Head of Engineering Projects in Luton

Leonardo UK operates a grade-based salary framework with broad bands. The salary range shown reflects the approved grade band for this role, or a narrower hiring range published within that band, and is benchmarked against the external market. Exceptions above the standard range are managed through governance controls to protect internal equity.

Your impact: With the continued growth within EW, we are offering an exciting opportunity for a dynamic and experienced leader to take on the role of Head of Engineering Projects within our EW Line of Business. This is a pivotal position, combining strategic vision with hands-on delivery, and offers the chance to shape the future of engineering capability within Leonardo.

What You’ll Do:

• Strategic leadership: Provide strategic direction and oversight across all programmes, motivating, leading and inspiring engineering teams to achieve excellence.
• Deliver Engineering Success: Shape and direct the planning, resourcing, prioritisation, execution, and delivery of engineering projects, with accountability for the technical outcomes, alongside schedule and cost adherence.
• Develop Talent: Build a high-performing engineering organisation which includes proactive mentoring across the team, shaping capability development, and driving a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, and technical excellence.
• Drive Innovation: Champion the evolution of engineering capability, by driving the adoption of cutting-edge technologies, modern methodologies, and process enhancements that improve efficiency, quality, and competitiveness.
• Collaborate: Work alongside the internal engineering disciplines, to ensure the forward load is representative of future requirements, forecasting the skills and capability needs of the programmes, and develop robust succession plans to ensure continued future success.
• Build effective partnerships: Forge strong working relationships with internal teams, external stakeholders, customers and partners to ensure alignment and seamless delivery across EW.
• Due diligence and governance: Apply effective Life Cycle Management processes across bids and projects, taking overall responsibility for all Engineering governance assurance activities.
• Maintain Quality & Compliance: Guarantee adherence to safety, security, and quality standards, across the Engineering teams.
• Manage Budgets: Lead the optimisation of engineering budgets, making informed trade-off decisions that deliver value without compromising quality, safety, or programme integrity.
• Risk Management: Drive a proactive and transparent risk management approach across all Engineering practices, anticipating risks, guiding effective controls, and ensuring alignment with organisational priorities.
• Support the Sector VP in monthly Project Reviews, Demand Reviews, Supply Reviews and LoB Reviews.

Security Clearance: This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government's Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV).

Benefits:

• Generous leave with opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi-days each year.
• Award-winning pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution.
• Free access to mental health support, financial advice, and employee-led networks championing inclusion and diversity.
• Bonus scheme for employees at management level and below.
• Free access to 4,000+ online courses via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning.
• Financial reward through referral programme.
• £500 annual flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.
• Flexible hours with hybrid working options; part-time opportunities to be discussed.

About Leonardo: Leonardo is a global leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Security. Headquartered in Italy, we employ over 53,000 people worldwide including 8,500 across 9 sites in the UK. Our employees are not just part of a team—they are key contributors to shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.

Inclusion: We are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. A diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.