Project Manager - Engineering

Location: Reading, England, United Kingdom

Department: Commercial, Sales Engineering

Workplace: on_site

Employment Type: full

Description

Roles and Responsibilities

Project Planning and Delivery

• Plan and manage assigned engineering and technology projects from initiation through delivery and closeout, in accordance with the established development lifecycle and governance framework.
• Develop and maintain project management plans, integrated schedules, milestones, dependencies, resource requirements, budgets and delivery forecasts.
• Define project scope, objectives, deliverables, acceptance criteria and work breakdown structures in collaboration with Engineering and Product stakeholders.
• Monitor project performance against approved scope, schedule, cost and quality baselines; identify variances and coordinate timely corrective actions.
• Support technical reviews, lifecycle decision gates and readiness assessments by ensuring required inputs, actions and evidence are complete and current.

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Coordinate day-to-day project execution across Engineering, Product Management, Test, Quality, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Operations and Field Support.
• Facilitate project meetings, technical and delivery reviews, ensuring decisions, actions, owners and due dates are clearly documented and followed through to closure.
• Manage project interfaces, dependencies and handoffs, escalating conflicts or constraints that cannot be resolved within the project team.
• Align project execution with product strategy, customer commitments, production objectives and broader portfolio priorities.
• Provide accurate project information to support resource planning and portfolio-level decision-making by the Director of Engineering Program Management.

Risk, Change and Stakeholder Management

• Maintain project risk and opportunity registers; facilitate identification, assessment, ownership, mitigation and ongoing review.
• Apply formal change control to evaluate and document impacts to scope, schedule, cost, resources, quality and customer commitments.
• Identify project issues early, coordinate recovery actions and escalate material risks, decisions or support requirements through agreed governance channels.
• Develop and execute stakeholder and communication plans appropriate to project complexity, risk and audience.
• Support customer, supplier and partner engagement as assigned, ensuring commitments and actions are accurately captured and managed.

Project Controls and Reporting

• Maintain current, traceable and decision-useful project schedules, forecasts, dashboards and status reports.
• Provide concise reporting on progress, milestones, dependencies, financial status, risks, opportunities, issues, decisions and recovery actions.
• Track project expenditure, resource demand and forecast-to-complete in coordination with Finance and functional leaders.
• Monitor technical and delivery maturity, including design, verification, qualification and manufacturing readiness, as applicable to the assigned project.
• Ensure project records, approvals, decisions, baselines and lessons learned are maintained in accordance with PMO and quality requirements.

PMO Process and Continuous Improvement

• Apply standard PMO methods for planning, scheduling, cost control, risk and opportunity management, change control, governance and reporting.
• Use predictive, agile or hybrid delivery approaches appropriate to the project environment and approved governance model.
• Contribute to project health checks, lessons learned and continuous improvement activities.
• Support consistent use of templates, tools, performance indicators and escalation criteria across development projects.
• Model collaborative, accountable and ethical project leadership aligned with PMI principles and company values.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, Project Management or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
• Typically 3-5 years of experience coordinating or managing engineering, technology, product development or similarly complex projects.
• Working knowledge of project management principles across scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, risk, procurement, stakeholders and communications.
• Experience developing and maintaining project plans, integrated schedules, risk registers, status reports and change records.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate cross-functional teams, manage competing priorities and drive actions to closure without direct authority.
• Strong written and verbal communication, facilitation, organization, problem-solving and stakeholder-management skills.
• Proficiency with common project planning, scheduling, collaboration and reporting tools.
• Ability to interpret technical information and translate it into clear delivery plans, risks, decisions and stakeholder communications.
• PMP certification preferred; CAPM, PRINCE2 Practitioner or equivalent project management credential considered. Candidates actively working toward PMP certification may also be considered.
• Preferred: experience in SATCOM, communications, aerospace, defence or another regulated, multi-disciplinary hardware and software environment.

Additional Notes

• This role supports the Director of Engineering Program Management by providing disciplined project-level planning, coordination, controls and reporting across assigned development initiatives.
• The role does not carry portfolio ownership or line-management responsibility unless separately assigned.
• Security clearance or eligibility may be required for defence-related projects.

Benefits

• Competitive Salary
• Contributory Pension Scheme 

• 25 days Annual Leave + Public Holidays 

• Cycle-to-Work Scheme (Salary Sacrifice) 

• Car Scheme (Salary Sacrifice) 

• Free On-Site Gym 

• Employee Assistance Programme 

• Discounts Platform