Project Manager in Food Safety

Do you have experience working in a laboratory environment, with ISO 17025, and are you energised by organising and delivering complex projects? Can you bring together different interests, maintain an overview of project content, planning and finances, and know when to make adjustments? And would you like to contribute to research and analyses that are essential to the safety of our food chain? Are you fluent in Dutch?
Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR) is looking for a Project Manager to take responsibility for delivering a variety of projects in laboratory analysis, quality assurance and food safety research.
What will you do?
As a Project Manager at WFSR, you will be responsible for the overall coordination and delivery of projects. You will work on a range of medium-sized and complex projects, bringing together different disciplines, interests and activities. You will ensure alignment between the project's objectives, planning, capacity, quality requirements and financial parameters, making adjustments when developments require it. Your responsibilities will also include acquiring new projects.
You will be the central point of contact for the delivery of your projects. In this role, you will work closely with researchers, laboratory analysts, team leaders, programme leaders and Finance colleagues. You will also maintain active contact with internal and external clients. You will align expectations, discuss progress and results, and advise on the decisions needed to deliver projects successfully.
Your responsibilities will include:

• Independently preparing, planning and coordinating medium-sized and complex projects involving laboratory analysis, quality assurance and research;
• Translating project objectives into a realistic approach, schedule, resource plan and budget;
• Monitoring progress, quality, budget and risks, and making timely adjustments where necessary;
• Coordinating activities and priorities across different teams and disciplines within WFSR;
• Identifying bottlenecks and dependencies, and advising clients and colleagues involved in the projects on how to address them;
• Maintaining professional relationships with internal and external clients and ensuring clear communication about progress, results and any deviations from the plan;
• Contributing to the further professionalisation and improvement of project management practices within WFSR;
• Evaluating completed projects and translating lessons learned into improvements for future projects;
• Where appropriate, contributing to the development of new assignments, for example by helping to develop project proposals and budgets and identifying opportunities for collaboration or business development.

You will draw on a sound understanding of the laboratory and research environment, including ISO 17025 and ISO 9001. You do not need to be the subject-matter expert for every project. Your ability to connect subject-matter experts, clients and different disciplines, and to ensure that agreements are delivered, is precisely what makes your contribution so valuable.
Where will you work?
Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR) conducts high-quality, independent research into the safety and reliability of food and animal feed. We analyse residues, toxins, contaminants, and microbiological and viral contamination. In addition, we analyse trends, conduct risk assessments and detect fraud in the food chain. WFSR is a national and European reference laboratory and carries out statutory research tasks on behalf of the Dutch government.