Job Description

As a Senior Engineering Project Manager at Spectra-Physics (an MKS brand), you will partner with the development, marketing, and operations organizations as well as business leaders to drive the successful delivery of complex product development programs, with end-to-end ownership for scope, schedule, cost, quality, and execution risk. You will lead cross-functional teams through ambiguity, align stakeholders, and ensure disciplined execution from concept through industrialization and transfer to manufacturing. In this role, you will report to the Director of Engineering.

You Will Make an Impact By:

• Leading complex, cross-functional product development programs from early concept through industrialization and manufacturing transfer, with accountability for scope, schedule, cost, quality, and overall project health across geographically distributed teams, including multi-site development environments and offshore manufacturing partners.
• Developing and maintaining integrated project plans that include milestones, dependencies, budgets, resource requirements, key deliverables, and phase-gate expectations, while driving execution through structured reviews and disciplined follow-through.
• Providing leadership across engineering, product marketing, operations, supply chain, and manufacturing teams to align priorities, resolve roadblocks, and ensure timely delivery of business-critical objectives.
• Leading multi-site program coordination across U.S. and European development teams, and offshore manufacturing teams to ensure alignment on priorities, schedules, deliverables, risks, and transfer-to-production readiness.
• Proactively identifying, assessing, and managing project risks and issues; driving mitigation and contingency planning; employing risk-reduction activities such as Design and Process FMEA, DFx reviews, and other related design and process readiness assessments to strengthen execution and product outcomes.
• Making sound, timely decisions in the face of ambiguity, incomplete information, and competing priorities.
• Serving as the primary communication lead for stakeholders and leadership, delivering clear, data-driven updates on progress, tradeoffs, decisions, risks, and changes that may impact scope, cost, or timing.
• Driving continuous improvement in project management rigor, development processes, team operating rhythms, and lessons-learned practices to support broader department and company goals.

Skills You Bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in science, engineering, or another technical field.
• Several years of experience in project or program management in the product development of complex technology systems.
• Demonstrated success leading multidisciplinary, technical teams and influencing cross-functional stakeholders without direct authority in a fast-paced development environment
• Strong command of project planning, budgeting, resource management, risk management, issue escalation, and execution tracking across multiple workstreams and dependencies.
• Ability to rapidly understand technical concepts well enough to guide discussions, evaluate tradeoffs, support decision-making, and keep teams aligned to program objectives.
• Ability to build effective collaboration with product line managers and technical leads towards a unified project leadership team focused on optimized delivery of program objectives.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with technical teams, functional leaders, and executive stakeholders.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and experience using project planning, reporting, and portfolio management tools to manage execution and communicate status effectively.

Preferred Skills:

• Formal project management training or certification.
• Familiarity with Agile project management approaches, particularly in hardware or mixed hardware/software development environments.
• Familiarity with PPM tools and systems used for planning, portfolio visibility, resource management, and KPI reporting.
• Experience with structured product development processes, including phase-gate development methodologies and manufacturing transfer readiness.
• Familiarity with reliability, quality, and manufacturability practices such as D/PFMEA, DFx, root cause analysis, and structured problem-solving methodologies.
• Experience supporting the development of complex laser, photonics, optics, or other high-reliability hardware systems.

Das tatsächliche Gehalt liegt über dem Kollektivvertrag „Metallgewerbe Angestellte“ und orientiert sich an der beruflichen Qualifikation und Erfahrung sowie am Vorarlberger Arbeitsmarkt

#LI-DZ1

Globally, our policy is to recruit individuals from wide and diverse backgrounds. However, certain positions require access to controlled goods and technologies subject to various export control regulations. Applicants for these positions may be limited (by, for example, their countries of citizenship, country of origin, or immigration status) where required by law or governmental contact, and/or employment made contingent upon the issuance of appropriate governmental licensing.

MKS Inc. and its affiliates and subsidiaries (“MKS”) is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer: diverse candidates are encouraged to apply. We win as a team and are committed to recruiting and hiring qualified applicants regardless of race, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions), religion, age, ancestry, physical or mental disability or handicap, marital status, membership in the uniformed services, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, or any other category protected by applicable law. Hiring decisions are based on merit, qualifications and business needs. We conduct background checks and drug screens, in accordance with applicable law and company policies. MKS is generally only hiring candidates who reside in states where we are registered to do business.

MKS is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process due to a disability, please contact us at: accommodationsatMKS@mksinst.com

If applying for a specific job, please include the requisition number (ex: RXXXX), the title and location of the role