Assistant Project Manager

Assistant Project Manager – Product and Packaging

Assistant Project Manager – Product and Packaging

The location of the role is Paddington, London (hybrid working).

The duration of the contract is 6 months initially.

The pay rate on offer is £200 - £225 per day.

The client is a multinational high-street retailer.

Job purpose

Food Product Development area. To help the business land new product activity as effectively and efficiently as possible. Drive Accurate Reporting to deliver a culture of accountability within wider Food Group. Become a PM systems expert (FIND & DigiPAL) to keep our data & reporting accurate. Support the Project Manager team in creating and managing critical paths. Drive Process improvements across Product and Packaging Pathway through digital mindset.

Key accountabilities and measures

As the Product & Packaging Pathway team, we guide product concepts through every milestone of the Stage Gate process (Strategy – Creative – Finalise) to safely launch in store.

Each of our Project Managers is linked to a ‘cluster’ of categories. As an Assistant Project Manager, you will support those PMs with their responsibilities.

• Work with the PMs to identify the best dates to have the vital Gate meetings (Strategy & Creative) and book these in using the central Food Devs Diary
• Support with our Project Management Platform, FIND, so that you are confident in creating projects, attaching the right critical path, and manipulating that critical path – all as advised by the Project Managers
• Learn how to use the Product Information System, DigiPAL, so that you are confident in creating DigiPALs and tracking down any missing information from the right stakeholder
• Run reports from FIND to share key info on any particular product, project or category, including annual audits
• Work effectively as a double act with the second Assistant Project Manager, managing incoming requests to a central mailbox to achieve Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for the above requests
• Proactively manage your own priorities and workload, in close collaboration with the Project Managers, supporting different categories as needed
• Administering and updating critical paths on FIND (and internal business system) – no prior knowledge required
• To support Project Manager’s with follow up actions following Stage and Gate Meetings
• To support in data reporting into Power BI
• To organise and diarise gate meetings within the diary working with PAs to ensure they land in a timely manner

Key skills and experience

• Experience of supporting and/or being a member of project teams working on fast-paced and complex projects
• Understanding of Stage gate processes for new product development is preferred
• Experience within Foods, retail or FMCG is nice to have, but not essential
• Excellent Excel skills
• Strong Power Point
• Confident learning new systems & tools
• Excellent written and verbal communication
• Able to analyse information and find best way forward
• Efficient and able to organise own time
• Get the best out of multiple stakeholders
• Great communicator