Project Manager- Defence

Positiv+ Cohort; West of England; On-site; GBP 36,000 - 56,000; Full time

Job summary

Positiv+ Cohort is seeking a Project Management Support professional to deliver a portfolio of projects for a customer, aligning with end-to-end processes and coordinating across national and international teams.

You will oversee planning, scheduling, budgeting, reporting, and handover, ensuring consistent governance and timely delivery within a challenging technical environment.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in project management within complex technical or engineering environments.
• Strong financial and schedule management capability.
• Proficiency with project management tools (e.g., JIRA, POAP dashboards, MS Project).
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Ability to work flexibly across multiple workstreams and international teams.
• Knowledge of operational readiness and release/change management processes.

Responsibilities

• Deliver the customer’s roadmap of projects, ensuring adherence to the customer’s end-to-end project management framework.
• Consolidate and document core project elements including scope, schedule, resource requirements, budgets, risks, issues, and quality considerations.
• Coordinate with national and international project teams to support harmonised delivery approaches and shared timelines.
• Prepare, maintain, and update project schedules and resource plans.
• Support integration between project outputs and release management deliverables for production deployment readiness.
• Manage project budgets, track actuals, forecast, and process invoicing.

Skills

Project management

Financial management

Schedule management

Stakeholder engagement

Communication

International collaboration

Release management

Process governance

Tools

JIRA

POAP dashboards

MS Project

Job description

Role Overview
The Project Management Support role is responsible for delivering a portfolio of projects on behalf of the customer, ensuring all work aligns with the customer’s end‑to‑end project management processes. The position supports multiple project teams, adapting to fluctuating demand and providing consistent oversight across planning, delivery, reporting, and operational handover.

Key Responsibilities

Project Delivery & Governance

• Deliver the customer’s roadmap of projects, ensuring adherence to the customer’s end‑to‑end project management framework.
• Consolidate and document all core project elements including scope, schedule, resource requirements, budgets, risks, issues, and quality considerations.
• Coordinate and collaborate with national and international project teams to support harmonised delivery approaches and shared timelines.

Planning & Scheduling

• Prepare, maintain, and update project schedules, ensuring activity dependencies and resource requirements are accurately reflected.
• Develop, implement, and maintain resource allocation plans that align with project portfolio demands and availability.
• Support integration between project outputs and release management deliverables, ensuring a smooth transition into business‑as‑usual support teams and readiness for production deployment.

Budget & Financial Management

• Manage agreed project budgets including tracking of actuals, forecasting, and supplier timesheet reconciliation.
• Ensure timely, accurate processing of project-related invoicing.
• Provide cost transparency and financial reporting aligned with customer standards.

Reporting & Stakeholder Engagement

• Produce project and programme status reporting for stakeholders at multiple levels of the organisation, following the customer’s standards (e.g., JIRA Plans on a Page / POAP).
• Support ongoing communication between internal teams, suppliers, and the customer’s Programme Delivery Manager (PDM).

Performance & Checkpoints

• Participate in scheduled project checkpoints to:

  • Review supplier performance to date,
  • Confirm forward demand planning for engineering or project services,
  • Evaluate capability and demand allocations across T&M services or fixed‑price work packages,
  • Support blended delivery approaches when fixed‑price models are not feasible.

Service Engagement & Delivery Model

• Deliver services according to a demand schedule or project plan owned by the customer.
• Adapt to workload fluctuations based on project team requirements and forecasted demand.
• Participate in service requirement reviews led by the Supplier Programme Delivery Manager, who will align needs with the customer’s project contacts and offload teams.

Experience & Skills (Preferred)

• Proven experience in project management within complex technical or engineering environments.
• Strong financial and schedule management capability.
• Proficiency with project management tools (e.g., JIRA, POAP dashboards, MS Project).
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Ability to work flexibly across multiple workstreams and international teams.
• Knowledge of operational readiness and release/change management processes.