Project Director

Join us and celebrate the beauty of human experience. Create for happier, healthier lives, with love for nature. Together, with kindness, humility, and a spirit of adventure, we deliver food innovations, craft inspired fragrances and develop beauty and wellbeing solutions. There’s much to learn from our 79 production sites worldwide, known for their best-in-class processes and procedures. There’s many to learn from, with high-performing leaders and caring colleagues to explore ideas and ambitions with. Every day, your energy, your personality, and your determination will shape our future, making a positive difference on billions of people. Every essence of you enriches our world. We are Givaudan. Human by nature.

Project Director - Project Avanté - Your future position?

As Project Director - Project Avanté , you will lead Project Avanté from business case approval through design, construction, commissioning, start-up and stabilization. You will be accountable for delivering strategic business objectives, ensuring operational readiness, achieving safety and sustainability targets, and meeting budget and schedule commitments while maximizing long-term business value.

You will act as the executive leader of the project, driving alignment across business, manufacturing, engineering, operations and external stakeholders to ensure successful delivery from concept through operational handover.

The position is based in Sant Celoni, Barcelona, Spain and reports to our Head of EAME Operations F&B.

In this exciting role you will:

Provide strategic leadership and governance

- Own the overall Project Avanté strategy and execution roadmap.
- Ensure alignment with business growth plans, manufacturing strategy and regional operational requirements.
- Lead Steering Committee governance and executive decision-making processes.
- Drive realization of approved business case objectives, including capacity, productivity, service and financial benefits.
- Ensure alignment with company sustainability and ESG objectives.ű

Lead project delivery

- Be accountable for successful delivery of Project Avanté from concept through operational handover.
- Approve project scope, execution strategy, schedule and budget baselines.
- Provide strategic leadership and governance across project functions, ensuring effective integration of engineering, procurement, operations, quality, EHS, supply chain, finance and external partners through the CAPEX Project Manager and project leadership team.
- Ensure design, construction, commissioning and handover activities are delivered in accordance with company standards, regulatory requirements, approved project objectives and business expectations.
- Oversee contractor, consultant and technology-provider performance.

Drive financial performance

- Own project financial performance and approved CAPEX.
- Monitor project forecasts, expenditures, contingencies and investment returns.
- Review and validate key business case assumptions, including NPV, ROI and Payback Period.
- Ensure robust change-control and cost-management processes.

Ensure risk management, compliance and safety

- Establish the project risk management framework.
- Lead major risk reviews and mitigation plans.
- Ensure compliance with EHS, process safety and regulatory requirements.
- Promote a zero-harm culture throughout design, construction and operation.

Manage key stakeholders

- Act as the primary executive interface for Project Avanté.
- Lead communication with the Executive Leadership Team and key sponsors.
- Build strong relationships with regulatory authorities, communities, suppliers and strategic partners.
- Manage stakeholder alignment on critical project decisions.

Lead organizational readiness and transformation

- Lead organizational change and transition programs.
- Ensure workforce readiness for new technologies, processes and operating models.
- Drive adoption of automation, digitalization and advanced manufacturing practices.
- Promote continuous improvement across all project phases.

Ensure operational readiness and benefits realization

- Ensure commissioning, qualification and start-up plans are fully integrated into the project lifecycle.
- Establish operational performance KPIs.
- Lead post-startup performance reviews.
- Ensure achievement of planned business benefits and operational performance targets.

Develop leadership capability

- Lead and mentor the project leadership team.
- Develop project management capability across the organization.
- Foster collaboration, accountability and high-performance behaviours.
- Support succession planning and talent development.

You?

Academic background

- Bachelor's Degree in Engineering or a related technical discipline.
- MBA or Master's Degree in a technical field.

Professional experience

- 15+ years in manufacturing operations with a strong background in supply chain, quality and/or materials management, including exposure to M&A projects, organizational change, operational restructuring, business process redesign, systems implementations and enterprise risk for local organizations.
- 8+ years of progressive people management experience.
- Experience in large-scale international projects preferred.
- Experience with automation, digital manufacturing and operational transformation programs.

Technical expertise

- Expertise in world-class manufacturing concepts (LEAN).
- Expertise in product industrialization.
- Expertise in change management.
- Experience with business process and system redesign.
- Strong understanding of financial concepts, including OPEX and CAPEX.

Preferred certifications

- PMP/PMI Certification or PRINCE2 Practitioner.
- Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.
- Program Management Certification.

At Givaudan, you contribute to delightful taste and scent experiences that touch people’s lives.

We value the different perspectives that come from diverse cultures, backgrounds, and experiences.

Everyone — regardless of race, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, culture, religion, or any personal circumstances — is warmly welcomed at Givaudan, a place where we all love to be and grow.

Every essence of you enriches our world. Join us in making a difference together.