Christopher Dawson
Greensboro
Summary
Accomplished project manager specializing in supply chain management and procurement strategy at Lenovo. Demonstrated ability to drive process improvements, resulting in a 15% increase in customer satisfaction. Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite with strong communication skills that enhance cross-functional collaboration for timely and budget-compliant project delivery.
Overview
14
14
years of professional experience
Work History
NPI Project Manager/ NPI Program Analyst
Lenovo
01.2026 - Current
- NPI process from concept to production, ensuring all deliverables are met across engineering, supply chain, quality, and operations.
- Lead and schedule teardown activities for servers. Teardown & Rework oversees end-to-end teardown operations, including planning, execution, documentation, and cross-team communication. The role ensures that teardown insights and rework activities support product quality, cost reduction, manufacturability, and serviceability improvements across Lenovo’s product lines.
- Coordinate cross-functional teams (engineering, product management, operations, regulatory, quality) to ensure alignment and timely execution.
- Drive issue resolution across supply chain, engineering, and operations to keep programs on schedule.
- Monitor readiness for production, including pilot builds, process verification, and ramp-up activities.
- Manage rework projects for engineering builds, pilot units, or field-returned devices.
- Develop rework instructions, process flows, and quality checkpoints.
- Verify rework activities met engineering specifications, safety requirements, and compliance standards.
- Tracked rework yields, cycle times, and defect trends to identify and communicate improvement opportunities.
- Document teardown steps, part conditions, failure points, and design observations to enhance understanding of product issues.
- Created detailed teardown reports with photos, measurements, BOM comparisons, and cost insights to inform stakeholders and support decision-making.
- Support tooling, cost, and budget planning, including cost estimates and tooling requirements.
- Ensure quality and regulatory compliance, including testing, simulations, and validation of customer-use scenarios.
Project Manager/ Commodity Buyer
Volvo Trucks
Greensboro
03.2024 - 04.2025
- Led end-to-end planning and quality oversight for coated metal components, collaborating with external suppliers and coating partners to ensure the seamless flow from the treatment through return and final dispatch to Volvo’s manufacturing facility.
- Drove the sourcing plan for all metal coatings. Negotiated new vendor contracts saving $100k in annual spend on metal coatings for the parts in my scope.
- Developed the sourcing plan for buying components & systems according to cross functional time plans.
- Achieved 95% on-time delivery through effective communication with buyers and engineers.
- Regularly visited suppliers and ensured they followed targets 100% on budget and sourcing deadline, tooling/SIPD cost.
- Reduced defective materials by 4% by collaborating with quality and mechanical engineers to incorporate design changes and meetings to discuss PPAP approvals.
- Ensured supplier deliverables fulfilled APQP activities managed by SQE.
- Increased supplier readiness by 15% by ensuring suppliers are prepared for production, and all EDI connections are current.
- Drive operational sourcing projects and manage the day-to-day investment business.
- Build and support strong relationships with internal cross functional stakeholders.
- Advise stakeholders on procurement issues, providing support and guidance at all stages of the procurement cycle.
- Reported fulfillment of project targets in terms of QDCFTSR during Sourcing and Project phase.
- Led cross-functional teams to complete complex projects within timelines and budget constraints.
- Developed project plans outlining scope, timelines, and resource allocation.
- Managed project risks by identifying issues and implementing mitigation strategies.
Project Manager Catagorie Buyer
Gilbarco Veeder RootGreensboro
Greensboro
02.2024 - 06.2024
- Procurement professional with progressive experience in coordinating and improving material planning and asset management processes while using cost-saving initiatives.
- Oversaw contract negotiations and compliance during project execution.
- Led cross-functional teams to execute project plans and timelines.
- Managed project budgets and resource allocation effectively.
- Managed multiple projects with competing deadlines simultaneously.
- Forecasted, scheduled and monitored project timelines, personnel performance, and cost efficiency.
- Collaborated closely with senior management on long-term strategic planning initiatives related to projects in development or execution stages.
- Identified risks associated with each project and developed strategies for mitigating those risks.
- Drove continuous improvement of project delivery process by providing strong leadership.
- Led meetings with internal team members, consultants and contractors.
- Conducted inspections of job sites to assess quality and track progress against project timelines.
- Maintained records of all documents related to each project including specifications, change orders, invoices.
- Established and supported inventory levels for production parts, assemblies, and wiring harnesses.
- Monitored demand and tracked material usage to show trends and forecast future needs.
- Collaborated with departments to secure timely availability of materials for scheduled projects.
- Ran and updated the MRP report for orders, inventory control issuing purchase orders, and communicating with plant/vendors.
- Plan Kanban levels for wiring harnesses, castings, motherboards used to manufacture gas pumps.
- Troubleshoot, resolve, and document all root cause issues related to material variances and wrote procedures to ensure corrective actions are in place.
- Managed contracts with vendors and suppliers by assigning tasks and communicating expected deliverables.
- Participated in negotiations with vendors concerning prices, delivery schedules, warranties and other contractual issues.
- Resolved any discrepancies between purchase orders and actual receipts of goods or services.
Materials Management Project Manager
Netceed – Formerly Walker and Associates
04.2022 - 07.2023
- Supplied mechanical and electrical product line/project and materials management support for high tech broadband projects ranging from $8 to $30 million dollars within the Professional Services Division.
- Provided support to contractors installing fiber optic cable and coordinated sales, project engineering, lean methodology for material replenishment, estimating, scheduled contractors/subs and designed solutions to achieve goals for critical accounts.
- Managed Ariba system requirements and created purchase orders for bill of materials to streamline procurement processes.
- Forecasted material needs across all project phases and led team of buyers in sourcing supplemental materials and capital equipment for fiber optic builds (FTTH, FTTP, FTTx).
- Managed supplier relationships and sourced new suppliers for weekly.
- Issued requests for quotations (RFQs) for significant procurement needs.
- Verified supplier compliance and maintained current certifications to uphold part quality and accuracy.
- Coordinated with clients, and project stakeholders to ensure conformance
- Oversaw supplier relationships and drove continuous process improvements to enhance customer experience, resulting in a 15% improvement in customer satisfaction.
- Developed and presented weekly Excel reports using ERP system, pivot tables, and V Lookups to directors and stakeholders, facilitating project and materials reporting.
- Investigated accidents and handled complaints, material, or structural damages by using root cause analysis to decide problems that arose and developed procedures to prevent the problem from recurring in the future.
- Pre-identified risks across projects.
- Answered bid requests from municipalities, electrical cooperatives, and engineering firms using a cloud-based network deployment estimating software.
- Collaborated in a matrix organization on cross functional teams such as engineering, accounting, operations, finance, credit, marketing, and sales to carry out all strategic goals.
- Read material CAD drawings and coordinated with engineering to find the correct alternate/substitution parts used while deciding cost-effectiveness.
Automation/Machine parts Project Sales Manager
JRP Manufacturing
04.2018 - 06.2021
- Managed industrial automation projects from start to implementation, overseeing meetings, timelines, and project budgets.
- Teamed with engineering to analyze current processes, how to increase efficiency and improve productivity in bottleneck areas.
- Proposed solutions to stakeholders for identified production improvement areas.
- Developed key relationships with suppliers, Engineers, Quality and Production to understand the clients tooling needs and manufacturing requirements, production capacity and quantity of items needed, resulting in over 2MM in manufacturing RFQs from 2019-2021.
- Productivity Increased by 12% in one division with one client by updating a conveyor system that moved car parts around on the inside of a large major car manufacturer in SC. This resulted in a 12% increase in production for process improvements that led to savings of $690k from 2019 to 2021.
- Teamed with Defense Contractors to win military contracts resulting in 12 awards totaling over 1MM.
- Toured manufacturing facilities with stakeholders, senior managers, and engineering to find areas in production that needed improvement or updates.
Government/B2B Sales Representative
Jorlink USA
04.2012 - 04.2018
- Increased CNC sales by 80% by calling/emailing current clients and new prospects.
- I followed up with these prospects selling an average of 2 machines per month totaling $190k per year in gross sales.
- Shipped machines and scheduled customer training, facilitating 1 to 2 CNC machine sales per month.
- Presented new machine features and recommended air extraction systems needed for their building compliance.
- Prospected using web tracking software to identify user interest in specific machines.
- Confirmed sale with buyer and coordinated additional equipment and employee training.
- Built and managed our Amazon Business Prime account.
- Uploaded product data and media to enhance online listings.
- Procured machines, air extracting equipment, plastics and added materials used in the process.
Education
NC Military Contracting Certificate -
Wake Technical Community College
Raleigh, NC05-2016
Bachelor of Science - Business Administration- Finance
Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NCSkills
- Project management
- Procurement strategy
- Risk management
- Process improvement
- Supply chain management
- Sage CRM
- Salesforce CRM
- Ariba Suppliers Network
- Smartsheet
- Communication proficiency
- Excel
- SolidWorks
- CAD
- Microsoft Office Suite
- Material Handling
- Forklift Certified
- Order picker
- Order Picker Bailor
- Procurement planning
- Risk assessment
- Process optimization
- Supply chain logistics
Timeline
NPI Project Manager/ NPI Program Analyst
Lenovo
01.2026 - Current
Project Manager/ Commodity Buyer
Volvo Trucks
03.2024 - 04.2025
Project Manager Catagorie Buyer
Gilbarco Veeder RootGreensboro
02.2024 - 06.2024
Materials Management Project Manager
Netceed – Formerly Walker and Associates
04.2022 - 07.2023
Automation/Machine parts Project Sales Manager
JRP Manufacturing
04.2018 - 06.2021
Government/B2B Sales Representative
Jorlink USA
04.2012 - 04.2018
NC Military Contracting Certificate -
Wake Technical Community College
Bachelor of Science - Business Administration- Finance
Western Carolina University