Director of PMO

About the role

Since 1935, we've been on a mission to bring a little extra happiness to everyday life and inspire connections over food. We select the finest ingredients the world has to offer, craft premium products made with love, and never settle for shortcuts. We believe that when we share our food, we share a part of ourselves - and that's the only way we'd put our name on it. Today, our small family company has grown into a national leader in specialty olives, peppers, and sauces under the leadership of CEO Jeff Mezzetta, and our commitment to quality has never wavered. With an 80-year legacy behind us and a bright future ahead, we're seeking passionate, driven candidates to help us bring our cherished family traditions to a new generation. The ideal candidate will have an immediate connection to our Core Ingredients: Crunchy Crunchy: We are hungry for excellence. Own It: We think and act as an owner - with appetite, initiative, and responsibility. Connection: We build authentic relationships that foster trust and open communications. Vibrance: We come to work eager and passionate about fulfilling our vision. When we share our work, we share a part of who we are. Mezzetta is seeking a Director of PMO to serve as the operational backbone of our innovation and enterprise project portfolio. This role will bring structure, clarity, and decision discipline to a fast-paced, cross-functional environment-particularly within our innovation pipeline and stage gate process. Reporting to the VP of Strategy & Execution, this leader will standardize and elevate project management practices while also acting as a critical thought partner to functional leaders-ensuring teams understand status, risks, tradeoffs, and implications of key decisions. This role is not just about tracking projects-it is about driving alignment, enabling better decisions, and improving the success rate of innovation at Mezzetta.

Responsibilities

• Innovation & Stage Gate Leadership
• Own and continuously improve Mezzetta's innovation stage gate process
• Ensure clear entry/exit criteria, decision frameworks, and accountability at each gate
• Drive decision clarity and durability-minimizing rework and scope churn
• Partner with Innovation, Marketing, R&D, and Operations to ensure feasibility, alignment, and execution readiness
• Surface tradeoffs (cost, timing, complexity) to enable strong decision-making
• Portfolio Visibility & Decision Support
• Provide a clear, consolidated view of project portfolio health across innovation, CAPEX, technology, and operations
• Translate complex project data into clear executive-level insights
• Identify risks, dependencies, and capacity constraints early
• Enable leadership to make informed prioritization and resource decisions
• PMO Leadership & Capability Building
• Lead and develop a team of project managers
• Establish and enforce best practices, tools, and methodologies
• Drive consistency in project scoping, planning, and execution
• Train cross-functional teams on effective project management and stage gate discipline
• Execution Excellence
• Improve predictability, speed, and quality of project delivery
• Drive accountability across teams for timelines, deliverables, and outcomes
• Lead retrospectives and continuous improvement efforts
• Optimize tools (e.g., Smartsheet) to support scalable execution

Requirements

• 10+ years of project management experience, with significant experience in CPG or food manufacturing preferred
• Demonstrated success leading innovation pipelines and stage gate processes
• Experience operating in ambiguous, fast-changing environments with shifting priorities
• Proven ability to drive cross-functional alignment and decision-making without direct authority
• Strong ability to translate complexity into clear, actionable insights for leadership
• Experience building or scaling PMO functions and improving organizational capability
• Expertise in project management tools (Smartsheet preferred)
• Lean / Continuous Improvement experience (preferred)
• Must be able to work on site 4 days per week, split between Mezzetta's Larkspur Landing (75%) and American Canyon (25%) offices
• Pay Range
• $170,000 - $180,000 USD
• Our Commitment to an Inclusive Workplace:

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