Principal Program Manager

Overview

The Principal Program Manager – PLM is responsible for leading complex Product Lifecycle Management initiatives from planning through delivery, stabilization, and continuous improvement. This role combines practical program leadership with strong PLM business process knowledge to deliver scalable solutions across Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, Regulatory Affairs, Supply Chain, IT, and ERP-connected processes.

The role serves as the primary business-facing lead for PLM delivery, working closely with stakeholders, IT teams, implementation partners, and senior leaders to ensure PLM capabilities support business priorities, regulatory expectations, operational efficiency, and product data governance.

Responsibilities

Program Leadership & Governance

• Program management lead for PLM-related programs and projects from initiation through execution, go-live, stabilization, and value realization.
• Develop and maintain practical program plans, milestones, RAID logs, dependency maps, and delivery status reporting.
• Support governance forums, steering committee updates, decision tracking, and clear escalation of risks, issues, and trade-offs.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams and implementation partners to keep delivery aligned to scope, schedule, quality, and business outcomes.
• Drive stakeholder engagement, change readiness, communications, training coordination, and adoption planning.

PLM Business Process

• Partner with Engineering, Quality, Regulatory, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, IT, and business teams to define, improve, and govern PLM processes.
• Lead requirements workshops, process mapping sessions, fit-gap discussions, and prioritization of business needs.
• Translate PLM strategy into executable roadmaps, release plans, workstreams, and measurable delivery outcomes.
• Identify and drive improvements in product data quality, engineering change control, document control, and lifecycle governance.
• Ensure alignment between PLM, SAP S/4HANA, Quality Management Systems, Document Management, and related enterprise capabilities.

Delivery & Continuous Improvement

• Lead business readiness for PLM implementations, upgrades, enhancements, integrations, and process changes.
• Manage business requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, test planning, deployment readiness, and cutover support.
• Coordinate User Acceptance Testing, training preparation, go-live support, hypercare, and issue resolution with business and technical teams.
• Monitor delivery performance after implementation and lead continuous improvement actions based on user feedback, process metrics, and business value.
• Support business case development, benefits tracking, and value realization reporting for PLM investments.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, Information Systems, Supply Chain, or related field.
• 8+ years of experience in program management in business transformation.

• PMP, PgMP, Agile, Lean, or similar certification.

• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional transformation initiatives with business, IT, and external delivery partners.
• Strong working knowledge of product development, engineering change control, document management, product data governance, and release management processes.
• Experience working with ERP-connected processes and platforms, preferably SAP or SAP S/4HANA.
• Proven ability to manage competing priorities, risks, dependencies, and stakeholders in a complex global environment.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, problem-solving, and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience supporting, implementing, improving, or governing PLM capabilities with PLM platforms such as Teamcenter, Windchill, Arena, Agile PLM, or similar solutions.
• Experience in regulated industries such as medical devices, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, or complex manufacturing environments.
• Knowledge of Quality Management Systems, design controls, validation, change management, and controlled document practices.
• Experience working across global geographies and coordinating distributed teams, implementation partners, and business stakeholders.                                                                                                        #LI-Hybrid

Company Description

Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT)  is a global leader in life sciences and diagnostics, dedicated to accelerating the benefits of pioneering science through analytical technologies, informatics, and service. With a focus on regulated, high-volume testing environments, our innovative portfolio harnesses deep scientific expertise across chemistry, physics, and biology. We collaborate with customers around the world to advance the release of effective, high-quality medicines, ensure the safety of food and water, and drive better patient outcomes by detecting diseases earlier, managing routine infections, and combating antibiotic resistance. Through a shared culture of relentless innovation, our passionate team of ~16,000 colleagues turn scientific challenges into breakthroughs that improve lives worldwide.  

Diversity and inclusion are fundamental to our core values at Waters Corporation. It benefits our employees, our products, our customers and our community. Waters complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws. Qualified applicants are considered without regard to sex, race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, marital status (including civil unions), military service, veteran status, pregnancy (including childbirth and related medical conditions), genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, legally recognized disability, domestic violence victim status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Waters is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. All hiring decisions are based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time.

Key Words

#Principal Program Manager #Product Lifecycle Management #PLM #Program Leadership #Program Management #Business Transformation #PLM Delivery #Business-Facing Lead #Continuous Improvement #Value Realization