Senior Program Manager in Crawley

Job title: Senior Programme Manager

Location : - Crawley (hybrid working arrangement – initially 4 days per week from the office)

Are you an experienced Programme Manager, with experience working within the defence sector, looking for a new and exciting opportunity?

Then look no further…

We have a fantastic opportunity for a Senior Programme Manager to join our Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) UK team in Crawley, West Sussex.

Our role:

You would be working on a complex Programme involving design and development of a high end ISR Product, through a typical lifecycle into Production and System Integration, both at system level and onto the intended platform.

In this role you will have the opportunity to develop an excellent relationship with one of our key overseas customers, as well as manage complex relationships within the wider Thales Organisation and external supply Chain organisations.

You will use your networking and influencing skills to ensure Thales delivers the right project outcomes at the right time and to the right cost and quality.

A key element of this role is also to ensure that Thales exploits the growth opportunities that exist above and beyond the contract, and in doing so, secure order intake for the ISR Business.

Core Benefits:

On offer is a competitive salary and benefits package, which includes;

• Performance-related bonus
• Car cash allowance
• Half day every Friday, usually finishing around 13:00pm
• 28 days annual leave (plus bank holidays) plus opportunity to buy up to 40 hours/year (pro rata)
• 24 hours volunteering paid for
• Private healthcare (grade dependent)
• Pension scheme
• Life cover
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Program and access to mental wellbeing app
• Employee discount shopping schemes on major brands and retailers
• Gym membership discounts

Key responsibilities:

• Responsibility for delivering the contract to time, cost, and performance parameters to the satisfaction of all stakeholders and in particular the customer.
• Ensure that the roles and responsibilities within the programme team are clear and unambiguous, and that the programme is effectively resourced, budgeted, controlled and that the management team is empowered to deliver allocated projects to the agreed schedule.
• Ensure that a best practice approach is adopted throughout the programme team.
• Be the principal executive point of contact with the customer authority.
• Ensure that Thales harnesses all opportunities for organic growth within the existing contract.
• Be the overall point of reference to ensure that key relationships are being effectively managed and that vital customer, industry and business knowledge and networks are being effectively utilised to deliver the project.
• Deliver against the key performance targets, including order intake, sales, gross margin and cash.
• Leadership of the Programme team including the direct coaching and provision of assistance to less experienced / less capable project managers.

About you:

• Proven capability as a Programme leader within the defence sector, with significant experience of delivering complex projects, ideally internationally.
• Proven capability for complex systems development working across the whole product lifecycle.
• A sound understanding of programme management principles, ideally with a recognised Project Management qualification (or equivalent).