Programme Director

Frontier Resourcing; Plymouth; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading Defence consultancy is seeking a Senior Programme Director to lead complex infrastructure programmes in a regulated environment in Plymouth. You will manage diverse teams and stakeholders, ensuring alignment with cost, schedule, and quality commitments. Ideal candidates will have significant experience in Defence or regulated sectors, strong commercial knowledge, and leadership skills. This role offers a hybrid work model, allowing for 3 days a week on client site.

Qualifications

• Significant leadership experience in Defence, nuclear, or regulated infrastructure sectors.
• Proven ability to lead teams in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
• Experience working with Tier-1 contractors.

Responsibilities

• Act as the senior programme lead and interface with clients and stakeholders.
• Oversee planning, scheduling, budgeting, and management of all programme elements.
• Drive excellence through quality assurance and governance processes.

Skills

Leadership in Defence programmes

Multi-disciplinary team leadership

Commercial and contractual knowledge

Strong communication skills

Negotiation expertise

Risk management

Education

Degree in Engineering, Construction, Project Management or relevant discipline

Professional accreditation (APM, RICS, ICE or equivalent)

Job description

We are supporting a major UK Defence organisation in the appointment of a Programme Director to lead the successful delivery of complex infrastructure programmes within highly regulated environments.

This senior role requires an experienced leader capable of directing multiple concurrent workstreams, managing diverse supply‑chain partners and ensuring programme delivery aligns with cost, schedule and quality commitments. You will operate across a broad stakeholder landscape and be responsible for programme governance, assurance, commercial oversight and leadership of multidisciplinary teams.

This position is working on a hybrid basis (3 days a week client site).

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as the senior programme lead and primary interface with client organisations, delivery partners and regulators.
• Lead negotiations on scope, change, commercial matters and delivery commitments.
• Support wider business development activities by identifying opportunities and contributing to strategic growth.
• Represent the programme during regulatory discussions, technical reviews and stakeholder forums.

Programme Delivery & Governance

• Establish and maintain core programme documentation, including the Programme Delivery Plan, H&S Management Plan and QA/QC frameworks.
• Ensure all teams understand programme scope, objectives, deliverables and success metrics.
• Oversee planning, scheduling, budgeting and commercial management across all programme elements.
• Assign responsibilities to senior project leads based on capability and experience, and support their ongoing development.

Resource, Supply Chain & Commercial Management

• Mobilise multidisciplinary teams and supply‑chain resources to ensure programme readiness and delivery capability.
• Collaborate with functional leads to define key roles and ensure appropriate resourcing across all work fronts.
• Monitor spend, performance and progress, identifying risks and implementing corrective action plans when required.
• Manage change control processes and maintain oversight of contractual obligations and commercial impacts.

Assurance, Reporting & Continuous Improvement

• Drive excellence through the application of robust quality assurance and governance processes.
• Provide transparent reporting to senior leadership on programme performance, risks, issues and milestone achievement.
• Ensure delivery aligns with regulatory requirements, industry standards and best practice.
• Promote continuous improvement and lessons learned across all programme teams.

Skills & Experience Required

• Significant leadership experience delivering major programmes within Defence, nuclear, utilities or similarly regulated infrastructure sectors.
• Proven ability to lead multi-disciplinary teams across complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
• Strong commercial and contractual knowledge, ideally including NEC4 and/or FIDIC.
• Experience working with or alongside Tier‑1 contractors.
• Skilled communicator and influencer, able to operate effectively at senior levels.
• Capable of balancing technical, commercial, safety and regulatory demands.
• Willingness to travel to operational sites as required.

Qualifications

• Degree in Engineering, Construction, Project Management or a related technical/business discipline.
• Professional accreditation (APM, RICS, ICE or equivalent) highly desirable.
• Experience across the full life cycle of major infrastructure or Defence programmes.
• Strong grounding in NEC and/or FIDIC contract environments.