Senior Project Manager, Research & Development
Microbiology / Bacteriology | Hands-on project leadership in cutting-edge biotech research
Company Overview
The hiring organisation is a pioneering Danish biotech company at the forefront of synthetic biology. Its mission is to develop novel therapeutic solutions for some of the world’s most pressing health challenges, including antimicrobial resistance. The company applies advanced technologies, including CRISPR-based approaches, to design innovative medical solutions with the potential to make a meaningful impact for patients globally.
The environment is dynamic, agile and strongly science-driven. Highly specialised experts work closely together to translate cutting-edge research into tangible progress, while operating with the uncertainty and complexity that naturally come with breakthrough science.
Role Overview
The company is looking for an experienced, hands-on Senior Project Manager to become a central coordination point within its research organisation. The role exists to drive progress across highly innovative and inherently uncertain research projects, bringing structure to complexity and enabling specialist teams to move faster and more effectively.
This is an operational project leadership role, not a strategic leadership position. The successful candidate will be responsible for driving projects forward, securing alignment, facilitating problem-solving and ensuring that plans, timelines and resources remain visible and actionable. The role requires both strong project management capabilities and sufficient scientific depth to understand bacteriology and challenge technical discussions in a qualified way.
A key part of the role is to build bridges between scientific disciplines and functions, including research, process development and production. The successful candidate must be able to earn respect from highly specialised scientists through natural authority, professional credibility and a pragmatic understanding of the science.
Key Responsibilities
• Lead and drive the day-to-day progress of two or more research projects within microbiology, bacteriology and synthetic biology.
• Act as the central hub for project coordination, creating transparency and ensuring clear communication across the team and with adjacent functions such as process development and production.
• Maintain and continuously revise project plans based on new data, experimental results and changing scientific priorities.
• Manage shifting timelines, milestones and dependencies in a research environment where uncertainty is part of the work.
• Identify project blockers early, especially tight deadlines and resource constraints, and escalate or resolve them proactively.
• Facilitate effective problem-solving among highly specialised scientists and ensure constructive collaboration, particularly under pressure.
• Apply a mature project management toolbox pragmatically, introducing the right level of structure and process without slowing innovation.
• Challenge technical assumptions and discussions in a qualified manner by understanding the scientific details well enough to ask the right questions.
• Ensure a strong flow of information to leadership, including preparation of material and, when relevant, presentations for board meetings and external stakeholders.
• Help professionalise project leadership practices in the research organisation through leading by doing.
Candidate Profile
The ideal candidate combines solid project management expertise with a strong scientific foundation. The emphasis is slightly more on project leadership than on being the deepest scientific specialist, but both dimensions are essential. The person must be able to understand the science, engage credibly with specialists and still keep the project moving.
• Minimum of 5 years of practical project management experience from a biotech or pharmaceutical company, ideally in an R&D environment.
• Strong scientific background and hands-on understanding of microbiology and bacteriology. This is essential for credibility in the role.
• Documented experience leading complex, agile projects with a high degree of uncertainty.
• Ability to operate in cutting-edge research where outcomes are not always predictable and project plans must evolve quickly.
• Natural authority, professional weight and interpersonal maturity to gain respect from senior specialists.
• Strong listening skills combined with the ability to stand firm when project progress requires decisions, prioritisation or escalation.
• Ability to translate technical complexity into practical project actions and create alignment across different scientific and operational groups.
• A diplomatic and constructive style, with the ability to manage different personalities with both confidence and empathy.
• Experience with CRISPR, bacteriophages or antimicrobial resistance is advantageous, but not a requirement.
What Will Make the Candidate Successful
• Comfort with operational ownership: the role is about driving the work, not defining the company’s strategy.
• Ability to bring structure to scientific complexity without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Strong judgement around when to facilitate, when to challenge and when to escalate.
• Resilience in an environment with ambitious deadlines, limited resources and changing project assumptions.
• A genuine interest in bacteriology and the ability to engage with the scientific details behind project decisions.
Why This Role Is Attractive
• The successful candidate will become a driving force behind the development of meaningful medicines in a field that may help define the future treatment of infectious diseases.
• The role is a critical link between advanced science and execution, creating structure, momentum and clarity in projects with high complexity.
• The position offers a rare combination of hands-on project leadership, deep scientific interaction and direct impact on the success of innovative R&D projects.
Application Process
For further information about the opportunity, interested candidates may contact Senior Recruiter Per Christensen at Black Swans Exist Recruitment. Applications and expressions of interest will be reviewed on an ongoing basis.
