Ontic, a leading licensor and manufacturer of complex engineering parts for the global aerospace and defence industries, are now recruiting for a Project Lead to join our Project Engineering team based at our Staverton site. Ontic is a more than just a business, we're a community of innovators who pride ourselves on fostering a culture where talent thrives, ideas flourish, and careers are built. We're committed to excellence, driving us to continuously improve and adapt, ensuring that we remain at the forefront of our industry. The Role: As a Project Lead, you will take ownership of the technical execution, day-to-day management, and successful delivery of projects within Ontic’s Operational Excellence portfolio. This is a highly versatile role, leading a diverse range of initiatives focused on margin improvement, strategic alignment, Make vs Buy analysis, inventory reduction, value engineering, and the deployment of continuous improvement (CI) best practices. Build strong, long-term relationships with internal and external customers, understanding their needs and priorities. Own project work packages end-to-end, ensuring requirements are clearly defined, communicated, and delivered to plan. Lead and coordinate cross-functional, multi-site teams, communicating effectively with both technical and senior stakeholders. Plan and deliver projects aligned to Ontic’s strategic goals, managing budgets, schedules, and business cases. Apply sound engineering judgement to support design decisions, manufacturing readiness, and supply chain alignment. Drive performance against cost, schedule, quality, and profitability targets, identifying risks and opportunities early. Champion continuous improvement, sharing lessons learned to improve future delivery. Motivate and guide project teams, fostering a collaborative, high-performance culture. Apply best-practice project governance (e.g. APM / PRINCE2), maintaining accurate documentation and strong control throughout. About you: At Ontic, our culture is integral to making sure we enjoy our work and deliver for our customers. While we look for the right skillset, we're also looking for someone who will thrive within our recognition and empowerment culture. We're looking for someone who: Degree in a project-related or technical discipline (or equivalent experience), with proven delivery of complex, multi-disciplinary engineering projects. Experience in aerospace product development, qualification, and transition to production (aerospace/defence background desirable). Strong knowledge of aerospace products, design lifecycles, V&V, AS9100, configuration management, and engineering change control. Confident using recognised project management methodologies and tools (APM / PRINCE2), managing work packages end-to-end. Practical experience applying continuous improvement and problem-solving tools (e.g. Lean, VSM, 3P, 8D, 5 Whys, DMAIC). Good understanding of procurement, manufacturing, quality, and production environments, with the ability to plan resources, cost, and schedules. A confident, analytical, and solutions-focused leader with excellent communication and influencing skills, able to engage both technical and senior stakeholders. You’ll bring energy, adaptability, and precision to every project you touch combining technical depth with clear communication and a drive for results. You’re as comfortable rolling up your sleeves in problem-solving sessions as you are presenting at senior reviews. Above all, you’ll embody Ontic’s commitment to excellence, innovation, and teamwork. Benefits Overview: At Ontic we care about your financial, physical, and mental wellness so we offer a range of benefits to support this, we care about what matters to you and have a valued culture of recognition and empowerment, accompanied by benefits that support work/life balance. Our benefits package highlights include: Up to 29 days annual leave plus Bank Holidays 10 hours paid volunteering time Annual goal share bonus scheme for all employees 24/7 Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Discounts and offers from a range of retailers Best place to work We are more than the sum of our parts. And we’ve been recognised internally and externally for being so: We were ranked 9 in Best Companies’ Q3 leaderboard for Best Manufacturing Company based on our employee feedback 72.5% of employees who took part in our 2023 employee satisfaction survey said they are proud to work at Ontic We are a fast-paced business with ambitious growth plans; so if you are dedicated, enthusiastic and always seeking ways to improve, you'll enjoy a career with us!