Contract Manager

Babcock International Group; Holyhead; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous holiday allowance

Matched pension contribution with life

Digital GP and health check

Employee shopping savings portal

Payment of Professional Fees

Reservists leave 10 days

Holiday Trading benefit

Be Kind Day

Job summary

At Babcock, a global defence and engineering company, this role at RAF Valley near Holyhead, Anglesey, leads the Hawk contract delivery. You will oversee safe, effective, and profitable operations, drive performance against targets, and maintain strong relationships with customers and regulators within a highly controlled aviation environment.

You will manage budgets, forecasts, and commercial objectives while developing teams and embedding a culture of accountability and safety.

Qualifications

• Experience managing complex operational contracts, programmes or service delivery environments.
• Strong operational leadership experience, including leading multidisciplinary teams and delivering against performance targets.
• Experience managing financial performance, budgets, forecasting and commercial objectives.
• Experience working within highly regulated environments with a strong focus on compliance and governance.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication and relationship-building skills.

Responsibilities

• Leading the safe, effective and profitable delivery of the Hawk contract, ensuring contractual and operational commitments are achieved.
• Managing contract financial performance, including budgets, forecasting, cost control and profit and loss accountability.
• Building strong customer and stakeholder relationships and representing the contract at key performance reviews.
• Driving operational performance, continuous improvement initiatives and corrective actions where required.
• Developing and leading operational teams, creating a culture of accountability, collaboration and safety-first thinking.

Skills

Operational leadership

Stakeholder management

Financial management

Contract management

Compliance & governance

Education

Professional management or leadership qualifications

Military aviation, defence or flying training experience

Job description

Job Title: Contract Manager

Location: Holyhead, Anglesey

Compensation: £80,000 - £85,000

Role Type: Full Time / Permanent

Role ID: SF76808

Lead operational excellence in military aviation and make a real impact on national defence.

At Babcock, we’re working to create a safe and secure world, together. If you join us, you can play your part as a Contract Manager at RAF Valley, near Holyhead, Anglesey. Based within our Aviation business, you’ll help deliver critical flying training capability that supports the UK's Armed Forces and contributes directly to national security.

The role

As a Contract Manager, you’ll take ownership of the operational delivery of the Hawk contract at RAF Valley. This is a senior leadership opportunity where you’ll be responsible for ensuring the safe, effective and profitable delivery of a complex aviation contract while meeting customer expectations, operational performance objectives and financial targets.

This role offers the chance to work at the heart of military aviation, leading high-performing operational teams and building trusted relationships with key stakeholders. You’ll play a pivotal role in driving continuous improvement, developing people and ensuring the successful delivery of a contract that supports vital defence training operations. Along the way, you’ll further develop your leadership, commercial and operational management expertise within a globally recognised engineering and defence organisation.

Day-to-day, you’ll be required to:

• Leading the safe, effective and profitable delivery of the Hawk contract, ensuring contractual and operational commitments are achieved.
• Managing contract financial performance, including budgets, forecasting, cost control and profit and loss accountability.
• Building strong customer and stakeholder relationships and representing the contract at key performance reviews.
• Driving operational performance, continuous improvement initiatives and corrective actions where required.
• Developing and leading operational teams, creating a culture of accountability, collaboration and safety-first thinking.

This role full time, 40 hours per week, Monday to Friday. Hybrid working patterns are available.

Essential experience of the Contract Manager

• Experience managing complex operational contracts, programmes or service delivery environments.
• Strong operational leadership experience, including leading multidisciplinary teams and delivering against performance targets.
• Experience managing financial performance, budgets, forecasting and commercial objectives.
• Experience working within highly regulated environments with a strong focus on compliance and governance.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication and relationship-building skills.

Qualifications for the Contract Manager

No specific essential qualifications have been identified for this role.

The following would be advantageous:

• Professional management or leadership qualifications.
• Military aviation, defence or flying training experience.
• Knowledge of aircraft maintenance, engineering support or operational delivery models.
• Experience working with Ministry of Defence customers or military regulatory organisations.

Security Clearance

The successful candidate must be able to achieve and maintain Security Check (SC) security clearance for this role.

Many of the positions within our company are subject to national security clearance and Trade Control restrictions. This means that your eligibility for certain roles may be affected by your place of birth, nationality, current or former citizenship, and any residency you hold or have held. Further details are available at United Kingdom Security Vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) .

What We Offer

• Generous holiday allowance
• Matched contribution pension scheme, with life assurance
• Access to a Digital GP, annual health check, and nutritional consultations through Aviva DigiCare+
• Employee shopping savings portal
• Payment of Professional Fees
• Reservists in the armed forces receive 10-days special paid leave
• Holiday Trading is a benefit that allows UK Babcock employees to buy additional leave or to sell up to one working week of annual leave from their annual entitlement. This Window opens February through to March annually.
• ‘Be Kind Day’ enables employees to take one working day’s paid leave a year (or equivalent hours) to undertake volunteering work with their chosen organisation or registered charity

Babcock

We’re Babcock — a global FTSE 100 organisation with over 29,000 people working together to make a difference.

Here, you’ll be part of something bigger. From initial design to final decommissioning, your work will contribute to products and services that are essential to national security and public infrastructure. Together, we’re building a future that lasts — not just through the impact we make, but through meaningful careers that respect your work-life balance.

We call that lifetime engineering.

Join us and see how far we can go, together.

We are a disability confident committed employer. If you have a disability or need any reasonable adjustments during the application and selection stages, please email [e-mail] with the subject header ‘Reasonable adjustments requirement’. We’re committed to building an inclusive culture where everyone’s free to thrive. We are happy to talk about flexible working – please ask about alternative patterns of work at interview.

Closing date: 18/11/2026

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