Senior Technical Programme Manager

What you'll do

• Build and maintain sufficient understanding of the underlying technology to challenge constructively, identify delivery implications, and represent technical status accurately. The role is not expected to act as the technical authority.
• Translate customer requirements, contractual obligations, and engineering inputs into clear delivery plans, milestones, priorities, and actionable work packages.
• Own the day-to-day delivery of defence programmes or significant technical workstreams, ensuring agreed scope, schedule, quality, and delivery objectives are achieved.
• Work closely with engineering teams to understand the technical scope, maturity, progress, risks, and constraints of underlying engineering activity.
• Coordinate cross-functional delivery across engineering, operations, quality, commercial, and external suppliers.
• Prepare clear, concise programme materials, including status reports, decision papers, review packs, and customer updates, that support timely, high-quality decisions.
• Support and coordinate technical reviews, technical discussions, and reporting; ensure actions, decisions, and technical dependencies are captured and closed.
• Work directly with customers, partners, and internal stakeholders in delivery meetings, programme reviews, and technical discussions.
• Manage day-to-day relationships with technical partners and subcontractors, coordinating deliverables, resolving technical queries, and holding suppliers to agreed schedule and quality expectations.
• Ensure applicable safety, quality, assurance, and regulatory frameworks are understood and appropriately integrated into programme delivery. Work with relevant technical and assurance authorities to ensure compliance requirements, verification activities, and evidence needs are planned and tracked.

Who you are

• At least 5 years’ experience in programme or project delivery within aerospace, defence, engineering, deep-tech, or another high-consequence technical environment.
• A degree or comparable professional background in engineering, physics, materials science, systems engineering, or a closely related technical discipline.
• Demonstrable experience working between technical detail and programme execution, converting analysis into practical delivery action.
• Experience coordinating cross-functional teams and managing multiple priorities in a fast-moving environment
• Exposure to customer-facing delivery, programme reviews, supplier management, or subcontractor coordination.
• Experience with planning, risk management, dependency management, change control, and delivery reporting.
• Fluent English, with confidence operating in bilingual and cross-cultural settings. German is not a requirement, but is preferred.

What we offer

• A mission-driven environment with the opportunity to work on one of Europe’s most consequential defence challenges, with direct impact on sovereign capability and security.
• Daily collaboration with top experts across engineering, operations, defence, and business functions, with real opportunity to learn from the best, contribute, and grow.
• High ownership and autonomy; no micromanagement, just clear objectives and accountability for outcomes.
• A fast-paced environment where good ideas are implemented quickly and broken processes are fixed rather than tolerated.
• A culture that values clarity, integrity, excellence, and direct feedback.
• Competitive compensation and real share options aligned to responsibility and impact, not tenure or hierarchy.