Job Title: Programme Manager
Location: Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire + Hybrid Working Arrangements
Compensation: Competitive Salary + Benefits
Role Type: Full time / Permanent
Role ID: SF
Lead complex programmes that protect national security and shape the future of defence
At Babcock, we’re working to create a safe and secure world, together. If you join us, you can play your part as a Programme Manager at our Tewkesbury site, near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
Operating across defence, aerospace and engineering, Babcock delivers critical capabilities that protect people, infrastructure and national interests. Our Mission Systems business sits at the forefront of innovation in intelligence, cyber and secure communications supporting customers where trust, resilience and performance are essential.
The role
As a Programme Manager, you’ll play a pivotal leadership role within our Mission Systems Sense and Connect portfolio, supporting intelligence and security programmes of national importance. Your primary focus will be the business management and delivery oversight of a large, technically complex contract, ensuring outcomes meet operational, commercial and strategic objectives.
This is a high‑impact role offering visibility at senior level, where your decisions will shape programme performance, stakeholder confidence and long‑term capability. You’ll lead multidisciplinary teams, work closely with customers and partners, and champion continuous improvement while developing your own leadership profile within a highly respected defence organisation.
Day-to-day, you’ll be required to:
1. Leading delivery and performance management of intelligence and security programmes across cost, schedule and quality
2. Managing programme risks, issues and dependencies to ensure successful outcomes
3. Establishing strong governance, controls and reporting aligned to business objectives
4. Producing programme performance reports and driving corrective action where required
5. Building trusted relationships with senior stakeholders, customers and delivery partners
This role is full time, 37 hours per week and provides hybrid working arrangements with days onsite and days working from home.
Essential experience of the Programme Manager
6. Extensive experience managing programmes delivering complex systems or equipment contracts
7. Proven leadership of multidisciplinary, high‑performing teams
8. Experience developing business cases, delivery plans and programme strategies
9. Strong understanding of defence, intelligence or security‑led environments
10. Ability to operate confidently at senior stakeholder level
Qualifications for the Programme Manager
11. Degree or equivalent professional experience in delivering complex programmes
12. Chartered Project Professional status or equivalent is desirable
13. APM Project Risk Management qualification is advantageous
Security Clearance
The successful candidate must be able to achieve and maintain Developed Vetting (DV) security clearance for this role. Must be Sole UK National.
Many of the positions within our company are subject to national security clearance and Trade Control restrictions. This means that your eligibility for certain roles may be affected by your place of birth, nationality, current or former citizenship, and any residency you hold or have held. Further details are available at
14. Generous holiday allowance
15. Matched contribution pension scheme, with life assurance
16. Access to a Digital GP, annual health check, and nutritional consultations through Aviva DigiCare+
17. Employee share scheme
18. Employee shopping savings portal
19. Payment of Professional Fees
20. Reservists in the armed forces receive 10‑days special paid leave
21. Holiday Trading to buy or sell annual leave
22. ‘Be Kind Day’ for paid volunteering each year
23. Flexible working options to support work‑life balance
24. A dynamic working environment where leadership, trust and purpose thrive
Babcock
We’re Babcock — a global FTSE organisation with over 26, people working together to make a difference.
Here, you’ll be part of something bigger. From initial design to final decommissioning, your work will contribute to products and services that are essential to national security and public infrastructure. Together, we’re building a future that lasts — not just through the impact we make, but through meaningful careers that respect your work-life balance.
We call that lifetime engineering.
Join us and see how far we can go, together.
We are a disability confident committed employer.