Program Manager

4C Strategies; Warminster; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

4C Strategies in Warminster, UK, is seeking a Program Manager to lead delivery into a major UK defence programme within a multi-partner consortium. You will own end-to-end delivery from requirements to deployment, and act as the primary interface with the prime contractor and customer stakeholders.

You will coordinate cross‑discipline teams, govern delivery plans, manage risks and budgets, and shaping the product roadmap while ensuring quality, security, and compliance across the lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Experience delivering complex projects within defence, government, software, or similarly regulated environments.
• Proven experience leading end-to-end delivery across multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong project planning, scheduling, financial management and resource coordination.
• Experience managing customer and partner relationships with senior stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of governance, risk management, security/assurance processes and quality assurance.
• Commercial awareness — comfortable managing scope and change within contractual boundaries.
• Excellent written, verbal and presentation skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining a structured and proactive approach.
• Eligibility to obtain and maintain UK Security Check (SC) clearance.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end delivery into the programme within scope, budget, quality and timelines.
• Manage requirements, delivery, stakeholder engagement and governance across multiple service lines, consolidating demand into a single prioritised delivery plan and product roadmap.
• Firm up delivery plans from the contracted proposal baseline, including transition from incumbent systems and processes.
• Act as 4C's primary delivery interface with the prime contractor, consortium partners and customer stakeholders, with clear reporting, communication and expectation management.
• Plan and lead the passage of deliverables through customer technical governance and security assurance processes (design authorities, approval boards, Secure by Design), in partnership with 4C solution architects.
• Coordinate 4C Engineering, Product, Consultancy and Support teams, aligning service-line requirements with the 4C product roadmap and release planning.
• Manage delivery within a software product (COTS licence and support) commercial model, exercising sound judgement over scope, change and product‑investment trade‑offs, and supporting forecasting, budget control and margin management.
• Ensure compliance with applicable security, accreditation, contractual and quality requirements throughout delivery.
• Identify, assess and proactively manage risks, issues and dependencies — including cross‑service‑line and customer‑side dependencies.
• Support business development by contributing delivery expertise to bids, proposals and contract change.
• Represent 4C Strategies professionally with customers, partners and at relevant industry events.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of delivery practices, governance and methodologies across the EMEA Defence organisation.

Skills

Defence software delivery experience

End-to-end delivery leadership

Stakeholder management

Governance & risk management

Budget & financial management

Commercial awareness

Excellent communication

Prioritization & multitasking

UK Security Check eligibility

Job description

About The Role

As a Program Manager within 4C Strategies' EMEA Defence team, based in Warminster, UK, you will lead 4C's delivery into a major, newly signed, long-term UK defence programme, delivered as part of a multi-partner consortium. 4C provides a market-leading COTS software product, together with configuration, consultancy and support services, that underpins multiple service lines within the wider programme delivery model.

The shape of the role is distinctive: you will manage the requirements, delivery plans, stakeholders and governance needs of several programme service lines in parallel, while consolidating that demand into a single coherent delivery plan, a single commercial position, and a single product roadmap. You will own the full delivery lifecycle — from requirement definition and planning through governance, deployment and into support — ensuring commitments are delivered on time, within scope, and to the highest quality standards. You will act as 4C's primary delivery interface with the prime contractor, consortium partners and customer stakeholders, building trusted relationships through clear communication, disciplined governance and honest expectation management. You will work in close partnership with 4C solution architects and technical specialists, who author the technical designs and assurance artefacts — your role is to orchestrate, assure and front that work, not to produce it. This is a long‑horizon programme: you will be shaping delivery foundations intended to last more than a decade.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead 4C's end‑to‑end delivery into the programme, ensuring successful execution within agreed scope, budget, quality and timelines.
• Manage requirements, delivery, stakeholder engagement and governance support across multiple programme service lines, consolidating demand into a single prioritised delivery plan and product roadmap.
• Work with service leads and customer stakeholders to firm up delivery plans from the contracted proposal baseline, including transition from incumbent systems and processes.
• Act as 4C's primary delivery interface with the prime contractor, consortium partners and customer stakeholders, with clear reporting, communication and expectation management.
• Plan and lead the passage of deliverables through customer technical governance and security assurance processes (design authorities, approval boards, Secure by Design), in partnership with 4C solution architects.
• Coordinate 4C Engineering, Product, Consultancy and Support teams, aligning service‑line requirements with the 4C product roadmap and release planning.
• Manage delivery within a software product (COTS licence and support) commercial model, exercising sound judgement over scope, change and product‑investment trade‑offs, and supporting forecasting, budget control and margin management.
• Ensure compliance with applicable security, accreditation, contractual and quality requirements throughout delivery.
• Identify, assess and proactively manage risks, issues and dependencies — including cross‑service‑line and customer‑side dependencies.
• Support business development by contributing delivery expertise to bids, proposals and contract change.
• Represent 4C Strategies professionally with customers, partners and at relevant industry events.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of delivery practices, governance and methodologies across the EMEA Defence organisation.

About You

You are an experienced Program Manager with a background in defence, software delivery, or other technically complex and regulated environments. You are at your best serving multiple demanding stakeholder groups from a single delivery capability — consolidating competing priorities into one coherent plan and making trade‑offs visible rather than promising everything to everyone. You are comfortable leading multidisciplinary teams, operating within a consortium or prime/subcontractor structure, and fronting technically demanding governance forums without being the deepest technical expert in the room. You build trust through clear communication, pragmatic problem‑solving and a collaborative approach, while maintaining a strong focus on quality, governance and commercial discipline.

We Believe You Bring

• Demonstrated experience delivering complex projects within defence, government, software, or similarly regulated environments.
• Proven experience leading end‑to‑end delivery across multidisciplinary teams — ideally serving multiple concurrent customer or stakeholder groups from a shared product or platform.
• Strong project planning, scheduling, financial management and resource coordination skills.
• Experience managing customer and partner relationships, and engaging confidently with senior stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of project governance, risk management, security/assurance processes and quality assurance.
• Commercial awareness — comfortable managing scope and change within contractual boundaries and recognising the commercial consequences of delivery decisions.
• Excellent written, verbal and presentation skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining a structured and proactive approach.
• Eligibility to obtain and maintain UK Security Check (SC) clearance.

Desirable

• Experience delivering projects for the UK Ministry of Defence, NATO or other defence organisations.
• Experience delivering within a consortium, or as a subcontractor to a prime contractor.
• Experience delivering from within a software product / COTS organisation (licence‑and‑support commercial models).
• Experience working with software‑enabled capabilities or digital transformation programmes.
• Familiarity with Agile delivery at scale (e.g. SAFe) alongside structured methodologies.
• Professional project management certification such as PRINCE2 Practitioner, PMP, MSP or Agile qualifications.

About 4C Strategies

4C Strategies supports defence organisations worldwide with software and expert services that strengthen readiness, resilience and operational capability. Through our Exonaut platform and specialist defence delivery teams, we help armed forces plan, train, exercise and evaluate more effectively — improving preparedness and performance in mission‑critical environments. In the UK, we are a delivery partner on one of the British Army's most significant training transformation programmes — a long‑term, consortium‑delivered engagement combining our software platform with consultancy and delivery expertise. This role offers the opportunity to shape that delivery from its earliest stage and grow with it over the coming decade.