Project Controls Director Americas

Role Summary

This is a truly exciting role where the Project Controls Director has accountability for ensuring all Capital projects within Americas have the right capability, capacity and ways of working within the project controls discipline. This person plays a critical leadership role in ensuring the successful delivery of capital projects by overseeing cost, schedule, risk, change and document management processes. The Director will support multi-site, multi-phase projects including facility expansions, technology transfers, and greenfield developments across manufacturing, R&D, and supply chain operations. This role will directly report to the Head of Project Controls and will be part of Global project controls leadership, which manages both project-based PC deliveries and functional responsibilities for key processes within GCP.

Responsibilities

• Define and implement project controls strategy across the pharma capital project portfolio.
• Lead a team of project controls professionals across global or regional sites.
• People management and overseeing project controls resources in the region, providing coaching, mentoring and onboarding for key resources in the portfolio.
• Ensure alignment with GCP Project Management framework.
• Maintain and engage with leading Project Control service providers globally to ensure best practice and access to effective partners.

Cost & Schedule Management

• Oversee development of detailed cost estimates, budgets, and forecasts for projects ranging from GBP 10M to 500M+.
• Ensure integrated project schedules reflect critical GMP milestones, commissioning, validation, and regulatory timelines.
• Apply Earned Value Management (EVM) and other performance metrics to track progress and identify variances.

Risk & Change Control

• Implement proactive risk management strategies for identification and active management of risks & opportunities.
• Ensure the robust application of Quantified Risk Analysis (QRA) in project cost and schedule using Monte Carlo Analysis software.
• Lead change control processes ensuring traceability, impact assessment, and handling of changes through contract administration & commercial management.

Governance & Reporting

• Provide executive-level reporting and dashboards to senior leadership, including capital steering committees.
• Ensure transparency and traceability of project performance, risks, and financials.
• Perform Project Reviews and health checks to ensure effective project controls are in place and early detection of issues or undesirable trends.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Partner with cross-functional teams including Engineering, Quality, Procurement, Finance, and Regulatory Affairs.
• Act as a key advisor to project sponsors and site leadership on project health and strategic decision-making.
• Hands-on experience with project management tools such as SAP, Oracle P6, MSP, Sypro, Monte Carlo simulation tools, earned value management, benchmarking and value assessment.

Qualifications

• Required: BSc/BEng in relevant discipline/Chartered Engineer.
• Required: 15+ years delivering advanced planning and project controls capability on high-visibility projects across multiple geographies.
• Required: Experience with stage gate models for capital project delivery through all stages of the project lifecycle.
• Required: Experience with Planning, Cost Management, Commercial management, Contract management and Project management.
• Required: Experience working with and negotiating contracts, their applications, and contract risks, and understanding other forms of contracts.
• Required: Experience with Scope Management, Risk Management, Change Management and Forecasting.
• Required: Stakeholder management and engagement with senior executives.
• Required: Experience in project management, project execution planning, construction management, scheduling and progress management, cost management and value engineering.

Education

• BSc/BEng in relevant discipline/Chartered Engineer (required).
• Preferred: MSc or PhD or other Chartered / Professional Qualification in a relevant discipline.