Network Readiness Manager - Bronze Commander

NATS is the UK’s leading air navigation service provider, handling over 2.5 million flights each year. We provide air traffic control services from control centres in Ayrshire and Hampshire, and at 15 airports across the UK. Our people are at the heart of our purpose to advance aviation and keep the skies safe.

Job purpose: Help shape the UK air traffic network’s operational readiness and lead a coordinated response when disruption occurs. As a Network Readiness Manager, you will provide a clear and timely picture of on-the-day network performance, ensuring operational leaders, airlines, airports and other stakeholders understand any emerging risks, their impact and actions being taken. You will connect forward planning with operational delivery, assessing network readiness, identifying performance risks and coordinating action to reduce disruption. You will lead the development and delivery of the Network Agreed Plan, bringing together operational teams and stakeholders as required. During disruption, you will act as Bronze Commander within the NATS incident management structure, directing the Bronze response, coordinating timely communications and recovery activity and escalating when required.

This is a role with responsibility and influence across NATS’ Swanwick and Prestwick centres and the wider aviation industry network. You will be part of a team of eight working shifts and with out-of-hours rostered on-call responsibility.

Your key accountabilities:

• Lead operational communications: provide timely and clear information to internal leaders, customers and external partners, including chairing incident coordination calls.
• Lead network readiness: maintain a clear assessment of readiness and performance risk, ensuring these are understood, mitigated and escalated appropriately.
• Deliver the Network Agreed Plan: coordinate operational and stakeholder inputs to create, maintain and communicate the plan through to the day before operation.
• Shape capacity planning: provide specialist advice on seasonal capacity, major events, airspace coordination and European network measures.
• Challenge and influence: work with operational leaders to test planning assumptions, address any gaps and agree actions that support safe, efficient and sustainable service delivery.
• Command the Bronze response: lead Bronze Incident Management response, elevate to Silver and coordinate recovery.
• Turn learning into improvement: use operational analysis, performance trends and incident lessons to improve future plans, processes and tools.
• Represent Network Readiness: lead relevant meetings, contribute to international planning groups and maintain effective relationships across the aviation network.

What you will bring:

• Significant and demonstrable experience of coordinating complex operations, assessing risk and delivering operational plans.
• Strong leadership, diplomatic and influencing skills, with the confidence to challenge constructively and bring stakeholders together.
• Sound judgement under pressure, including the ability to prioritise, make decisions and escalate concerns.
• Excellent communication skills, including chairing meetings and explaining complex information clearly to senior leaders and customers.
• The ability to interpret operational data, identify trends and turn analysis into practical action.
• Evidenced experience of improving processes or delivering change through to successful implementation.
• Strong IT skills and the ability to learn specialist planning and operational systems.
• Knowledge of air traffic operations, airspace capacity management or a related operational aviation discipline is highly desirable.

Additional Information: The role can be performed from either our Prestwick or Swanwick Centres. Site attendance is required to perform the role. The core role is 6 days on, 3 days off shift pattern, attracting an unsocial hours payment in addition to the base salary. There will also be a day shift position 0830–1630. The role will provide coverage to a rolling on call roster, which attracts additional on call payment and a call out payment.

We are proud to offer a fantastic total reward package to help you thrive both personally and professionally. Please note: All staff at NATS are subject to UK Security Vetting and Clearance (SC) and must maintain valid clearance throughout employment. We are unable to progress applications where an applicant does not meet eligibility requirements for clearance.

If you share our passion to advance aviation and keep the skies safe – we would like to hear from you whatever your age, sex, race, faith, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, visible or invisible disability. Individuals that bring different perspectives, skills, life experiences and backgrounds help us be at the forefront of our industry.

Department: Network Operations Service Delivery