Role Purpose
The Through Life Support Programme Manager leads ESCO’s series production and through-life support portfolio. The role is accountable for the safe, predictable and profitable delivery of equipment and support throughout its operational life, including commissioning, training, spares, repairs, field service, upgrades, obsolescence management and life extension.
The role provides leadership to the Through Life Support team and works across Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering, Quality, Finance, Commercial and the Project Management Office (PMO) to achieve customer commitments, strengthen support capability and secure sustainable growth.
Key Responsibilities
Portfolio Delivery and Financial Performance
- Lead the Through Life Support portfolio to achieve agreed revenue, gross margin, cash, order intake, delivery and customer-performance commitments.
- Prioritise and coordinate portfolio activity to meet contractual milestones, customer dates and business objectives, providing escalation and intervention where required.
- Maintain accurate, evidence-based forecasts and reporting across schedule, cost, cash, margin, risk, opportunities and recovery actions.
- Ensure effective management of fixed-price, long-term accounting and support contracts, working closely with Programme Finance and Commercial.
Series Production and In-Service Support
- Lead series production programmes with Operations, Supply Chain, Quality and Planning, ensuring material, manufacture, test, release and delivery plans support customer commitments.
- Drive improvement in On-Time Delivery, contractual milestone achievement, quality performance and other agreed customer indicators.
- Ensure spares, repairs, maintenance, overhaul, commissioning and field-support activities are effectively planned and delivered.
- Support deployment, commissioning, handover and operator training for ESCO equipment across boats, ships, ranges, power-generation systems and supporting infrastructure.
- Develop effective approaches to obsolescence, redesign, upgrades, refits, life extension and end-of-life support.
- Improve field-service provision, site-visit controls, warranty response and issue resolution, while reducing single points of failure in delivery capability.
Customers, Commercial and Growth
- Own senior customer interfaces across the portfolio, establishing clear governance, proactive communication, early warning and timely closure of actions and issues.
- Build strong relationships that improve customer satisfaction and support long-term partnering.
- Identify and secure follow-on production, long-term support agreements, frameworks, upgrades, technology refresh and other profitable growth opportunities.
- Lead and support bids and proposals, ensuring credible scope, cost, schedule, resource, risk and delivery assumptions.
Governance and Continuous Improvement
- Ensure programmes comply with ESCO project-management standards, core programme documentation, baselines, gate reviews, change control and risk-management requirements.
- Work with the PMO to develop and embed practical processes, templates and leading performance indicators suited to series production and in-service support.
- Drive continuous improvement that reduces variability, improves visibility and strengthens both internal and external customer experience.
- Coordinate portfolio resource, capacity and priority requirements, making constraints visible early enough to support effective decisions.
Leadership and Team Development
- Lead, coach and develop Project Managers, Project Coordinators, support professionals and Field Service personnel, creating clear priorities and accountability.
- Set objectives, conduct regular one-to-ones and performance reviews, and address workload, performance and development needs.
- Build capability through development plans, mentoring, professional training, knowledge capture, cross-training and succession planning.
- Identify future resource requirements and support recruitment, while promoting safe, ethical and collaborative working across functions and locations.
Qualifications / Skills required
Essential
- Experienced Programme Manager with a strong record of delivering complex portfolios in an engineering, manufacturing, defence, maritime or similarly regulated environment.
- Demonstrable experience of leading teams and working across Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering, Quality, Finance and Commercial functions.
- Strong commercial and financial management experience, including contracts, forecasting, revenue, margin, cash, risk and bid support.
- Experience of series production, in-service support, customer support, field service, spares, repairs or other through-life activities.
- Practical knowledge of planning, baselining, governance, change control, risk management and performance reporting.
- Excellent customer leadership, communication, influencing, negotiation and problem-solving skills.
- Degree-level education in Engineering, Business, Project Management or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience.
Desirable
- APM PMQ, Chartered Project Professional, PMP or equivalent professional qualification.
- Defence or maritime experience, including security-controlled environments and SSRO-regulated contracts.
- Experience of commissioning, long-term support agreements, obsolescence management, product upgrades and safety-critical systems.
- Working knowledge of project-management tools and ERP systems such as IFS or equivalent.
Additional Requirements
- Routine UK and occasional overseas travel will be required.
- The role may undertake other reasonable duties in support of the Programmes function and wider business objectives.
Note: All candidates must meet the security vetting requirements relevant to the role. For reasons of national security, applicants must be British nationals. Dual nationals may be permitted in exceptional circumstances.
