The Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) is the nation’s flagship research organization for applying cutting-edge digital technologies to reduce the time and cost of manufacturing, strengthen the capabilities of the U.S. supply chain, and reduce production costs.  The DMDII will develop, demonstrate, deploy and commercialize digital design and manufacturing technologies across key industries. 

 

The Institute is seeking candidates for the position of Project Manager, for full-time employment in our downtown Chicago office.  The Project Manager will help define the vision and strategy for new and truly innovative research and development projects in advanced manufacturing enterprise, advanced analysis and intelligent machines.  The Project Manager will assist with the initiation of projects as initiatives that emerge from the Institute’s Strategic Investment Plan and Technology Roadmap, and will supervise their progress through solicitation, evaluation, selection and award.  After the start of project execution, the Project Manager will be responsible for providing programmatic oversight of the selected performing organization or team.  She/he will maintain primary responsibility for accomplishment of all technical objectives within the defined cost and schedule.  The Project Manager will need to accommodate the needs of numerous stakeholders while ensuring project execution adheres to Institute standards and remains focused on Institute objectives.  

 

Candidates for this position must have a proven track record of successfully managing projects from ideation to execution. Candidates must also excel at communicating and have the necessary skills and technical acumen to make and implement management decisions on multiple projects simultaneously. The DMDII is an energetic environment with a startup atmosphere, where anything is possible. It is result driven, agile and adaptive. We are working on technologies and products that require large investments and will have long-term impact to the nation. We are looking for an experienced project/program manager who has core managerial skills and leadership, is smart, highly motivated, and a hands-on self-starter. 

 

+ Responsibilities: 

• Ensuring projects produce program deliverables, maintain defined timelines, and remain within proscribed budget

• Scoping project work and authoring project solicitation documents

• Participating in proposal evaluation and selection

• Assisting with generating documents associated with Institute Agreements for project execution, including statements of work (SOW), deliverable tables, integrated master schedules, reporting requirements and intellectual property assertions

• Providing programmatic oversight of project execution by performing organization/team 

• Executing, monitoring, and controlling project execution through proactive risk identification, mitigation and issue management 

• Providing consistent and concise verbal and written communications to project stakeholders 

• Tracking all project documentation in accordance with data security standards

 

+ Qualifications: 

• Four-year engineering degree; Masters preferred

• Prior experience in design and/or manufacturing research highly desirable

• Minimum 5 years of experience in project management, business analysis, or planning

• Proven success as a manager of large, complex engineering projects 

• Strong interpersonal and presentation skills; excellent analytical and problem solving skills along with expert communication and negotiation skills

• Experience working in a federal government contracting environment desirable