Job Title: Head of Programmes
Location: Maidenhead, Berkshire
Salary Range: Negotiable
The Malloy Aeronautics Team:
Malloy Aeronautics Limited specializes in the development of heavy lift unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) for both civilian and military uses. Located in Berkshire, our operations are notable for their focus on in-house design and manufacturing. This vertical integration means we control the production of most aircraft components on-site, enhancing our ability to innovate and maintain high standards across all stages of development.
About The Role:
The Head of Programmes is responsible for the planning, execution, and delivery of Malloy Aeronautics programmes, working closely with engineering on R&D and Manufacturing for Rate Production programmes. This role involves owning each of the programmes and coordinating across various departments to ensure projects are completed on time, within budget, and to the required quality standards.
The Head of Programmes will lead project management practices, drive innovation, and manage stakeholder relationships to achieve the company's objectives, overseeing the definition, planning, leadership, and delivery of multiple complex programmes across their entire lifecycle, including campaigns, new business proposals, product design and development, production, contract bidding, and in-service support acting as a senior escalation for the programme's performance and risks.
The role will also involve Customer facing activities ensuring customers are well informed and managed during the delivery phase of projects
Ability to hold Security Clearance – 5 years residence in the UK
What you'll being doing (but not limited too):
Programme Oversight: Oversee the planning, execution, and closing of projects, ensuring they meet the predefined criteria for success. This includes managing resources, timelines, and budgets.
Lead, develop, and scale the Programme Management function, establishing standards, processes, and templates to support future organisational growth
Programme Governance & Reporting: Oversee and manage the governance structure of programs, ensuring alignment with organisational standards and strategic objectives. Responsible for the accurate and timely reporting of programme status, risks, and achievements to stakeholders.
This includes preparing and presenting clear, concise reports on programme performance to team members, senior leadership, and clients.
Ensure all projects adhere to industry standards and regulations, maintaining high quality and safety standards.
IBP Delivery: Share responsibility for the delivery of the Integrated Business Planning process, facilitating cross-functional collaboration to align financial, operational, and strategic plans across the organisation.
Sales and Ops Planning: Contribute to the Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process, balancing demand and supply to optimise inventory levels, ensure customer satisfaction, and support the company's financial goals.
Team Leadership: Lead and mentor project managers and other team members, fostering a culture of excellence and continuous improvement in project delivery. Inspire and influence cross-functional teams within a matrix organisation to meet the success criteria for your projects.
Act as the senior escalation authority for delivery performance, risk, and customer commitments, ensuring timely resolution and governance discipline
Risk Management: Proactively manage risks and opportunities, collaborating with teams to identify and implement mitigation and enhancement strategies in a timely manner.
Stakeholder Management: Act as the primary point of contact for internal and external stakeholders, ensuring clear communication and managing expectations.
Bid Preparation: Co-lead the preparation of bids and proposals for new projects, ensuring they meet client requirements and highlight the company's strengths in heavy-lift drone applications. This involves coordinating with technical, financial, and operational teams to develop compelling and competitive bids.
Innovation and Improvement: Drive innovation in heavy-lift drone applications and operations, continuously seeking ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Financial Management: Develop and manage the programme's budget, ensuring optimal allocation of resources and financial sustainability working together with the Head of Finance. Ownership of consolidated programme portfolio financial performance including revenue and margin.
Additional Accountabilities
The role holder is accountable for:
Resource management and optimisation: working together with the wider organization, understanding the needs of each department and the needs of the programmes, both internally and externally funded.
Lead and embed high standards of safety, health and environment (SHE) across all programmes, ensuring compliance with company policies and promoting proactive risk awareness.
Support and lead organisational change and transformation initiatives, driving adoption of improved ways of working across the portfolio
Safety:
The role holder is responsible for taking reasonable care of their own health and safety, ensuring high standards for safety, health and environment (SHE) in our organisation are maintained, understood, implemented and followed by their team. This includes; co-operating and following all reasonable instruction, information and training; reporting work-related hazards or incidents, using all equipment for the purpose intended, setting high standards for SHE, leading by example and establishing the expectation that others do the same; promoting risk awareness, ensuring that risks are assessed and adequately controlled, encouraging the team to report incidents and defects and make suggestions to improve SHE standards; and ensuring actions to address SHE issues are prioritised and resourced appropriately. More detailed responsibilities are captured within the Company Health & Safety Policy (759/OF/016) and the Company Environmental Policy (759/OF/029).
Budget Responsibilities
Programmes budget control and allocation
Essential Skills and Experiences:
Project / Programme / Portfolio management background in Aerospace, Defence, or a related industry
Lead, inspire, and influence cross-functional teams within a matrix organisation to meet the success criteria for your projects
Comprehensive understanding of how all Functions integrate to deliver the programme on time and cost
Understanding of other competitors' products and USP's to influence the development of the business
Experienced leader with knowledge and capability in Project Management, Business delivery/ execution, and engineering early lifecycle.
Experience in leading and managing complex Programmes from initiation to closure phase of the project life cycle.
Occasional travel to various sites and global locations may be required on an ad-hoc basis
Commercial awareness including bid strategy, margin and cost control
Experience operating within structured programme governance and lifecycle frameworks (e.g LCM)
Desired Skills and Experiences:
Strong communicator both verbally and written
Strong collaborator with the ability to interact with the business to develop effective working relationships and be flexible in a changing environment
Proactive, forward thinker with the ability to tailor processes where appropriate
Proven track record of programme delivery
Ability to establish a control environment within a growing business
Strong financial forecasting and performance management capability
Project Management Degree, MBA or MSc in Programme Management desirable
Significant experience of running complex programmes in fast-moving R&D and rate production environments.
Relevant Engineering Degree with Programme Engineering management experience also acceptable
APMQ qualification required, Chartered PM status desirable (PMI equivalents are acceptable)
LCP3 desirable
Benefits you may be eligible for:
Working Environment: 9-day fortnight:
free lunch on working Fridays
Company Pension Scheme
Discretionary Employee Incentive Bonus Scheme
Employee Share Incentive Plan (BAE Systems)
Company Sick Pay
Maternity and Paternity Enhanced Leave
Healthcare Cash Plan including Virtual GP, Dental Cover, Vision Cover, Discounted Gym Membership, and much more Free coverage for children under 2 years old.
20 days Annual Leave, increasing with long service
Employee Assistance Programme (24hr Helpline)
Cycle to Work Scheme
Why Malloy Aeronautics?
Our company benefits from a streamlined process where engineering teams are involved in the entire lifecycle of our UAVs — from initial design through to production. This setup not only speeds up the development process but also improves the efficiency and effectiveness of our product launches. We value professionals who have a background in both research and development (R&D) and design for manufacture, as their expertise is crucial to our rapid and precise product development cycle.
Malloy Aeronautics employees will be subject to both security and export control restrictions. These restrictions mean that factors including your nationality, any previous nationalities you have held, and your place of birth may limit those roles you can perform for the organisation.
Malloy Aeronautics is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.
We also want to make sure that our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. If you have a disability or health condition that may affect your performance in certain assessments or interviewing, please speak to your recruiter about potential reasonable adjustments.
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