Senior Project Manager

SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER | DEFENCE

Who are we?

ALTEN, an engineering and technology consultancy, We are a leading Engineering and IT consultancy operating across 30 countries, making waves in all sectors: Aeronautics, Space, Defence, Security and naval, Automotive, Rail and mobility, Energy and environment, Life Sciences and health, Industrial Equipment and electronics, Telecoms, Banking, Finance & Insurance, Retail, Services & Medias, Public Services & Government. With a team of passionate, diligent, and agile engineers, we are united by a common purpose: building tomorrow’s world today. Day by day, we support our customers' development strategies as well as their technological and sustainability transformation

ALTEN Ltd is looking for a Senior Project Manager to join our DEFENCE Business based in either our Manchester or Bristo l office.

This is a fantastic chance to be part of a fast-growing company with strong core values of Excellence, Accountability, Integrity, and Service

Your new role:

Within the Technical Direction, the Senior Project Manager will manage a team of engineers responsible for the execution and delivery of client projects. In detail, the Senior Project Manager will be responsible for:

• ALTEN’s Technical Direction department brings together engineering and project management expertise to deliver projects, programs, and portfolios of activities for our clients.
• You will lead and manage project performance; they develop the skills, and capability of our teams; and they work directly with our clients to ensure we deliver their vision.
• You’ll be responsible for a portfolio of activities within the Defence Technical Unit, and you will lead a team of between roughly 40 to 60 engineers who are supporting ALTEN’s clients across the UK Defence sector.
• You will have a small team of Project Leaders and Technical Leaders to help you coordinate the engineering teams and deliver the projects, and you’ll report directly to a Project Director who will help you define and implement the delivery strategy.
• This role is hybrid, typically with two days per week in one of our offices, one day per week on client sites, and two days per week from home. This role can be based at either our Manchester office or our Bristol office and involves regular UK wide travel to client sites.

Your responsibilities:

Project Management:

• You’ll deliver a variety of different types of projects, ranging from providing teams of systems engineers to turnkey, fixed-price software projects. You’ll be responsible for delivering these projects on time, on budget, and to quality expectations.
• You will estimate the activities, workload, and skills required to deliver packages of work and you’ll contribute to creating the cost model and technical offer for new bids.
• You’ll closely monitor team and project performance, setting key performance indicators and leading indicators, and take proactive actions to achieve high performance.
• You’ll identify and manage project risks and opportunities.
• You’ll prepare and lead regular client meetings such as monthly reporting and you’ll act as the first escalation point for technical topics.
• You’ll track and analyze project financial performance, regularly presenting this to the Project Director.
• You’ll take proactive steps to improve the productivity and profitability improvement of an ongoing project(s) with support and direction from the Project Director.
• You’ll maintain a clear focus on the project scope and requirements, and you’ll identify, assess, and address any changes that arise.
• You’ll deploy ALTEN tools, processes, and ways of working into your projects to achieve the necessary levels of quality and maturity in the management of the projects.

Team management:

• You’ll forecast and coordinate the workload of your team, ensuring that your team is correctly sized to handle the amount of work and that the work is distributed efficiently across your team and well-matched to their skills.
• You’ll define the future makeup of your team, and the skills needed within it. You’ll work with Business Managers and Recruiters to select the right people for your projects at the right time.
• You’ll integrate new team members and manage the skills and capability of the team to ensure that your team is able to deliver the right level of quality to our clients.
• You’ll lead your teams by example, setting clear expectations and upholding the high standards required by ALTEN and its clients when it comes to team behaviours and attitudes towards quality, health, safety, and environment.

Who are we looking for?

• You’re passionate about combining your technical engineering and project management talents to lead teams to deliver some of the most complex projects and products in the UK’s Defence sector.
• You are someone who thrives on taking accountability, rolling their sleeves up, and who is looking to have a real impact on their teams, their organization, and their customers.
• You’re as excited about the opportunity to shape the capability of entire engineering teams as you are about getting to mentor and develop your immediate team.
• You relish a varied and fast-paced project environment, where every day throws up different challenges and where you interact with your teams, ALTEN's leadership, and our clients daily.

Experience, skills, and qualifications you’ll ideally have:

• A bachelor’s or master’s degree in engineering or another relevant field.
• To be eligible for and willing to apply for Security Clearance
• To hold a UK Passport and have the right to live and work in the UK.
• At least 6 years of project management experience (preferably in the Defence industry), for instance as a Project Manager, Delivery Lead, Integrated Project Lead, or similar.
• Great working knowledge of technical project management skills such as estimation, project planning, risk management, project controls, and budget management.
• Prior experience in a technical engineering role on several large projects/programs in either a systems, software, or mechanical domain.

This role will require you to have or be willing to go through Security Clearance. As part of the onboarding process candidates will be asked to complete a Baseline Personnel Security Standard; details of the evidence required to apply may be found on the government website Gov.UK. If you are unable to meet this and any associated criteria, then your employment may be delayed, or rejected. Details of this will be discussed with you at interview.

Why join us?

• We foster a community of dually talented individuals who are both entrepreneurs and technology specialists. Our teams embody the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship, enabling us to develop solutions most efficiently.
• Our commitment to sustainable growth is unwavering, and we continuously strive for accelerated transformation and continuous improvement. Through ALTEN labs, mentoring programs, internal universities, and more, we are always pushing boundaries and embracing new possibilities.
• We offer incredible opportunities to join inspiring projects in the most innovative companies.
• We prioritize your career development with personalized support plans tailored to your own aspirations.
• We're here to empower you and help you reach your full potential.

Join our passionate team and start building tomorrow, today!

What we offer:

• Company benefits including Private Medical Healthcare, Life Insurance and Travel Insurance.
• Pension scheme with company contributions up to 6%.
• Wellness 24/7 Confidential employee assistance program.
• Social – Breakfast Tuesdays, Thirsty Thursdays and Pizza on the last Thursday of each month in our London office.

Any doubts?

Studies have shown that some groups of people are less likely to apply to a role unless they meet 100% of the job requirements. Whoever you are, if you like one of our jobs, we encourage you to apply as you might just be the candidate we are looking for. As an equal-opportunity employer, we do not discriminate based on any protected attribute. Our commitment is to provide equal opportunities, an inclusive work environment, and fairness for everyone.

We are proud to support the Armed Forces Covenant & actively encourage applications from members of the Armed Forces community, including veterans, reservists, service leavers, and military spouses/partners. We recognise the value of military skills and experience and are committed to ensuring that no applicant is unfairly disadvantaged during our recruitment and selection processes.