The posting
Our Business Adare Pharma Solutions is a global Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) with locations across North America and Italy. We offer a wide range of manufacturing, packaging, and research and development services. Our clients range from growing biotech firms advancing groundbreaking clinical trials to established pharmaceutical companies producing high volumes of approved, widely used medicines. By combining top talent from the life sciences industry with modern research and manufacturing technologies, Adare enables clients to deliver potentially lifesaving medicines in more easily consumable formats - particularly for patients such as infants or the elderly. This is the meaning behind “Transforming Drug Delivery – Transforming Lives.” Our Culture When it comes to being an employee of Adare, although we are located across multiple countries and come from diverse backgrounds, we work together toward a common purpose. Supported by leadership that is experienced and highly regarded in the industry, we are paving the way for a brighter and better future by attracting top talent from both within and beyond the CDMO space. In addition to delivering high-quality results for our external clients, we foster a collaborative, client-centric culture internally - one where employees support one another, share knowledge, and encourage each other to bring their best selves to work each day. Why Come to Adare? Adare is Private Equity owned and poised for growth. Employees are provided with internal development opportunities to progress within the organization, enhancing their professional skills and industry knowledge through Adare’s investment in their growth. We offer a variety of fields to embark in, including manufacturing, engineering, quality, chemistry, formulations, analytical research and development, finance, supply chain, sales, marketing, project management, human resources, and environmental health and safety. Our benefits package is competitive and includes health insurance, a pension plan, a bonus scheme, and additional benefits provided under the company’s internal agreement.
Position We are looking for a Project Management Group Leader to join our Project Management Team at our Italian sites.
Applicable Collective Labour Agreement (CCNL): Chemical-Pharmaceutical Industry Employment Contract: Permanent Gross Annual Salary range (RAL): €65k to €85k Job Category and Organizational Level: Quadro (A-level)
Location: Pessano con Bornago (Milan), Italy
Summary The Project Management Group Leader is responsible for managing and delivering complex customer programs for oral solid dosage pharmaceutical products, as well as leading the Italy PM team. Reporting directly to the Vice President of Global Project Management, this role combines direct people management with ownership of selected strategic projects, site portfolio oversight, and cross-functional leadership. The successful candidate will be the primary local PM leadership contact; working closely with the General Manger, Pharmaceutical Development, Quality/Regulatory, Industrialization, Operations, and global stakeholders.
Responsibilities: People leadership and team performance: Directly supervise, coach and develop a small team of PMs; establish objectives and individual development plans; hold regular one-to-ones; provide timely feedback; conduct performance evaluations; support recruitment and onboarding; manage workload, coverage and capability gaps. Project and program delivery: Personally lead selected high-complexity customer projects from development and technical transfer through scale-up, process validation/PPQ and commercial launch; establish scope, deliverables, integrated schedules, dependencies, critical paths and decision logs; drive timely execution and issue resolution. Manufacturing, packaging and analytical coordination: Integrate plans for API/excipient readiness, equipment and production slots, granulation, blending, compression, encapsulation, coating, packaging, QC testing, method transfer/validation, stability and batch release; coordinate interfaces when manufacturing and packaging/testing occur at different sites. GMP, quality and validation interface: Partner with Pharmaceutical Development, QA, QC, Industrialization and Manufacturing to track readiness, deviations, change controls, validation protocols/reports and batch disposition. Escalate GMP risks promptly while respecting Quality Unit independence and technical ownership. Financial stewardship: Monitor project budgets, forecast milestones and revenue timing; identify scope creep and change-order opportunities; work with the Proposal team to request and approve change order opportunities. Client Engagement and Communication: Leads customer meetings, completes agendas, meeting minutes and project timelines using Microsoft Project and Adare’s Project Management System. Manages customers expectation and critical development timelines. Model best practices in all client interactions.
Required Skills, Qualifications, and Experience: Education: Bachelor’s degree or higher in pharmacy, chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences, chemical engineering, engineering, or related scientific/technical discipline; equivalent relevant experience may be considered. Industry background: 10+ years of relevant pharmaceutical experience, including at least 5 years leading projects in GMP manufacturing, technical operations or CDMO environments; substantial oral solid dosage exposure required. Leadership: Demonstrated ability to supervise or lead others, coach PMs, allocate work, provide constructive feedback and manage cross-functional accountability; prior direct line management strongly preferred. Technical knowledge: Working knowledge of OSD unit operations, pharmaceutical development, technology transfer, analytical methods, GMP manufacturing, packaging, process validation/PPQ, stability and regulatory-driven milestones. Delivery capability: Proven experience managing multiple concurrent projects, integrated timelines, risks, deviation related schedule impacts, resource conflicts and customer commitments. Communication: Professional fluency in Italian and English, written and spoken; confident presentation and escalation skills with customers and senior leadership. Systems: Strong MS Project or equivalent scheduling tools, Excel, PowerPoint and project reporting/dashboard capabilities; comfort with document management systems.
Adare Pharma is an equal opportunity employer & prohibits unlawful discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin/ancestry, age, disability, marital & veteran status. Adare is an organization that works daily to break down any gender gap, in the awareness that the full valorization of female talent represents a fundamental element for a greater creation of economic and human value. In Adare both genders are equally represented even in the case of managerial roles. In Adare we have structured a management system useful for the certification of gender equality; therefore, we work daily to combat any form of non-inclusion in our management processes and in our internal and external communication. The selection process is no exception: our staff in charge of selection and recruitment are prohibited from asking questions that directly or indirectly relate to the topics of pregnancy, marriage or - in general - the responsibility of care. If you are a woman and you are reading this announcement, know that your gender will not represent an obstacle to the selection process. PRINCIPALS ONLYNO AGENCIES OR THIRD PARTIES
