Engineering Project Manager

Location: Courcelles, Belgium (Courcelles EDC; Hybrid working model, target 2 to 3 days on site with occasional requirements for 100% on-site)

Languages: English and French

Duration: Start ASAP upon project approval (expected November 2026) through March 31, 2028 (approximately 17 months)

PLEASE NOTE WE CANNOT CONSIDER FREELANCERS.

Imagine your next project leading multi-million-euro automation programs at a premier European Distribution Center, driving high-impact technical delivery and cutting-edge packaging solutions.

Act as the Project Management Lead for two strategic automation initiatives at the Johnson & Johnson MedTech European Distribution Center (Courcelles EDC), including Project Morpheus. This key project focuses on delivering an integrated automated packaging solution to increase automation, improve operational performance, and support future volume growth. In this role, reporting to the EMEA MedTech Engineering Senior Manager, you will establish disciplined project controls so that scope, schedule, cost, risks, decisions, and supplier actions are visible, controlled, and reported. You will own project-management execution and administration, while the engineering team retains accountability for technical design, validation decisions, and engineering judgment. Recommended seniority aligns with a Senior Project Manager or Project Controls Lead (roughly 7-12+ years), capable of challenging technical leads, controlling financials, coordinating suppliers, and turning incomplete inputs into one integrated plan. Key stakeholders include Engineering project leads and SMEs, EDC Operations, Finance, Procurement, Quality/Validation, EHS, IT/JJT, external suppliers and system integrators, as well as program and portfolio leadership.

roles and responsibilities

• Manage technical project delivery, budget control versus actuals, spending control, vendor communication, weekly progress reporting, and oversee capital equipment implementation for a 15–20 million budget.
• Build and maintain integrated project plans, milestones, dependencies, resource views, and look-ahead schedules for two strategic programs.
• Run the project operating rhythm: weekly workstream reviews, monthly cost review, action follow-up, decision log, RAID log, and concise status reporting.
• Coordinate monthly accruals, purchase-order tracking, forecasts, commitments, invoices, and budget variance explanations with Finance and Procurement.
• Coordinate suppliers, integrators, Operations, Quality, EHS, IT, and site stakeholders; drive actions to closure and escalated blocked decisions early.
• Prepare program-manager updates, steering materials, meeting notes, change-control inputs, and leadership decision packs.
• Maintain document control and clear evidence of scope, approvals, deliverables, acceptance criteria, and handover readiness.
• Support project close-out, lessons learned, final cost reconciliation, and transfer to Operations.
• Deliver key deliverables including baselined integrated plan and 90-day look-ahead.
• Deliver monthly cost reports detailing actuals, commitments, accruals, forecast, and variance.
• Maintain RAID, decision, and change logs with named owners and dates.
• Maintain supplier action tracker and meeting governance.
• Provide monthly program reports with RAG status and decisions required.
• Produce handover and close-out packs for each project.

how to succeed

• Bring 10+ years of experience with capital equipment and automation projects (with a minimum of 8+ years in project or program management across engineering, automation, capital equipment, distribution, manufacturing, or facilities).
• Demonstrate direct control of schedule, cost, forecast, accruals, risks, issues, changes, suppliers, and executive reporting across concurrent workstreams.
• Possess advanced Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint skills, strong working knowledge of Microsoft Project and Planisware, and effective use of SharePoint and Teams.
• Apply practical Waterfall or stage-gate delivery, with Agile techniques where useful, backed by strong follow-up and escalation discipline.
• Hold experience in a regulated, safety-critical, or quality-controlled environment, working within GxP, validation, and change-control constraints.
• Communicate fluently in English with the ability to interact clearly across Engineering, Operations, Finance, Procurement, and suppliers, with French required (professional French is strongly preferred for the Courcelles site).
• Ability to commit to required on-site presence (at least 2 days/week, hybrid mode of 3 days on-site with occasional requirements for 100% on-site).
• Nice-to-have: MedTech, pharmaceutical, GMP, or GxP experience.
• Nice-to-have: Capital-proj