly, customer communication, installation, commissioning, and aftermarket support while developing into a key project leader within Hunter. Hunter is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or any other legally protected status. #J-18808-Ljbffr