PROJECT MANAGER

We currently have an opportunity for a Project Manager

About KNDS UK:

With over a century of engineering expertise and innovation, KNDS UK is a renowned world leader in rapidly deployable military bridging systems and a key partner in the UK MoD’s Boxer armoured vehicle programme.
We are proud of our heritage and our reputation of providing the highest quality engineering solutions for over 100 years. As a trusted partner to military customers around the world, our employees are the very heart of our company. We have a skilled and experienced workforce dedicated to achieving excellence in all areas of the business such as Manufacturing, Engineering, Project Management and Business Support functions.
As our business evolves, we are looking to strengthen our workforce with talented and motivated individuals across a range of disciplines and currently have this opportunity available.

About the role:

The primary purpose of this role is to be responsible for executing the Project Management Plan on behalf of the KNDS Programmes & Commercial Director. The Project Manager will be required to provide governance to the project’s time, cost and quality by tailoring project management tools and techniques to achieve successful project delivery.

Key duties include, but are not limited to:

• Understand the project’s key deliverables, milestones and objectives.

• Develop and communicate the project work breakdown structure.

• Communicate and allocate project work packages.

• Develop and maintain the master schedule ensure project objectives and key milestones are defined, monitored and performance against them reported.

• Where required, develop recovery schedules and contingency plans in order to meet changed objectives as necessary.

• Create and maintain the project’s risk register.

• Review planning risks and monitor critical timelines and ensure the risk register is reviewed accordingly.

• Create a Subcontractor Management Plan highlighting key stakeholders, roles and reporting responsibilities.

• Report actual performance and variance against plan and forecast outcomes.

• Highlight key achievements and critical path issues to members of the team, provide an assessment of the impact of such issues and recommend solutions for an accurate position.

• Monitor and audit sub-contractor plans. Monitor contractor’s planning processes so that they align with the company’s requirements.

• Identify key resource requirements and monitor that these are accurately accommodated

• Lead project planning meetings with all functional stakeholders and collate project status reports for cascade to the Management Team.

What we’re looking for:

Candidates must have the following essential qualifications and experience:

• Educated to ‘A’ level or equivalent or above

• Willing to travel if required

• Full UK driving licence

• Proven project management experience and ability to demonstrate delivery of major engineering projects

• Experience of using several project management scheduling tools and techniques

• Experience in a manufacturing engineering environment

• Experience of using data systems and being able to learn and adapt systems to assist in continuous improvement

• Excellent IT skills and knowledge of MS programmes particularly Microsoft Excel & PowerPoint

The following are desirable:

• B Eng / BSc in Mechanical or other Engineering discipline

• Ideally trained in Prince2 or other recognised project management qualification

• German Language

• Relevant experience in the successful scheduling and coordination of facility project (ideal)

• Military Project Experience

• SAP experience

Successful candidates will be able to demonstrate the following skills and aptitudes:

• Tenacious ‘Can-Do’ attitude

• Excellent communication skills

• Exceptional organisational skills and ability to work effectively under pressure

• Team worker and ability to work under own initiative

• Accurate and consistent performer with an eye for detail

• Good interpersonal skills ability to build strong supplier and internal relationships and influence stakeholders

• Able to work to deadlines and adapt to changing conditions

• Develops a collaborative approach to meet multiple and potentially conflicting requests

Why you should join us:

When you become part of the KNDS UK team, you will enjoy employee benefits such as:

• Competitive salary

• Attractive pension (4% employee contribution, 7% employer contribution)

• Half-day Friday

• Life assurance scheme

• Company sick pay scheme which increases with service

• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

• Additional Holidays & Long Service rewards

• Wellbeing initiatives, such as Free Fruit on Tuesday’s

• Cycle-to-work Scheme

• Free on-site car parking

• On-site electric vehicle charging points

We’re also very proud to be part of the Armed Forces Covenant since 2018, achieving their Silver Award in 2020 and Gold Award in 2024. We actively support and encourage service leavers, reservists and cadets to join our team, recognising military skills and qualifications in our recruitment and selection process.

If you are passionate about Project Management and eager to contribute to a thriving workplace environment, we encourage you to apply for this exciting opportunity.

We look forward to receiving your application!

Recruiters please note that we have a list of approved recruitment agency partners in place and we will contact agencies directly should we require support. Any unsolicited CV’s received via an agency will be accepted with thanks but without fee.