Portfolio Director - Maritime

Leidos; Farnborough; Hybrid; GBP 94,000 - 127,000; Full time

Job summary

A technology solutions provider in Farnborough is seeking a Maritime Portfolio Director to lead major programmes, engage with government customers, and develop effective strategies. The ideal candidate will have extensive leadership experience in the Maritime domain, excellent communication skills, and a proven track record of delivering large-scale projects. This role offers flexibility in working arrangements and promotes a collaborative culture.

Benefits

Contributory Pension Scheme

Private Medical Insurance

33 days Annual Leave

Access to Flexible benefits

Flexi-Time Working

Qualifications

• Proven experience of successfully leading and delivering large scale Maritime programmes (£50m+).
• Experience in working with UK Government organisations.
• Strong people skills, able to motivate and influence.

Responsibilities

• Actively manage the strategy and future pipeline of work with the customer.
• Oversee technical, programmatic and financial management.
• Lead and manage a diverse engineering team.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Strategic Vision

Analytical Skills

Problem-solving

Education

Relevant technical background

Job description

Description

Portfolio Director - Maritime

Location: Farnborough, with flexibility to work from home dependent on business demands

The Role:

Leidos UK is seeking an experienced and motivated Maritime Portfolio Director / Delivery Lead to lead the Maritime Portfolio National Security and Defence (NS&D). The Portfolio Director will join the NS&D leadership team leading and managing the delivery of high-quality technical products and services to our government and commercial customers.

The successful candidate will be accountable to the Managing Director of the National Security & Defence Division in Leidos UK for all aspects of delivery for Maritime. You will head up a Senior Leadership Team of senior Programme Managers, Technical Experts and Service Delivery professionals to drive the delivery of a service which constitutes our Maritime portfolio. You will be comfortable in engaging with individuals at all levels from Senior Government staff and Leidos Executives in both the UK, US and AUS as we pull through from broader capabilities.

This is a true ‘Director’ role in which you will be comfortable with delegation, staff development and the management of a complex and diverse team of professionals. You will be an excellent communicator in all mediums and have a strong set of personal values, including integrity. Leidos believes in collaborative working and that is the goal in this programme; engaging closely with our customers to understand their needs and working together to deliver the outcomes that will satisfy within the available budget. Structured and clear planning is critical to success and the successful candidate will have a clear approach to planning new work, which they will share with the wider team to drive continuous improvement.

An individual with experience in delivering platforms, autonomy and product development in the Maritime domain, with understanding of Systems Thinking and principles with experience in Systems Engineering as an advantage. This is an area with significant investment and strategic importance with scope for the successful candidate to build and expand a high performing team.

Role responsibilities

As Programme Director/Delivery Lead you will be accountable for Delivery with a focus on:

• Actively managing the strategy and future pipeline of work with the customer.
• Close and collaborative engagement with the customer team at all levels to support prioritisation and delivery of the work against critical customer and programmatic milestones.
• System Engineering delivery through Trials and Evaluation and with a full lifecycle of delivery.
• Technical, programmatic and financial management of the service and transformation work supported by and supporting the senior management team.
• Owning and maintaining the ways of working, governance and change management workflows to optimise delivery while remaining aligned to Leidos and customer policy.
• Management of a diverse and highly skilled engineering team, including delegation of responsibilities and performance management.
• Regular reporting to customer and Leidos executives to support effective information sharing and strategic decision making.
• Supporting the Division and wider business through regular, clear and accurate forecasts of resource demand, financial position and contract delivery.

Who are we looking for?

• For this role, you will be a Director not just a manager, able to develop and maintain a strategic vision while delegating the work; supporting and trusting your team to deliver.
• You will have a strong depth of Domain and Engineering experience to be able to manage delivery, risk mitigation and product lifecycle.
• You will be self‑motivated and lead by example, especially when under pressure. While delegation will deliver the majority of the work you will be unafraid to get your hands dirty when circumstances call for it.
• As a professional PM you will have a deep subject matter expertise in all aspect of delivery and as a leader you will be happy to shoulder accountability for delivery of programme performance in a strongly customer facing role.
• You will be a robust and effective communicator across a variety of means, comfortable directly engaging with customers and colleagues and able to clearly put your points across transparently and in support of your goals and objectives. You will be skilled in explaining technical matters to non‑specialists as required.
• An analytical mind will be key in this role – enabling you to demonstrate an analytical and systematic approach to technical, stakeholder and other challenges and to articulate complex ideas in a straightforward manner. A high‑level understanding of the Systems Approach will help.
• You will need excellent decision making skills and understand the need to make or support the team with decisions based on less than all of the information in some circumstances.

The successful candidate will have:

• Proven experience of successfully leading and delivering large scale Maritime programmes (£50m+) including profit & loss responsibility.
• Proven experience of working on and leadership roles in bids and growth.
• Experience in working with UK Government organisations sufficient to understand how public organisations work and how they can be supported in delivering effectively and efficiently.
• You will have worked in disciplines which provide a sufficiently technical background or knowledge to rapidly gain an in‑depth understanding of the commercial and technical aspects of the programme and wider Division.
• Previous experience demonstrating strong resource management and cross‑functional engagement experience, including actively engaging with business leaders in other disciplines (commercial, supply chain, finance, HR, trade compliance) to understand and account for their needs.
• Strong people skills, able to motivate, influence and enable individuals both inside and outside of their direct management, including mentoring, coaching and performance management.

Additional Information

• We operate a high paced and exciting collaborative working environment where the work you do is customer facing and has demonstrable real‑world impact. As such we value our staff highly and are committed to training, career development and providing opportunities to progress.
• The main location for this role will be Farnborough UK, although this will a flexible role as required working with the team.
• Flexibility is required to be able to travel to other Leidos sites and Customer sites as needed.
• This role supports the delivery of National Security and as such, candidates need to hold MOD Security Clearance.

What we do for you

At Leidos we are PASSIONATE about customer success, UNITED as a team and INSPIRED to make a difference. We offer meaningful and engaging careers, a collaborative culture, and support for your career goals, all while nurturing a healthy work‑life balance.

We provide an employment package that attracts, develops and retains only the best in talent. Our reward scheme includes:
- Contributory Pension Scheme
- Private Medical Insurance
- 33 days Annual Leave (including public and privilege holidays)
- Access to Flexible benefits (including life assurance, health schemes, gym memberships, annual buy and sell holidays and a cycle to work scheme)

- Flexi‑Time Working

Commitment to Diversity

We welcome applications from every part of the community and are committed to a truly diverse and inclusive culture. We foster a sense of belonging, welcoming all perspectives and contributions, and providing equal access to opportunities and resources for everyone. If you have a disability or need any reasonable adjustments during the application and selection stages please let us know, and we will respond in a way that best fits your needs.

Who We Are

Leidos UK & EUROPE – we work to make the world safer, healthier and more efficient through technology, engineering and science.

Leidos is a growing company delivering innovative technology and solutions focused on safeguarding critical capabilities and transformation in frontline services, our work in the United Kingdom includes addressing some of the most complex problems in defence, healthcare, government, safety and security, and transportation.

What Makes Us Different

Purpose: you can use your passion and abilities at Leidos to keep the people you care about safe. We are at the forefront of machine learning, AI, cyber security and solutions. Using your skills in the technology frontline by helping to build a safer world. You can inspire change.

Collaboration: having flexibility to do your job is one of our core benefits, enabling you to become part of our extraordinary team. We have been empowering our people to work flexibly for years. Whether you work from home, the office or on customer sites, we will give you the digital tools and the flexibility to work smarter and align your needs and ours.

People: Leidos empowers people from every background to be themselves and gives you the tools to learn new skills by enabling growth while developing. We believe that extraordinary people need opportunities to grow, to be inspired and to inspire others. At Leidos, we invest in technical academies, career rotations and a career development plans that enhance your future.

At Leidos, we don’t want someone who "fits the mold"—we want someone who melts it down and builds something better. This is a role for the restless, the over‑caffeinated, the ones who ask, “what’s next?” before the dust settles on “what’s now.” If you’re already scheming step 20 while everyone else is still debating step 2… good. You’ll fit right in.

Original Posting

For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range

£94,700.00-£126,300.00 The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.

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