Innovate
Engineering Program Manager
How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
Engineering Product/Portfolio Delivery Lead
Hybrid working (2–3 days per week on-site)
Security Clearance: British citizen or Dual UK with British citizenship, able to meet security clearance requirements (BPSS as a minimum).
About the role
We’re looking for an experienced engineer who wants to step into a broader, business-facing delivery role, helping shape how complex products are developed, reused and supported across a multi-project portfolio. You’ll be involved across the full product lifecycle – from early concept and design through to production and in-service support – making sure portfolio decisions remain realistic from an engineering point of view.
This isn’t a pure project or portfolio management position. It will suit someone with a strong design/development background who can manage packages of work, understand the technical detail, and influence stakeholders to deliver Commonality, Modularity & Reuse (CMR), cost savings and schedule benefits. You’ll work at the intersection of engineering, operations and commercial outcomes, using your technical judgement to shape how the portfolio delivers value.
What you’ll be doing
- Leading engineering delivery activities across a portfolio of complex electro-mechanical products, focusing on technical risk, obsolescence and engineering commonality.
- Working with project teams to embed CMR principles, ensuring reuse of designs is effective, secure and commercially sensible.
- Reviewing predicted and measured benefits to ensure they are realistic from an engineering perspective, and challenging assumptions where needed.
- Acting as a key point of contact between Functions, Equipment Teams and Centres of Excellence, coordinating responses when risks or issues arise and ensuring programme plans for dependencies exist and are maintained.
- Ensuring solutions for obsolescence removal do not negatively affect established dependencies or downstream products and platforms.
- Supporting supply chain and commercial discussions by understanding how engineering decisions impact cost, schedule, exportability and operational performance for the customer.
- Driving continuous improvement and new ways of working around commonality, modularity, reuse and obsolescence, reducing hardships for delivery teams.
- Providing clear, concise summaries of multi-faceted problems and leading small teams (c.5–6 people) to agreed outcomes through positive influence and empowerment.
Reasons to use Rodeo
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
It searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
What we’re looking for
- Significant experience in an engineering discipline, with solid understanding of the full product lifecycle and the design/development process for complex electro-mechanical equipment.
- Background in sectors such as aerospace, automotive, rail, defence or similar complex product environments.
- Proven ability to manage packages of work, prioritise across multiple projects, and keep stakeholders aligned without losing technical integrity.
- Strong stakeholder skills – able to work with, influence and, when necessary, challenge senior management and customer representatives.
- Flexible, solutions-focused mindset, capable of tackling sophisticated technical problems with a high degree of uncertainty, complexity and inconsistency.
- Evidence of “engineering thinking”: asking the right questions, spotting common issues across products, and balancing reuse, security, cost and performance.
- Experience leading through influence, setting direction, empowering teams and improving how complex, multi-project problems are tackled, even without formal line management.
Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
Why this role might suit you
This is a great opportunity for a design/development engineer who has achieved success in hands-on engineering and now wants to move towards the business side of engineering – portfolio delivery, financial efficiencies and strategic decision-making. You’ll gain visibility of a broad product portfolio, be trusted to influence how products are reused and evolved, and have a clear growth path towards future head-of or manager roles as you shape new ways of working.
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
Skills