About Waterworks
When you see the world’s most inspiring homes and hotels, you invariably find Waterworks in the mix. For over 40 years, our designs have elevated the bath and kitchen experience, with exquisite fittings, fixtures, hardware and more. We strive to be participants in exceptional design moments not just through our products, but through how our company name shows up in the world at large.
What We Provide
What gives us an edge over our competitors is our people. We work in a highly collaborative, creative environment that values each team member’s contributions to our mission. We empower our associates with extensive training, career growth opportunities, competitive salaries, bonus potential and a comprehensive benefits package including medical/dental/vision, and 401k retirement savings plan. We offer a generous PTO program (vacation, personal and sick time) with additional perks like some summer half days and a volunteer day. The company observes at least 8 federal holidays throughout the calendar year plus a floating holiday that associates can use at their discretion.
The Role
The Associate Project Manager, Fittings supports visibility and transparency across Fittings product development initiatives from project kickoff through production readiness and market introduction. Based in Portugal and near key manufacturing partners, this role works across Product Development/Management, Engineering, and manufacturers to maintain accurate project information, track progress against critical milestones, and identify potential risks or delays early in the development process.
Working closely with the Project Manager, Fittings, Product Development, Engineering, Compliance, Quality, Supply Chain, and manufacturing partners, the Associate Project Manager maintains project plans, timelines, actions, and documentation while ensuring information flows consistently across stakeholders. The role develops a strong understanding of technical product development and manufacturing while helping provide the visibility required for timely decision-making and escalation.
Responsibilities
Project Management, Visibility & Risk
- Support the development and maintenance of integrated project plans and timelines for assigned Fittings development initiatives from kickoff through production readiness and market introduction.
- Maintain accurate visibility to project milestones, responsibilities, dependencies, deliverables, decisions, and open actions.
- Track progress against established milestones and identify potential delays, missing information, dependencies, or emerging issues for review with the Project Manager.
- Maintain project status reporting, ensuring information from Product, Design, Engineering, Compliance, Quality, Supply Chain, and manufacturing partners is current and accurate.
- Support recurring project meetings through agenda preparation, documentation of decisions and actions, and follow-up with responsible stakeholders.
- Track open risks and issues, ensuring ownership and next steps are clearly documented and escalating concerns to the Project Manager when progress or timing is at risk.
- Support the Project Manager in preparing clear project updates and risk visibility for Product leadership.
Product Development & Engineering Coordination
- Support coordination of product requirements, drawings, specifications, prototypes, samples, testing, approvals, and technical information between Waterworks teams and manufacturing partners.
- Maintain organized and accurate project documentation throughout the development process.
- Track prototype and sample development in partnership with Product, Design, Engineering, Quality, and manufacturers.
- Monitor Engineering, Compliance, and Quality milestones and ensure status, requirements, and outstanding actions are reflected in project plans.
- Track development issues through resolution, maintaining clear ownership, timing, and status and elevating potential risks to the Project Manager.
- Support change management by maintaining accurate documentation of changes, decisions, approvals, and resulting project impacts.
- Develop a working knowledge of Waterworks Fittings products, development processes, technical requirements, and manufacturing capabilities.
Manufacturer Partnership and On-Site Visibility
- Maintain regular communication with key European manufacturing partners to gather project updates and confirm progress against established milestones.
- Support manufacturer visits and project reviews to provide direct visibility into development progress, prototypes, tooling, testing, samples, and production readiness.
- Follow up with manufacturing partners on open actions, required information, samples, documentation, and agreed deliverables.
- Compare reported project status against established plans and identify inconsistencies, delays, or potential risks for review with the Project Manager.
- Maintain clear documentation of manufacturer commitments, timing, open issues, and required decisions.
- Build collaborative working relationships with manufacturing partners while developing knowledge of their capabilities, processes, and development requirements.
- Provide timely information to the Project Manager and Waterworks teams regarding development progress and emerging concerns.
Project Governance & Communication
- Maintain clear, consistent project information across timelines, milestones, decisions, actions, risks, and dependencies using available project management tools and processes.
- Ensure project documentation and status information are organized, current, and accessible to appropriate stakeholders.
- Support consistent project management practices across assigned Fittings initiatives.
- Assist in preparing information for project reviews, roadmap discussions, and leadership updates.
- Support the continued development of project management tools, systems, templates, and processes as the function evolves
- Identify opportunities to improve project information flow, documentation, and visibility across Waterworks teams and manufacturing partners.
Key Qualifications:
- Strong organizational and project coordination skills with exceptional attention to detail and follow-through.
- Ability to manage and synthesize information across multiple concurrent projects, stakeholders, and priorities.
- Proactive approach to identifying missing information, potential delays, inconsistencies, and emerging project risks.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to build effective working relationships across Product, Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, and external manufacturing partners.
- Comfortable working within technical product development and manufacturing environments.
- Curious and willing to develop a strong understanding of products, manufacturing processes, and project dependencies.
- Comfortable working within a global organization across multiple locations and time zones.
- Ability to communicate concerns clearly and confidently when project information indicates potential risk.
- Other duties and responsibilities as assigned.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent international degree.
- Must be fluent in Portuguese and English
- 3–5 years of Project Management, Project Coordination, Product Development, Engineering Program Management, manufacturing, or related experience.
- Experience supporting the development of physical products preferred.
- Experience working with manufacturers or suppliers preferred.
- Exposure to technical or complex product development strongly preferred.
- Experience with project management platforms such as Smartsheet preferred; experience with PLM systems beneficial.
- Strong proficiency with standard business productivity and project tracking tools.
- Superior communication skills, verbal and written.
- Position is based in Portugal with regular travel to manufacturing partners throughout Europe.
- International travel to the United States as required 15%.
Our Values
Be Authentic: Engage in real conversations. Communicate honestly with respect and professionalism.
Raise The Bar: Share ideas to uphold our standard of excellence. Never settle for less than the best.
Own It: Be responsible for your results. Empower yourself and others to step forward and lead.
Partner For Perfection: Collaborate with peers and teammates to deliver superior service to our clients.
Love What You Do & Do What You Love: Generate excitement and enthusiasm for our brand and company.
Waterworks is committed to promoting pay equity. Rate of pay is determined based on each individual's experience, qualifications, and the geographic location of the role. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate's experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.
Waterworks is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any applicant on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, marital status, age, disability, sexual orientation, military/veteran status, or any other status protected by federal or state law or local ordinance.
