Job Description

Location: Cheadle, United Kingdom

Thales is a global technology leader with more than 83,000 employees on five continents. With over 7,500 people in the UK, operating across defence, space, aerospace, and digital security, we help build a future we can all trust. Thales supports the security and stability of our nation by providing extraordinary technology to our customers, as well as delivering social value to the UK with our products and services.

Programme Director – Dreadnought & SSNA (UK Eyes Only - Security Clearance Required)

Location: Cheadle/Templecombe

Are you seeking a truly multi-faceted Programme Director (PD) role that will lead large, multi-disciplinary teams in the delivery of a highly complex programme, critical to ensuring the sustainment of the UK’s Continuous at Sea Nuclear Deterrent? As the PD for Dreadnought & SSNA you will be pivotal in ensuring the profitable delivery of the programme portfolio and the effective capture of considerable emerging growth opportunities.

Central to the success in this role will be your clear, effective oversight and management of product strategy and developments, ensuring these align fully with future domain capability and support areas of the UWS business. This will require a relentless focus on managing ‘upwards and outwards’ to ensure the full engagement and support of senior stakeholders across the Thales GBU and BLs and also across the customer community.

What does the role offer you?

This is a highly visible role for UWS offering you the opportunity to make a real impact in shaping our future execution on a critical, strategic programme of national importance. It will provide a career defining opportunity, which will see you collaborating closely with internal senior leaders across the UK Domain and Business Line and also with customer organisations. The potential for impacting results is significant; the only limitations will be the extent of your aspirations.

Key Dimensions of the Role

This is a multi-dimensional role, offering a broad range of compelling professional challenges and career development opportunities. Principle accountabilities are extensive, but not limited to:

• Delivering both short term MYB and longer term SBP financial targets

• Providing strategic direction (including creation/communication of innovative ideas and concepts) across all campaigns and bids, so that these are aligned to the Sonar 2076/2176 Product Roadmap and maximise synergies and opportunities for the maximum benefit of Thales Order Intake and footprint growth

• Instil a high-performance focus and ethos across all bids and projects, to further strengthen bid and programme planning and delivery. This is a key objective not only of this role but is also aligned to one of the UK major improvement initiatives.

• Instil a high Technical/Engineering performance focus across all programmes and project activities to ensure delivery and tasks adhere to schedule and cost MYB/programme budgets.

• Ensure the health, safety and general wellbeing of all team members (whether directly or matrix managed) is given the highest priority.

• Ensure these strategic visions and route-maps are translated into tactical actions the team can understand/follow in order to ensure business targets and results are achieved e.g. Order Intake, Revenue, Cash.

• Establish and maintain key internal and external stakeholder relationships that will ultimately underpin the successful delivery of business targets, aims and objectives. These internal relationships will include functional Directors of UWS, and external relationships will include Customers, Partners/Suppliers and other industrial organisations.

• Ensure a good level of consistency and practice is applied to all bids and projects and that Lessons Learnt are conducted and capitalised to ensure a continual improvement culture is fostered and adopted.

• Provide pro-active direction and advice to the Programme Managers and wider team on all aspects of bids and programmes based on a mixture of theory and experience, which will also include the key aspect of planning and management of change.

• Support the establishment and delivery plans for the S2076/2176 Product Team, whilst ensuring it stays aligned to the Product approach of the wider Thales organisation.

• Be accountable for establishing and discharging all in-country capabilities required to underpin current programmes and future opportunities. This could involve locating individuals/teams in other UK sites or other countries on a temporary or fulltime basis, therefore this needs to be undertaken whilst considering the highest levels of security and safety along with any financial considerations.

About You

To be considered for this role, you must be able to demonstrate the following Minimum Valuable Experience (MVE):

• Extensive experience of managing complex, multi-site, bids/projects/programmes/portfolios with significant business importance and/or value of £200m - £500m+

• Clear involvement in the structuring and planning of complex projects, risk and cost management, developing resource schedules, identifying critical skills, and baselining/baseline control

• Evidence of Leading teams both directly (up to 10 people) and matrix (up to 150 people), including responsibility for discipline, objective and development creation, coaching, etc

• Experience of working across multi-functional boundaries, including a good appreciation of Commercial, Procurement, Engineering and Finance functions and how these interrelate to have to impact programme delivery and cost efficiency

• Knowledge and experience of cohering complex captures and campaigns, to include generation of industrial partner value propositions, appropriate supply chain contracting methodologies and mobilisation of multi-site pan-industry teams

This role is open to UK Nationals and requires Full Security Clearance

Closing date for applications is 18th Jun 2026

1st stage assessments are provisionally planned for w/c 29th Jun 2026

At Thales, we ensure equal opportunities, pay and working conditions for all. The benefits we offer include private medical insurance, buying or selling annual leave, cycle to work schemes, employee discounts, paid volunteering day, stocks and shares, annual bonus and much more depending on the role. Read more about our benefits here.

We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued for who they are and the unique strengths they bring. Discover more about our programmes, employee networks, wellbeing policies, and inclusive features here.

If this role isn’t quite right for you, we encourage you to join our talent community where your details will be shared with our recruitment teams for other potential opportunities. Join the Talent Community here.

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