Morson are recruiting a Project Manager for our leading defence client based in Cheadle Heath (Stockport) for an initial 6 month period. Candidates MUST be ok to work at least 3 days/week on site and have experieince of project managing aero/automotive/defence/nuclear or rail engineering projects rather than IT project management.
The role requires strong leadership, professional project management expertise, excellent stakeholder management, team building skills, and a proactive approach to identifying and managing risks and opportunities.
Key Responsibilities and Tasks:
• Leadership and management – motivating and supporting the Project Team and individuals within the Project Team
• Managing stakeholders, in particular customer and supplier relationships – building trust and confidence through open dialogue and leveraging adjacent functions as appropriate E.g. Procurement, Key Account Management
• Defining Project Execution Strategies and leading the creation of Project Baselines and structures for various work package
• Ensuring that the project maintains a robust baseline at all times through the execution phase of the lifecycle and that forecasts against the baseline are accurate
• Ensuring that appropriate KPIs are established and controlled for Project outcomes E.g. On Time Delivery and to support confidence in forecasts E.g. EVM
• Ensuring robust Project Controls are deployed and effective
• Representing the Project through established governance – both lifecycle Gates and periodic Project Reviews
• Liaison with contributing functions to drive quality, cost & delivery performance
• Management of the project Cash profile, ensuring timely invoicing of the customer and addressing any overdue payments
• Management of Change Orders to contracted 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 projects are learned and incorporated contributing lessons for the wider benefit of the business
Experience:
Essential
• A proven track record of delivering successful projects in a context relevant to this defence client
• 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 with reference to 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 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.
Qualifications:
Desirable
• IPMA and/or other relevant professional Project Management qualifications appropriate to grade (APM PMQ qualification or equivalent)