Sulzer is a leading engineering company with a proud heritage of innovation. Join our global team to grow your expertise and develop innovative solutions that enable a prosperous and more sustainable society.

About the role

The Project Director is responsible for the overall leadership, execution, and successful delivery of major strategic projects from contract award through final handover and commercial closeout.
The role has full accountability for project safety, quality, schedule performance, profitability, cash flow, contract compliance, risk management, and customer satisfaction. The Project Director serves as Sulzer's senior project representative and acts as the primary interface with customer leadership, partners, subcontractors, and senior management throughout project execution.

Project Leadership & Execution

• Lead and direct major projects from contract award through final project closeout.
• Establish project execution strategy, organization structure, governance model, staffing plan, and communication framework.
• Lead Project Managers and core project team members assigned to the project.
• Define project objectives, milestones, deliverables, responsibilities, and success criteria.
• Ensure project teams understand contractual scope, customer requirements, technical specifications, schedule commitments, budgets, and execution plans.

Commercial & Contract Management

• Assume overall accountability for project profitability and financial performance.
• Verify alignment between customer purchase orders, contracts, negotiated scope, and execution plans.
• Ensure all contractual obligations, deliverables, and milestones are fulfilled.
• Lead project commercial strategy throughout execution.
• Drive identification, development, negotiation, and recovery of change orders.
• Conduct regular gross margin reviews and monitor performance against approved budgets and forecasts.

Customer Management

• Serve as the senior project representative for strategic customer projects.
• Develop and maintain executive-level customer relationships.
• Lead customer review meetings, steering committee meetings, and project performance discussions.

Project Controls & Performance Management

• Ensure effective project controls are established and maintained.
• Review project schedules, forecasts, cost reports, productivity metrics, and risk assessments.
• Monitor critical path activities and key project milestones.
• Establish project performance indicators and reporting mechanisms.
• Lead project risk reviews and mitigation planning activities.

Risk & Opportunity Management

• Establish and maintain project risk management processes.
• Identify technical, commercial, contractual, operational, supply chain, safety, financial, and schedule risks.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Construction Management, Project Management, Business, or related technical discipline.
• MBA or equivalent advanced degree preferred.
• Minimum 15 years of experience leading complex industrial projects.
• Minimum 5 years leading large multidisciplinary project teams.
• Bilingual in English and Spanish required, Portuguese preferred.
• Ability to travel 25% to 50% depending on project assignments and execution requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven track record delivering major capital projects and complex customer-facing projects.
• Experience managing projects exceeding USD $25 million in contract value.
• Strong experience in project execution, commercial management, contract management, change order management, and project controls.
• Experience managing EPC, engineered equipment, construction, turnaround, revamp, and industrial service projects.

What we offer you

• Salary according to experience
• Life insurance
• Savings fund
• 30-day Christmas bonus
• Major medical expenses insurance
• Interaction with international team
• Career growth opportunities
• Benefits above the law

Sulzer is an equal opportunity employer. We believe in the strength of a diverse workforce and are committed to offering an inclusive work environment.
 

We are proud to be recognized as a Top Employer 2026 in Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Switzerland, South Africa, the UK and the USA.