Manufacturing Program Manager – PMO
Designco India
Designco India
Location: Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
Work Mode: On-site
Industry: Wholesale Import and Export
Job Description
Location: Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh (factory-based, full-time on site)
Reports to: Managing Director
Level: Mid-senior | 8–12 years of experience
About DesignCo
DesignCo is a leading Indian export house in handicrafts and home décor, supplying some of the world's largest retail chains. We run a 100% made-to-order business with exceptional product velocity with over 1,500 new products developed and 7,000+ sales orders executed every year across in-house production shops and an external contractor network. We are now investing in the systems, governance, and leadership needed to scale this business 3–5x.
The Mandate
We are establishing a Project Management Office (PMO) as a formal governance function, reporting directly to the Managing Director, and we are hiring a Program Manager to build and run it from the factory floor.
This is not a reporting or coordination desk. The PMO's job is to make execution visible, accountable, and non-negotiable across every department — production, sampling, quality, stores, order management, and external contractors. The Program Manager carries the authority of the MD's office to enforce process compliance, and the responsibility to earn that compliance through credibility on the ground.
The PMO's Scope Will Build In Two Phases
Phase 1: New Product Development. Every new product developed is tracked as a project from concept to production-ready: sampling, validation, documentation, costing, and process freeze with clear stage gates, owners, and dates.
Phase 2: Purchase Order Execution. Every buyer purchase order is then managed as a project in its own right ... planned, tracked, and delivered against committed milestones through to dispatch.
What You'll Own
Run the PMO on the ground
Own day-to-day PMO operations at the Moradabad factory: stage gates, review cadences, escalations, and closure of open actions across all departmentsBe the single source of truth on real execution status — from the floor, not from reports
Enforce governance and compliance
Hold department heads and external partners accountable to defined processes, milestones, and documentation standardsRun a disciplined escalation mechanism: issues surface early, reach the right level fast, and get resolved — with the MD's office as final backstopBuild compliance through respect and consistency, not just authority
Lead and build the on-ground PMO team
Lead an on-ground team of PMO coordinators — partly in place, partly to be hired by youSet their operating rhythm, develop their capability, and hold their output to a high standard
Operate the PMO on Asana
Run the entire PMO — projects, milestones, tasks, dependencies, dashboards — on Asana as the system of recordPartner with a central enablement team that supports you remotely on strategy, process design, templates, analytics, and Asana configuration, automation, and AI-enabled workflowsDrive adoption of Asana across departments so that work is managed in the system, not around it
Report to leadership
Give the Managing Director a sharp, honest view of execution health: what's on track, what's slipping, why, and what's being done about itConvert leadership decisions into tracked commitments on the ground
What Makes You a Fit8–12 years of experience in program management, PMO leadership, or plant/operations management in a manufacturing environmentA track record of driving cross-functional compliance in complex setups — you have made many stakeholders, senior and junior, follow a process that wasn't theirsExperience in high-mix, made-to-order, or export-oriented manufacturing strongly preferred (home décor, handicrafts, furniture, apparel/fashion export, giftware, or similar)Hands-on fluency with modern work management tools — Asana strongly preferred (or Monday.com, Wrike, Jira with fast conversion) — you run your work in the tool, not in your inboxStrong first-principles grasp of NPD/sampling cycles and order execution in manufacturingTeam leadership experience: you have built, run, and raised the bar for a coordination or PMO teamFluent in Hindi and English; equally effective in a shop-floor conversation and an MD-level reviewBased in or willing to relocate to Moradabad; this is a full-time, on-site leadership role
Good to have
Exposure to SAP or another ERP environmentExperience working with job-work contractors or distributed vendor networksFamiliarity with workflow automation or AI-assisted reporting
Why This Role
Direct reporting to the Managing Director. A mandate with real authority, not a staff function. A dedicated on-ground team plus a remote enablement team handling strategy, analytics, and tooling so you can focus on execution. And the opportunity to build a governance function from the ground up in one of India's leading export businesses as it scales to its next phase.
To apply, share your CV along with a short note on the toughest cross-functional program you've driven to compliance — what resisted, and how you got it done.