Job Description
Senior Project Controls Manager – Major Capital Infrastructure Programme
Rolls-Royce Submarines
Derby
Why join Rolls-Royce?
At Rolls-Royce we are proud to be a business that has truly helped to shape the modern world and are committed to always being a force for progress; powering, protecting and connecting people everywhere.
By joining Rolls-Royce, you'll have the opportunity to work on world-class solutions, supported by a culture that believes individuality is our greatest strength, and all perspectives, experiences and backgrounds help us innovate and enable our high-performance culture.
The Role
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Senior Project Controls Manager to join the Rolls-Royce Submarines Major Infrastructure Programme
The Programme is delivering a significant portfolio of complex infrastructure projects that will enable the future capability of the Submarines business. Effective Project Controls is fundamental to providing the transparency, insight and confidence required to successfully deliver this investment.
As Senior Project Controls Manager, you will be the functional authority for Project Controls, owning the Project Controls framework, standards, processes and expectations to be applied consistently across our Major Projects.
Project Controls Managers are embedded within individual Major Projects and work directly with their respective project leadership teams. Your role will provide functional leadership across this community, setting clear expectations for what good Project Controls looks like, assuring its effective application and developing capability across the programme.
Working as a senior member of the Programme Team, you will bring together information from across the Major Projects to provide the Senior Leadership Team with independent, forward-looking insight into programme performance. You will ensure Project Controls goes beyond reporting what has happened, identifying trends, emerging risks, dependencies and potential interventions to support effective leadership decision-making.
This is an influential senior leadership role requiring strong Project Controls expertise, sound judgement and the credibility to constructively challenge Major Project leadership while building a collaborative and high-performing Project Controls community.
Key Accountabilities
- Act as the functional authority for Project Controls across the Major Capital Infrastructure Programme, owning and continuously improving the Project Controls framework, standards, processes and ways of working
- Set clear expectations for Project Controls Managers embedded within the Major Projects, ensuring consistent and proportionate application of controls across the programme while recognising the differing scale, complexity and delivery phase of individual projects
- Define and oversee an integrated approach to planning and scheduling, cost management, risk and opportunity, change control, forecasting, Earned Value Management, performance measurement and reporting
- Ensure Major Projects establish and maintain robust and integrated performance baselines across scope, schedule and cost, providing a credible basis for measuring progress, understanding variance and forecasting outcomes
- Provide functional leadership, coaching and professional development to the Project Controls community, building capability and creating an environment in which knowledge, experience and best practice are shared across projects
- Establish an effective assurance framework for Project Controls, undertaking and commissioning maturity assessments, health checks and targeted reviews to provide confidence that controls are operating effectively
- Provide constructive challenge where Project Controls standards or project performance fall below expectations, working with Project leadership and embedded Project Controls Managers to agree and drive appropriate improvement actions
- Integrate and interpret controls information from across the Major Projects to provide the Senior Leadership Team with clear, evidence-based and forward-looking insight into programme performance
- Identify cross-programme trends, systemic issues, dependencies, emerging risks and opportunities, ensuring these are understood and appropriately escalated to enable timely leadership intervention
- Establish reporting and performance-management requirements that provide a consistent and reliable view of project and programme health, ensuring management information focuses on insight and decision support rather than simply reporting historic performance
- Ensure appropriate use of Earned Value Management, critical path analysis, forecasting, trend analysis and scenario assessment to understand current performance and likely future outcomes
- Work closely with Project Directors, Project Managers and senior leaders across Engineering, Commercial, Finance, Supply Chain, Risk and other functions to ensure Project Controls information is integrated into project and programme decision-making
- Ensure Project Controls processes effectively support projects delivered within NEC contractual environments, including the integration of schedule, cost, risk, change and forecasting information required to support effective contract and commercial management
- Work collaboratively with Commercial and Project teams to ensure changes and emerging issues are identified, assessed and reflected appropriately within project controls, forecasts and performance baselines.
- Drive continuous improvement in Project Controls processes, systems, data and capability, using internal and external best practice to increase maturity and effectiveness
- Support Project Controls resource and capability planning, identifying current and future capability requirements and working with Major Projects to ensure appropriate controls capability is deployed
- Represent Project Controls within appropriate governance and leadership forums, providing specialist advice, insight and challenge to support successful programme delivery
Key Experiences and Qualifications
To be successful in this role, you will have:
- Significant Project Controls leadership experience gained within large, complex capital projects, programmes or portfolios, ideally within infrastructure, nuclear, defence, engineering or another highly regulated environment
- Extensive knowledge and practical experience across integrated Project Controls, including planning and scheduling, cost management, risk and opportunity management, change control, forecasting, performance measurement and reporting
- Strong practical understanding of Earned Value Management, integrated performance baselines, critical path analysis, schedule and cost forecasting, trend analysis and performance measurement
- Demonstrable experience of establishing, implementing and improving Project Controls frameworks, standards, governance and ways of working across multiple projects
- Strong knowledge and practical understanding of NEC contracts and the implications of NEC delivery models for Project Controls, including programme management, change control, forecasting, risk and the provision of robust performance evidence
- Experience providing independent assurance and constructive challenge to major projects and senior project leadership teams
- The ability to interpret complex project and programme information and turn it into clear, concise and actionable insight for senior leaders, identifying not only current performance but emerging trends and likely future outcomes
- Strong leadership and influencing skills, with the credibility to set expectations and drive consistent standards across teams where you do not have direct line-management accountability
- Experience coaching, mentoring and developing Project Controls professionals and building capability across a project or programme environment
- Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to operate confidently with Project Directors, senior functional leaders and the Senior Leadership Team
- Strong commercial and financial awareness and an understanding of the relationship between Project Controls, commercial management and successful capital-project delivery
- Experience operating effectively within complex matrix organisations and across multidisciplinary teams
- A continuous-improvement mindset, with evidence of improving Project Controls maturity, processes, systems or capability within a complex delivery environment
- Relevant professional qualification or membership, such as APM or equivalent, would be advantageou
The Impact You Will Have
This role provides an opportunity to shape Project Controls across one of Rolls-Royce Submarines' most significant programmes.
You will create the standards and environment that enable Project Controls Managers across the Major Projects to succeed, while providing programme leadership with confidence in the information used to make critical decisions.
Your success will be demonstrated through consistent and mature controls across the projects, credible forecasts, effective management of change, earlier identification of emerging issues and high-quality insight that enables the Senior Leadership Team and Major Projects to make informed decisions and improve delivery outcomes.
Regional Benefits
- Generous Annual Leave
- Retirement Savings through the Rolls-Royce Retirement Savings Trust
- Group Life Assurance provides for a lump sum benefit if you die whilst employed by Rolls-Royce
- Group Income Protection provides an income in the event that you are unable to work due to illness or injury
- Your Shares: Matched is a simple way to own Rolls-Royce shares and invest in our future, together. Buy one share, get one free!
Our vision is to ensure that the excellence and ingenuity that shaped our history continues into our future. Our multi-year transformation programme aims to turn Rolls-Royce into a high-performing, competitive, resilient and growing company. Join us, and it can be your future vision too.
Rolls-Royce are committed to being a respectful, inclusive, and non-discriminatory workplace where individuality is valued, diverse perspectives fuel innovation, and everyone can thrive.
As part of our selection process, candidates in certain locations may be asked to complete an online assessment, which can include cognitive and behavioural aptitude testing relevant to the role. If required, full instructions for the next steps will be provided.
To work for the Rolls-Royce Submarines business an individual has to hold a Security Check clearance. Rolls-Royce will support the application for Security Clearance if you do not currently already have this in place. Due to the nature of work the business conducts and the protection of certain assets we can only progress applications from individuals who are a UK national or, in MoD approved cases, a dual national.
As part of our selection process, candidates in certain locations may be asked to complete an online assessment, which can include cognitive and behavioural aptitude testing relevant to the role. If required, full instructions for the next steps will be provided.
Job Category
Project Management
Posting Date
24 Sept 2026; 00:09
Posting End Date
23 Sept 2026
