Senior Project Manager

Copello; England; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading defence and security organization in the United Kingdom is seeking a Senior Project Manager to lead the successful delivery of high-value, complex development programmes. The role involves managing multi-phase projects from concept through to customer delivery, ensuring adherence to scope, cost, and quality standards. Strong leadership and stakeholder communication skills are essential. Candidates must have proven experience in engineering project delivery and familiarity with robust project governance processes. SC clearance is required.

Qualifications

• Proven experience delivering engineering projects within defence, aerospace, or high-reliability communications domains.
• Strong leadership capabilities with effective stakeholder and customer-facing communication.
• Demonstrated commercial understanding including budgeting, financial oversight, and project reporting.
• Experience delivering full project lifecycle from bid/proposal stage through to acceptance and close-out.
• Ability to manage competing priorities in a technically complex and secure environment.
• Familiarity with robust project governance processes including risk, change, and configuration management.

Responsibilities

• Lead the successful end-to-end delivery of multi-phase projects.
• Act as the primary interface between internal engineering teams and external customers.
• Ensure delivery of projects to agreed scope, cost, schedule, and quality commitments.
• Provide leadership and coordination across cross-functional teams.
• Identify, monitor, and manage project risks, issues, and technical dependencies.
• Drive project planning including scheduling and resource allocation.
• Maintain accurate and compliant project documentation.
• Support continuous improvement within the PMO and project delivery framework.
• Foster a culture of transparency, collaboration, and delivery excellence.

Skills

Engineering project delivery

Leadership capabilities

Stakeholder communication

Commercial understanding

Project lifecycle management

Project governance processes

Job description

Senior Project Manager

Copello working with a leading defence and organisation based near High Wycombe, who are looking for a Senior Project Manager to lead the successful delivery of high-value, technically complex development programmes.

You will be working on major programmes involving the design, development, integration, and delivery of advanced systems, supporting critical defence and secure communications applications. The successful candidate will join an established and high-performing project delivery function, playing a key role in ensuring projects are executed in line with customer expectations, engineering compliance requirements, and wider business objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the successful end-to-end delivery of multi-phase projects from concept and design through to development, verification, and final customer delivery.
• Act as the primary interface between internal engineering teams, suppliers, manufacturing, and external customers.
• Ensure delivery of projects to agreed scope, cost, schedule, and quality commitments.
• Provide leadership and coordination across cross-functional teams including RF engineering, systems engineering, mechanical design, operations, and commercial.
• Identify, monitor, and manage project risks, issues, and technical dependencies, ensuring effective mitigation and escalation where needed.
• Drive robust project planning including detailed scheduling, resource allocation, milestone gating, and work breakdown structures across complex engineering workstreams.
• Maintain accurate and compliant project documentation including schedules, progress reports, budgets, and risk registers.
• Support continuous improvement within the PMO and project delivery framework.
• Foster a culture of transparency, collaboration, and delivery excellence across the business unit.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Proven experience delivering engineering projects within defence, aerospace, or high-reliability communications domains.
• Strong leadership capabilities with effective stakeholder and customer-facing communication.
• Demonstrated commercial understanding including budgeting, financial oversight, and project reporting.
• Experience delivering full project lifecycle from bid/proposal stage through to acceptance and close-out.
• Ability to manage competing priorities in a technically complex and secure environment.
• Familiarity with robust project governance processes including risk, change, and configuration management.

SC clearance is required for this role

If you feel you have the right skills and experience please apply now and we will be in touch for a further conversation