Senior Technical Project Manager

National Physical Laboratory (NPL); Birmingham; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Enhanced pension scheme

Flexible working

Rewards and recognition

Job summary

National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is seeking a delivery‑focused Senior Project Manager to lead high‑profile technical programmes with real‑world impact. You will oversee end‑to‑end delivery, coordinate Agile squads, and work with CTO teams, suppliers and stakeholders across telecoms security and resilience.

You must demonstrated a proven track record delivering complex technical projects, strong stakeholder influence, and the ability to translate technical concepts for non‑technical audiences.

Qualifications

• Proven experience delivering complex technical, infrastructure, engineering, IT, cloud or digital transformation projects.
• Strong project management expertise across planning, estimation, budgeting, scheduling, governance and risk management.
• Experience leading Agile delivery teams and embedding Agile ways of working.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication and influencing skills.

Responsibilities

• Overseeing the end-to-end delivery of complex technical projects and programmes, with a particular focus on security research and testing activities in a telecoms environment.
• Managing the forward roadmap of enabling activities to support security research, testing, and wider technical delivery objectives.
• Managing project scope, budgets, schedules, risks, dependencies and quality to achieve successful outcomes.
• Leading Agile delivery squads and facilitating agile ceremonies including sprint planning, backlog refinement, daily stand-ups, reviews and retrospectives.
• Driving transparent planning, delivery tracking and continuous improvement through Agile tools and practices.
• Working closely with technical teams to understand requirements, remove blockers and maintain delivery momentum.
• Maintaining project governance, reporting, RAID logs and delivery plans.
• Managing supplier relationships and negotiating contracts and change requests to ensure best value for money.
• Coordinating stakeholders across multiple workstreams and ensuring effective communication throughout the project lifecycle.
• Identifying and implementing continuous improvement initiatives across projects and delivery processes

Skills

Agile delivery leadership

Stakeholder management

Budgeting & scheduling

Risk management

Vendor management

Technical translation

Job description

This is an excellent opportunity for a delivery-focused Senior Project Manager to lead high-profile technical projects with real-world impact, while working alongside experts at the forefront of UK telecoms security and innovation. We’re looking for an experienced Senior Project Manager with a strong track record of delivering technical programmes in complex environments. You don’t need a telecoms background, but you will need the ability to lead Agile delivery teams, manage stakeholders effectively, and drive projects from inception through to successful delivery. Working closely with technical specialists, CTO teams, suppliers and stakeholders, you’ll take ownership of project scope, cost, schedule and quality. You’ll lead Agile squads, manage competing priorities, and ensure projects are delivered in line with mission objectives while supporting UKTL’s critical work in telecoms security and resilience.

About the Role

About the Role

This is an excellent opportunity for a delivery-focused Senior Project Manager to lead high-profile technical projects with real-world impact, while working alongside experts at the forefront of UK telecoms security and innovation.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Overseeing the end-to-end delivery of complex technical projects and programmes, with a particular focus on security research and testing activities in a telecoms environment.
• Managing the forward roadmap of enabling activities to support security research, testing, and wider technical delivery objectives.
• Managing project scope, budgets, schedules, risks, dependencies and quality to achieve successful outcomes.
• Leading Agile delivery squads and facilitating agile ceremonies including sprint planning, backlog refinement, daily stand-ups, reviews and retrospectives.
• Driving transparent planning, delivery tracking and continuous improvement through Agile tools and practices.
• Working closely with technical teams to understand requirements, remove blockers and maintain delivery momentum.
• Maintaining project governance, reporting, RAID logs and delivery plans.
• Managing supplier relationships and negotiating contracts and change requests to ensure best value for money.
• Coordinating stakeholders across multiple workstreams and ensuring effective communication throughout the project lifecycle.
• Identifying and implementing continuous improvement initiatives across projects and delivery processes

Successful Applicants must be able to commute to the UKTL offices in Birmingham at least twice a week

We strive to offer a great work life balance - if you are looking for full time, part time or flexible options, we will try to make this work where business possible. This will be dependent on the kind of role you do and part of the business you work in.

About You

What we’re looking for

• Proven experience delivering complex technical, infrastructure, engineering, IT, cloud or digital transformation projects.
• Strong project management expertise across planning, estimation, budgeting, scheduling, governance and risk management.
• Experience leading Agile delivery teams and embedding Agile ways of working.
• The ability to quickly grasp technical concepts and work effectively with highly technical teams.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication and influencing skills.
• Experience managing third‑party suppliers and commercial relationships.
• A proactive and delivery-focused approach, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast‑paced environment.

Experience working within telecoms, data centre, networking, cloud or cyber security environments would be advantageous, but is not essential.

We actively recruit citizens of all backgrounds, but the nature of our work in this specific area means that nationality, residency and security requirements are more tightly defined than others. To work in this role, you will need to have a DV clearance with no restrictions, or you must have the ability to obtain a DV clearance.

Read more about UKTL here!

About Us

UKTL is building leading edge Telecoms testing facilities to keep our telecommunications networks safe, accelerate the roll‑out of new technologies, and grow our world leading telecoms sector to maintain resiliency and security.

Successful candidates will join a state‑of‑the‑art facility and be supporting the team conducting testing and research on the latest technologies and innovations in the industry. You will work alongside our infrastructure and Cybersecurity professionals to ensure that the UK’s world class Telecoms infrastructure grows in a resilient and secure manner underpinning growth in other industry sectors.

As a trusted and independent national capability, UKTL interacts with standards bodies, Academia, and Government Departments as well as Communications Service Providers and equipment vendors.

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is a world‑leading centre of excellence that provides cutting‑edge measurement science, engineering and technology to underpin prosperity and quality of life in the UK. Find out more about what it is like working here - The measure of us - Overview

NPL and DSIT have strong commitments to diversity and equality of opportunity, and welcome applications from candidates irrespective of their background, gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, or age, providing they meet the required criteria. Applications from women, disabled and black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates in particular are encouraged. All disabled candidates (as defined by the Equality Act 2010) who satisfy the minimum criteria for the role will be guaranteed an interview under the Disability Confident Scheme.

At NPL, we believe our success is a result of the diversity and talent of our people. We strive to nurture and respect individuals to ensure everyone feels valued by treating everyone on the basis of their own individual merits and abilities regardless of their own or perceived identity, as part of our commitment to diversity & inclusion, we ensure we’re creating an environment where all our colleagues feel supported and welcome. More about this on our Diversity & Inclusion page.

We offer a wealth of above industry standard benefits, such as enhanced pension scheme, flexible working, and more that can be found here rewards, benefits and recognition. Our values are at the heart of what we do, and they shape the way we interact, develop our people and celebrate success. To ensure everyone has an equal chance, we’re always willing to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process. If you would like to discuss, please contact us.