Senior Project Manager

Location: Reading, United Kingdom

Thales people architect solutions that are relied upon to deliver operational advantage at every decisive moment throughout the mission. Defence and armed forces customers rely on us to deliver the full range of defensive systems for land, sea, and air. From early warning, to threat neutralisation, our platforms cover all levels from very short-range systems, to extended protection across the entire battle-space including Airspace Mobility Solutions, Vehicles and Tactical Systems and Missile Defence, Optronics, and Radar.

Together we offer fantastic opportunities for committed employees to learn and develop their career with us. At Thales UK, we research, develop, and supply technology and services that impact the lives of millions of people each day to make life better, and keep us safer. We innovate across the major industries of Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space. Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

Primary Purpose of the Role:

The role holder is the overall person in charge for delivery of key aspects and objectives to the satisfaction of both the funding project, Customer and Thales.

The role holder is the overall person in charge for delivery of several projects at any one time and is responsible for achieving project objectives to the satisfaction of both the customer and Thales.

The role requires strong leadership, professional project management expertise, excellent stakeholder management, team building skills, problem resolution and a proactive approach to identifying and managing risks and opportunities.

Principal Relationships:

• Internal stakeholders; in particular project funding parties and functional disciplines
  • Product Leadership Team: CAM, EDM, PDA, Work Package Managers
  • PMO Team
  • Functions contributing to Product  and Project delivery, in particular Engineering, Industry, Procurement, Finance, Legal & Commercial, Quality, Health & Safety, Security

Key Responsibilities and Tasks:

• Leadership and management – motivating and supporting the Work-package Team and individuals within the Product/ Project Team
• Leading the Project Management team to ensure successful delivery
• Role modelling the Leadership at Thales  Model behaviours, embedding a strong sense of delivery accountability and a proactive risk and opportunity management culture at all levels of the team
• Managing stakeholders – building trust and confidence through open dialogue and leveraging adjacent functions as appropriate E.g. Procurement, Key Account Management
• Defining Execution Strategies and leading the creation of Schedule Baselines and structures for various projects and their work packages
• Ensuring that each Work-package maintains a robust baseline at all times through the execution phase of the lifecycle and that forecasts against the baseline are accurate maintained and reported.
• Ensuring that appropriate KPIs are established and controlled for planned outcomes E.g. On Time Delivery , Compliance on Delivery, Project Efficiency and to support confidence in forecasts E.g. using EVM
• Ensuring robust PMO are deployed and effective
• Representing the Project through established governance – both lifecycle Gates and periodic Reviews
• Liaison with contributing functions to drive quality, cost & delivery performance
• Management of all Change Management to baselined scope including the application of associated Bid Governance, leading and coordinating multi-disciplinary teams and the supply chain to develop proposals and ensuring that integrity of the Project baseline is maintained at all times
• Ensuring lessons from previous work are learned and incorporated; contributing lessons for the wider benefit of the business
• Ensuring that all activities comply with the relevant Thales Chorus 2 processes
• Support ad-hoc duties that will be consistent with the nature of a Senior Project Manager position within Thales

Experience:

Essential

• A proven track record of delivering successful projects in a context relevant to Thales
• Leading and managing multi-disciplinary teams
  • Managing customer and supplier relationships
  • Leading the process of structuring and planning complex projects and the tailored deployment of best practice project controls
  • Directing project activities aligning with the baseline and critical path, with a focus on proactive risk and opportunity management and controlling variance to time/cost/quality

• Project financial and contractual management
• Working across functional boundaries to achieve alignment and support for project objectives
• Demand/business planning principles in a project context with a focus on the reliable forecasting of resource requirements (including critical skills) and working with adjacent functions to schedule those appropriately
• Representing projects through established governance, giving an evidence-based account of progress and distilling key risks/opportunities/support needed for Senior Management
• Working in a complex, multi-site organisation

Desirable

• Capture and/or Bid Management experience
• Experience of leading a range of different project types – Design & Manufacture, Service & Support, Transformation etc
• Appropriate knowledge/experience of the Product Line, or similar Products

Skills

• Leadership and management in a project context, including the ability to adapt personal style to achieve the desired results
• Stakeholder management and negotiation - dealing with customers, partners, suppliers and other parts of the Thales business
• Commercial, financial and business acumen
• The ability to look ahead, identify risks and opportunities and proactively engage with them
• Resilience and the ability to successfully manage change
• Communication – interpersonal, verbal and presentation/report writing

• Organisation and analytical skills in complex environments
• A positive attitude combined with excellent interpersonal and motivational skills.

Values & Behaviours:

The successful candidate will demonstrate behaviours that are consistent with the Leadership at Thales Model:·Think Big·Make It Happen·Together

Key performance Indicators against Responsibilities and Tasks (professional only):

·Project Efficiency (PE)·Schedule performance (OTD)·Compliance on Delivery (COD)·Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)·Feedback from Portfolio/Sector Leaders

Qualifications:

Desirable

Member of Association for Project Management – APM, PMQ and/or IPMA Level B

Security Clearance statement: 

Due to the nature of the work that we do at Thales, many of our roles are subject to security restrictions. This role requires Security Clearance (SC). It would be advantageous if currently held, however, if not currently held, it is a requirement that the successful applicant undergo, achieve, and maintain SC Clearance prior to commencing employment. Please visit the UKSV website for further guidance - United Kingdom Security Vetting - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

To be eligible for full SC, you generally need to have resided in the UK for the last 5 years. In some circumstances, a minimum of 3 years’ residence in the UK over the last 5 years may be accepted, with additional overseas checks.

What we can offer:

We are committed to giving you opportunities to be your best. We believe in embracing the passion and potential of our people, and to achieve this we offer market leading training, development and experiences, along with the opportunity to be mentored and coached by some of the smartest minds in the industry. We hire from within as our first priority, so you will have a myriad of opportunities within our diverse, global organisation.

Flexibility

Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

The Work Environment

At Thales, we believe in flexible SMART working and have the expectation this role will be delivered through a combination of remote and office based collaborative working. When working in the office, you will be based at the largest Thales site in the UK, featuring access to a wide variety of resources including manufacturing, environmental and electromagnetic test facilities and specialised laboratories. The modern site includes a subsidised restaurant, a café, break out spaces, bicycle storage facilities and more.

Benefits at Thales

Alongside a competitive base salary, we offer a variable compensation plan bonus and benefits package, which includes:

• Half day every Friday, usually finishing around 13:00pm
• Pension Scheme
• 28 days annual leave (Plus Bank Holidays) 
• Life Cover
• Progression and Development Opportunities
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Program and access to mental wellbeing app
• Employee discount shopping schemes on major brands and retailers

Thales is an equal opportunities employer and diversity and inclusion are integral to the success of Thales.

#LI-DB2

In line with Thales' Baseline Security requirements, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK and employment and/or education history for up to three years. Some vacancies may require full Security Clearance which can require further evidence to be provided. For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the Defence Business Services National Security Vetting (DBS NSV) Agency.

At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working.

Thales UK is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process. We will provide reasonable adjustments and support to ensure neuro-diverse applicants or those with a disability or long-term condition can be their best during the recruitment process. To request an adjustment, if you need this job advert in an alternative format or if you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Resourcing Ops for mid to senior roles, or the Early Careers Team for graduate and apprentice roles.

Great journeys start here, apply now!