Project Controls Manager

AWE plc; Old Warren; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

9-day working fortnight

Pension: 9–13%

Maternity/Paternity leave

Job summary

AWE plc, located near Reading, is seeking a Project Controls Manager to lead cost, budget, planning and estimating for the Future Material Campus infrastructure programme. You will head multi-functional project controls teams and collaborate with Project Managers and Supply Chain to deliver projects and mitigate slippage.

The role requires Chartered status and extensive experience in project controls on major construction projects, with proficiency in Primavera P6, Power BI and Excel.

Qualifications

• Experience in project controls on a major construction project.
• Chartered status or equivalent professional qualification.
• Experience delivering controls in defence, life sciences, pharma, and related sectors.

Responsibilities

• Managing risk with qualitative and quantitative assessments for schedule predictability and cost.
• Influencing and supporting project managers and procurement to maintain schedule momentum and cashflow KPIs.
• Role modelling best practice in conceptual estimating, funding stage gates and contingency principles.
• Coordinating planning sessions to compile the master project schedule baseline.
• Using procurement schedules to create achievable lead times and scheduling.
• Prioritising materials and equipment orders to meet install dates.
• Engaging stakeholders to secure sign-off of baselines and progress updates.
• Introducing robust change management processes for cost, schedule, and interfaces.
• Owning the change workflow and ensuring remedial actions are implemented.
• Highlighting trends and root causes of deviations with actionable insights.

Skills

Project Controls

Cost Control

Budget Management

Planning & Scheduling

Estimating

Stakeholder Influence

Education

Chartered status

Tools

Primavera P6

Power BI

Excel

Job description

Project Controls Manager Location: RG7 4PR, located between Reading and Basingstoke. Some of our corporate functions will be moving to Reading Green Park towards the end of 2026, this will be discussed with you during your recruitment journey. Salary range starts at: £49,830 up to £70,000. Working pattern: AWE operates a 9-day working fortnight. We will consider flexible working requests so that your work may fit in with your lifestyle. Just let us know your preferred working pattern on your application. You will be required to attend site up to 3 days per week. Ready to play your part? At AWE, it's not just a job, it's far more than that. Our shared purpose is to help keep the nation safe. Could this role be the opportunity for you? Why This Role is Exciting: As a Project Controls Manager at the Future Material Campus, you'll be part of a team working on one of the UK's most complex infrastructure programmes. This role is crucial to national security, and you'll be joining at a pivotal moment as the UK government invests significantly in improving our infrastructure. Who are we looking for? We are looking for someone with a high level of experience of Project Controls including cost, budget, planning and estimating to join our Project Controls team at AWE Nuclear Security Technologies. In this role, you'll lead multi-functional Project Controls teams. You'll collaborate with Project Managers and Supply Chain to ensure the delivery of our projects and programmes. Your ability to engage, negotiate, and influence people across the business will be key to ensuring effective controls are in place to monitor progress, manage issues, and mitigate slippage.

A typical day could look like this:

• Managing risk, including ownership of qualitative and quantitative assessments to schedule predictability and cost.
• Influencing and supporting project managers and procurement to ensure schedule momentum and cash flow KPIs.
• Role modelling best practice in conceptual estimating, funding stage gates, basic contingency principles and procurement principles.
• Coordinating and facilitating planning sessions and workshops to compile the master project/programme schedule baseline, ensuring an achievable duration.
• Utilising your expertise in procurement schedules to create achievable lead times within the schedule.
• Prioritising materials and equipment orders to meet scheduled install dates.
• Influencing key stakeholders to facilitate sign-off of baseline and encouraging visibility of regular progress updates.
• Introducing robust change processes, ensuring schedules, interfaces, cost, risk, and changes are managed appropriately.
• Owning the change management process and workflow.
• Highlighting trends and root causes of deviations against the baseline using lead and lag indicators and reporting effective remedial actions.

We do need you to have the following:

• Professionally qualified with chartered or equivalent status
• Success in a Project Controls environment on a major construction project
• Delivering Controls in a major project/ programme environment, ideally within Defence, Life Sciences, Pharma, R&D facilities, Industrial, Manufacturing, Distribution & Logistics sectors
• Mentoring and developing a multi-functional controls team
• Meeting project deadlines
• Adept with controls/ general software applications such as Primavera (P6), Power BI, Excel
• Insight into engineering, procurement, contracts, construction processes
• Knowledge of engineering and construction management
• Development of project controls processes

Some reasons we think you'll love it here:

• 9-day working fortnight – meaning you get every other Friday off work, in addition to 270 hours of annual leave.
• Market leading contributory pension scheme (we will pay between 9% and 13% of your pensionable pay depending on your contributions).
• Family friendly policies: Maternity Leave – 39 Weeks Full Pay and Paternity Leave – 4 Weeks Full Pay.
• Opportunities for Professional Career Development including funding for annual membership of a relevant professional body.
• Life Assurance (4 x annual salary).
• The 'Working at AWE' page on our website is where you can find full details in the 'AWE Benefits Guide'.

Interviews will be 90 minutes on TEAMS and will include a 5-to-10-minute presentation. Interviews will be on TEAMS.

Important things you should know:

• You will need to obtain and maintain the necessary security clearance for the role. This will be funded by AWE. The nature of our work does mean you need to be a British Citizen who has been resident in the UK for the past 5 years in order to apply for SC clearance and 10 years for DV.
• We want you to feel comfortable and able to shine during our recruitment process. Please let us know on your application form if you need any adjustments/accommodations during the process.
• Our interviews typically take place over Teams and for most roles are a 1 stage process.