Programme Manager in Oxford

Location: Oxford (3 days on-site per week) with regular travel to Bicester and Woking.

We are seeking a high-caliber Programme Manager to lead a high-profile, collaborative venture. In this role, you will act as the vital bridge between our cutting-edge technical expertise and technology platform and The Client’s world-class vehicle platform. Operating within a fast-paced, startup-like, and fluid environment, you will drive the end-to-end planning, execution, and delivery of this complex vehicle integration programme. You will serve as the primary face of the project to the customer, leading a close-knit engineering team. This role is highly cross-functional and global, requiring you to unify advanced engineering and development activities across global hubs to ensure seamless customer integration.

The ideal candidate will possess a powerful blend of commercial acumen, technical empathy, and rigorous program management discipline. You must be an expert who can hit the ground running from day one without training, demonstrating a deep, practical understanding of PLM and PDM systems to ensure data integrity, milestone tracking, and engineering release maturity across international borders.

• Customer & Stakeholder Face-off: Act as the primary customer-facing representative for McLaren, managing relationships, communication channels, and technical delivery alignment. Expect regular travel between Bicester and Woking to meet project demands.
• Global Team Leadership: Lead the planning, scheduling, and execution of complex vehicle engineering projects, uniting cross-functional activities across global engineering teams.
• Navigate Ambiguity: Excel in an extremely fast-paced, fluid environment—taking high-level, evolving customer requirements and structuring them into clear, achievable engineering work packages.
• Integration Strategy: Drive customer integration strategies, ensuring that the vehicle systems fully align with user requirements, digital tech ecosystems, and regional compliance standards.
• Gateway & Change Management: Own the program gateway matrix, tracking engineering maturity, change management, and risk mitigation from early concept through to final production sign-off.
• Lifecycle Management: Leverage PLM/PDM lifecycles to monitor engineering release status, bill of materials (BOM) maturity, and global CAD/data alignment between engineering hubs.
• Technical Trade-offs: Facilitate technical trade-off discussions between design, attribute teams, and manufacturing, ensuring customer expectations are met without compromising vehicle safety, cost, or quality.
• Reporting & Execution: Establish program-level KPI dashboards to report progress, bottleneck alerts, and resource constraints clearly to the global executive management team. Manage the engineering budget, resource allocation, and supplier delivery timelines.

• Industry Expertise: 10–15 years of relevant experience in technical project management, vehicle integration, or engineering delivery environments, specifically within a similar automotive company.
• Proven Track Record: Deep experience operating as a Programme Manager within the automotive, EV, or high-tech mobility sector, with direct experience handling customer-facing delivery.
• Technical Systems Mastery: Deep expertise in PLM and PDM systems (e.g., Teamcenter, Enovia, Windchill) and a thorough understanding of automotive product development lifecycles (APQP, V-Model, or agile frameworks).
• Global Coordination: Experience coordinating global engineering teams, specifically bridging engineering activities and cultural dynamics between European (UK) and Asian (China) hubs.
• Startup Agility: Demonstrated ability to operate comfortably in highly ambiguous, fast-paced environments, showing exceptional adaptability and a proactive, self-starting approach to problem-solving. No training will be provided; candidates must hit the ground running.
• Tools & Communication: Proficient with advanced project management tools (e.g., MS Project, Jira, Confluence, Smartsheet) alongside excellent communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Education: B.Eng/B.Sc or equivalent degree in an Engineering, Project Management, or highly technical discipline.
• Travel & Flexibility: Willingness and ability to travel frequently between Oxford, Bicester, and Woking, with potential global travel (including China, Europe, and the US) to support cross-regional alignment.
• Cultural Fit: Strong alignment with core values (Honesty, Care, Vision, Action) and a desire to thrive in a collaborative, high-octane team environment.