Description
<p>Customer Project Manager – Manufacturing</p><p><strong>Guardsman Global LLC</strong></p><p><strong>Location:</strong> East Dundee, Illinois – Fully On-Site</p><p><strong>Job Type:</strong> Full-time, Exempt</p><p><strong>Compensation:</strong> $90,000–$110,000 base salary + incentive compensation</p><p>About the Role</p><p>Guardsman Global is seeking a <strong>Customer Project Manager – Manufacturing</strong> to manage customer projects from initial handoff through production, shipment, and successful completion.</p><p>This is a highly customer-facing project management role for someone who enjoys owning the details, coordinating across multiple teams, managing timelines, solving problems, and keeping both customers and internal stakeholders aligned.</p><p>You will serve as the primary day-to-day contact for assigned customers while coordinating closely with Production Scheduling, Purchasing, Quality, Regulatory, Warehouse, Shipping, Sales, and other internal teams to ensure customer requirements are understood and projects stay on track.</p><p><strong>This is not primarily a sales or business-development role.</strong> Success in this position is measured by strong project execution, communication, follow-through, customer satisfaction, and successful delivery.</p><p>What You’ll DoManage Customer Projects End-to-End</p><ul><li>Own assigned customer projects from purchase order or internal handoff through production, shipment, and completion.</li><li>Develop and manage project timelines, milestones, deliverables, approvals, and action items.</li><li>Coordinate new product launches, product revisions, packaging or artwork changes, and other customer-specific projects.</li><li>Translate customer requirements, specifications, priorities, and delivery expectations into clear internal action plans.</li><li>Monitor project progress, identify risks or potential delays, and drive follow-up to keep projects moving.</li><li>Manage changes to requirements, specifications, approvals, or timelines.</li><li>Maintain accurate and current project documentation, status information, and customer requirements.</li></ul><p>Own Customer Communication</p><ul><li>Serve as the primary day-to-day contact for assigned B2B customers throughout the project lifecycle.</li><li>Provide proactive updates regarding project status, production schedules, approvals, open items, delivery timing, and changes.</li><li>Lead or participate in customer project meetings, status calls, and reviews.</li><li>Manage customer expectations and coordinate solutions when production, quality, supply, or delivery issues arise.</li><li>Follow up on customer approvals, forecasts, specifications, and other information required to keep projects on schedule.</li><li>Build strong customer relationships through responsiveness, accountability, and reliable execution.</li></ul><p>Coordinate Across Manufacturing Operations</p><ul><li>Serve as the central coordinator between customers and internal teams including Production Scheduling, Purchasing, Quality, Regulatory, Warehouse, Shipping, Sales, and Product Development.</li><li>Coordinate project readiness, including material availability, specifications, artwork, customer approvals, production requirements, quality and regulatory needs, and delivery commitments.</li><li>Work with Scheduling and Production to monitor manufacturing timelines, capacity, and production commitments.</li><li>Coordinate with Purchasing on raw materials, availability, and potential supply delays.</li><li>Partner with Quality and Regulatory teams on customer requirements, compliance needs, quality concerns, and corrective actions.</li><li>Coordinate inventory, fulfillment, shipment schedules, and delivery requirements with Warehouse and Shipping.</li><li>Escalate resource constraints, delays, risks, or unresolved issues that could impact customer commitments.</li></ul><p>Plan, Track & Drive Accountability</p><ul><li>Manage multiple customer projects and priorities simultaneously.</li><li>Track milestones, deadlines, approvals, outstanding actions, risks, and commitments through completion.</li><li>Review customer forecasts and anticipated requirements and communicate upcoming needs to internal teams.</li><li>Support material, production, inventory, and capacity planning based on customer demand.</li><li>Identify potential supply, production, quality, or delivery issues early and coordinate resolution.</li><li>Maintain organized project and customer records within CRM, ERP, project-management, and internal systems.</li><li>Provide clear project-status reporting to customers, leadership, Sales, and internal stakeholders.</li><li>Identify recurring project challenges and recommend improvements to processes, communication, reporting, and workflow.</li></ul><p>What We’re Looking For</p><ul><li>3+ years of relevant experience in <strong>project management, customer project management, program management, manufacturing operations, customer operations, or a similar role</strong>.</li><li>Meaningful experience working within a <strong>physical-product manufacturing environment</strong>.</li><li>Demonstrated experience managing projects from initiation through production, fulfillment, and delivery.</li><li>Experience working directly with <strong>external B2B customers</strong> and managing requirements, expectations, timelines, and deliverables.</li><li>Experience coordinating across manufacturing functions such as Production, Scheduling, Purchasing, Quality, Regulatory, Warehouse, Shipping, Supply Chain, or Product Development.</li><li>Strong project organization, timeline management, prioritization, and follow-through.</li><li>Ability to manage multiple concurrent projects with different deadlines and internal dependencies.</li><li>Strong problem-solving skills and demonstrated ability to identify issues, coordinate corrective actions, and drive resolution.</li><li>Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate professionally with customers and cross-functional teams.</li><li>Experience with CRM, ERP, Microsoft Office, project-management, reporting, or project-tracking systems.</li><li>Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Project Management, Operations, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, or a related field preferred; equivalent relevant experience will be considered.</li></ul><p>Preferred Experience</p><p>Experience in one or more of the following manufacturing environments is especially valuable:</p><ul><li>Consumer packaged goods (CPG)</li><li>Packaging</li><li>Contract or private-label manufacturing</li><li>Plastics, films, bottles, containers, or converting</li><li>Consumer products</li><li>Medical or FDA-regulated products</li><li>Similar high-volume or customer-specific physical-product manufacturing environments</li></ul><p>Work Environment</p><p>This position is based at <strong>Guardsman Global LLC, 1191 E. Main St., East Dundee, IL 60118</strong> and is <strong>fully on-site</strong>.</p><p>The successful candidate will be comfortable working in a fast-paced manufacturing environment where customer requirements, production schedules, materials, quality considerations, and delivery commitments must be carefully coordinated.</p><p>If you are a customer-focused project manager who enjoys taking ownership, managing details, coordinating across manufacturing teams, and driving projects through successful delivery, we’d like to hear from you.</p>
