Portfolio Director (Maritime)

Leidos Innovations UK Limited; Farnborough; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology company in Farnborough is seeking an experienced Maritime Portfolio Director to lead the delivery of high-quality services for national security and defense. The ideal candidate should have proven leadership skills in delivering large scale Maritime programmes, strong communication skills, and the ability to engage with government stakeholders. This role involves managing a diverse team and requires MOD Security Clearance.

Benefits

Contributory Pension Scheme

Private Medical Insurance

33 days Annual Leave

Flexible benefits

Flexi-Time Working

Qualifications

• Proven experience in leading and delivering large-scale Maritime programmes (£300m+).
• Strong people skills, able to motivate and influence individuals.
• Experience in working with UK Government organizations.

Responsibilities

• Manage strategy and future pipeline of work with the customer.
• Oversee technical, programmatic, and financial management of services.
• Lead a diverse engineering team and ensure effective governance.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Systems Engineering

Analytical thinking

Communication

Job 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 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

• 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?

We love to work with people who have a passion for leading work to solve complex problems in challenging environments: optimising and continuously improving services for our customers.

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 aspects 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

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.

The successful candidate will have :

• Proven experience of successfully leading and delivering large scale Maritime programmes (£300m+), including profit & loss responsibility.
• Proven experience of working on and leadership roles in bids and growth.
• Understanding of Platform Engineering and Maritime Engineering with proven experience of delivering programmes with this knowledge.
• 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.
• 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 be 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.