Project Manager R&D in Horsham
Posted by Holt Executive
Location: Horsham, West Sussex
Salary: £45,000–£55,000 per annum
Employment Type: Full-time, permanent
We are looking for an experienced Project Manager to join a growing R&D and engineering delivery team in Horsham.
This is an opportunity to manage technically challenging customer-funded and internally funded development projects, taking responsibility for engineering delivery, project controls, contractual milestones and stakeholder communication. You will work at the centre of multidisciplinary engineering activity, collaborating with R&D, Operations, Finance, Quality and external customers to deliver projects safely, on time, within budget and to the required technical and quality standards.
The Role
Reporting to the R&D IPT Lead, you will manage the execution of assigned engineering and product-development projects from launch through to delivery and closure.
You will own the project-management framework around your projects, including scheduling, resource planning, budgets, risk management, contractual compliance, financial forecasting, reporting and customer communication. You will also work closely with Operations to support build-to-print and new-product delivery, customer acceptance testing and contractual handover.
Key Responsibilities
- Launch new projects with appropriate project controls, including master schedules, resource-demand plans, stage plans and budgets for each project stage.
- Create, maintain and manage project documentation, including Project Management Plans, Statements of Work, Contract Compliance Matrices, schedules, risk registers and action logs.
- Ensure delivery against agreed cost, time, quality, technical-performance and contractual requirements.
- Manage internal and external stakeholder communication, capturing requirements, maintaining engagement and managing expectations throughout the project lifecycle.
- Maintain accurate records of meeting minutes, key decisions, actions and communications with commercial impact.
- Work with Engineering Leads, technical specialists and department heads to identify critical success factors, resource requirements, skills gaps, project dependencies and delivery risks.
- Coordinate design and development activity with engineering teams, ensuring required processes are followed and stage-gate reviews are completed to schedule.
- Establish and manage centralised residual-action logs, ensuring actions are assigned, monitored and closed effectively.
- Lead project risk management in line with internal processes and customer requirements, ensuring appropriate mitigation and escalation plans are in place.
- Work closely with Operations to support new-build and build-to-print project delivery, production readiness, acceptance testing and customer delivery.
- Keep customers updated on progress, delivery status, key risks and acceptance-test requirements.
- Partner with Finance to prepare and update monthly project reports, including revenue trading plans, Estimate at Completion (EAC), Estimate to Complete (ETC) and forecast margin.
- Ensure appropriate project controls are in place for production, data management and retention, invoicing, shipping and export controls.
- Capture lessons learned and stakeholder feedback throughout the project lifecycle and at closure, using this insight to support continuous improvement and future project delivery.
- Support colleagues with milestones, deliverables and wider programme priorities as required.
- Develop and maintain a working understanding of the organisation’s products, engineering-development processes and project-delivery standards.
You will be an organised and proactive Project Manager with experience working in an engineering, product-development, manufacturing, aerospace, defence or other technically complex environment.
You will be confident managing competing priorities, working with multidisciplinary teams and balancing technical, commercial and customer requirements. Strong communication, planning, reporting and stakeholder-management skills are essential, alongside the ability to take ownership and escalate risks before they affect delivery.
Essential Skills & Experience
- At least three years’ experience in a Project Manager role within an engineering, manufacturing or technical-development environment.
- Experience managing engineering development, R&D, NPI, production or technically complex customer-delivery projects.
- Proven ability to create, maintain and manage project plans using Microsoft Project or similar project-planning tools.
- Experience managing project schedules, budgets, resource plans, risks, dependencies, milestones and delivery actions.
- Experience preparing project reports and financial updates for senior stakeholders.
- Exposure to project financial controls, including budgeting, forecasting, cost tracking, revenue planning, EAC, ETC and forecast-margin management.
- Strong stakeholder-management experience, including working with international customers and cross-functional teams across Engineering, Operations, Quality, Finance, Procurement and Commercial functions.
- Experience of project governance, stage-gate reviews, project-management plans, contract/Statement of Work compliance and action management.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present clear progress updates, decisions, risks and recovery plans.
- A proactive, structured and detail-focused approach to problem-solving and continuous improvement.
- Ability and willingness to travel within the UK and internationally when required.
- Project-management qualification or working knowledge of recognised methodologies, such as APM, PRINCE2, PMI or Agile.
- Experience in R&D, electronics, aerospace, defence, sensors, imaging, manufacturing or safety-critical engineering.
- Knowledge of build-to-print delivery, new-product introduction, production readiness and customer acceptance testing.
- Familiarity with configuration control, engineering change, export controls, shipping, invoicing and data-management processes.
- Experience working on projects with complex contractual deliverables and international customers.
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