IT Project Manager - Product & Plant Systems
Key Skills
Job Description
About Hero Group Hero Group is a leading international food company with a strong heritage and a clear purpose: to delight consumers by conserving the goodness of nature. Operating across Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, Hero continuously invests in digital transformation to strengthen efficiency, compliance, and collaboration across its global value chain. Procurement plays a key role in this journey, ensuring transparent, compliant, and data‑driven processes from source to pay. Role Overview As IT Project Manager – Product & Plant Systems, you drive the successful execution of global IT and digital transformation initiatives across R&D, Quality, and Manufacturing domains. You lead end‑to‑end projects in areas such as PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) and CMMS (Maintenance Management Systems), ensuring alignment with business strategy, IT governance, and Hero’s digital roadmap. Acting as a central interface between business functions, Group IT, and external partners, you ensure the delivery of solutions that are scalable, efficient, and built for long‑term value creation. What You'll Archieve End-to-End Project Delivery: Manage the full lifecycle of IT projects from initiation through hypercare and handover to operations. Ensure delivery on scope, time, budget, and quality, with clear success criteria and milestones. Product & Plant Systems Domain Focus: Lead projects across product development, quality, and plant operation domains, including PLM (specification and recipe management), CMMS, and related manufacturing/shop floor systems. Translate business requirements into executable project plans and drive standardization and harmonization across sites. Team Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement: Lead cross-functional teams including internal staff, competence centers, and external partners. Ensure effective stakeholder alignment across business and IT. Methodology, Governance & Reporting: Apply Hero’s project management methodology and ensure governance adherence, documentation completeness, and audit readiness. Provide regular status updates to steering committees and the PMO. Financial, Risk & Vendor Management: Manage project financials (CAPEX/OPEX), vendor performance, and benefits realization. Proactively manage risks, issues, and dependencies with structured escalation. Change Management & Adoption: Drive user readiness, UAT, training, cutover planning, and hypercare in collaboration with business change leads. Who You Are Required Qualifications: University degree (Bachelor’s or Master’s) in IT, Engineering, Business/IT, or a related field Minimum 3 years of experience in IT project management, ideally in an international or complex environment Proven experience delivering IT projects in manufacturing or product-related systems (e.g., PLM, CMMS) Strong understanding of project delivery methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid) Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills across business and IT Solid understanding of system integration, enterprise architecture, and data flows Financial awareness including budgeting, forecasting, and benefits tracking Fluent in English (written and spoken) Preferred Qualifications Experience in global digital transformation or ERP-related environments (e.g., SAP S/4HANA) Exposure to manufacturing/shopfloor systems and processes Experience working in cross-functional and international teams Knowledge of change management practices and user adoption strategies Our Culture: How We Grow Together Create wow: We dare to do things differently, seek to always win with consumers and customers, and endeavor to be forever relevant and vital to our world. It’s about Curiosity, Innovation and Consumer/Customer Focus. Everyone Hero: We work together in pursuit of our common mission and strategy, strengthening our local businesses by leveraging the power of the collective. It’s about Purpose, Performance and Teamwork. Nourish others: We treat everyone with honesty, care and respect and provide our people, customers and consumers with what they need to thrive. It’s about Honesty, Empowerment, Respect and Diversity. Take responsibility: We make good choices today to build a more sustainable business and environment fit for the needs of tomorrow. It’s about Sustainability, Ownership, Heritage and Quality. Sound like you? Apply Now Important: We only accept applications sent to the designated channels. Please be aware of job offer scrapers; we will not accept applications from other third parties.
Core Responsibilities
Lead global IT projects across product development, quality, and manufacturing, including PLM, CMMS, and related plant systems, from initiation through handover and hypercare. Coordinate business, IT, and external partners while managing governance, budgets, risks, vendors, reporting, and user adoption.
Requirements
Requires a bachelor's or master's degree in IT, engineering, business/IT, or a related field, at least three years of IT project management experience, and experience delivering manufacturing- or product-related systems projects. Candidates should understand project methodologies, system integration, enterprise architecture, data flows, budgeting, and stakeholder management, and be fluent in English; global transformation, SAP S/4HANA, shop-floor systems, and change management experience are preferred.
About Hero
Industry: Food and Beverage Manufacturing
Company size: 1,001-5,000 employees
Hero is a multinational food company focused on branded nutritional food products. The company was founded in 1886 in Lenzburg, Switzerland, where its headquarters are still located today. Hero operates in the Better Snacking, Naturally Good Food and Others categories. Within these, we have a house of brands that provides our millions of consumers with trusted, nutritional food products. Our brands include Hero, Corny. Goodies, Beech-Nut, Schwartau, Semper, Freche Freunde, Organix, Deliciously Ella, Sunar, Vitrac, Baby Gourmet, Queensberry, Pinati, and Casa de Mateus. We are a company rooted in honest goodness. While what we do has changed over time, how we do it and what we strive for remains the same – products made from high quality ingredients that taste great and are nutritionally balanced. We never stray away from our core belief that there is a better way, the Hero way.