Project Manager / BA in Manchester

Strand Intelligence is a cutting-edge cybersecurity startup revolutionising incident response with our AI-powered DFIR platform. We automate evidence gathering, investigations, remediation, timeline construction, and reporting, helping DFIR firms reduce operational effort by over 90% and run incidents 5x faster end-to-end. Designed with real-world responders, we help clients handle breaches faster, cost-effectively, and without outsourcing. Recognised as CRN's Cloud Security Product of the Year 2025, Strand is building a safer digital environment.

We've recently been awarded Innovate UK funding to deploy our agentic AI forensics platform into the live environment of a major UK water utility, one of the first deployments of its kind in UK critical national infrastructure. It's a 12-month, milestone-driven project with a national-scale partner, and it's the foundation for our expansion across the water sector and adjacent CNI markets.

The role involves running the day-to-day delivery of our Innovate UK project and owning the user research that shapes what we build. This is a hybrid role: half programme control, half user-centred discovery, and it suits someone who's worked across delivery and business analysis rather than sitting purely in one camp.

We need someone who lands running. The first milestone, a signed PID, an approved threat model, and baseline KPIs agreed with our partner's security team, is due at the end of Month 2. There is no ramp-up period built into the plan, so you'll need to have run projects like this before: you know what good governance looks like, you've reported to a funder or a demanding client, and you don't need anyone to show you how to build a plan, chase a dependency, or run a RAID log.

On the delivery side, you'll keep a six-work-package, eight-milestone project on track: plans, risks, reporting, grant compliance, and coordination between our engineering team, our subcontractors, and our critical infrastructure partner. On the research side, you'll get in front of the security analysts actually using our platform, running interviews, observing workflows, designing surveys, and turning what you hear into prioritised, traceable product requirements that feed two major feedback-driven releases.

You'll report to our COO, work closely with both founders and our engineers, and spend time on-site with our end-user partner. When the project succeeds, you'll have delivered one of the UK's first agentic AI forensics deployments into live critical national infrastructure, with your name on the case study.

Your first 90 days:

• Week 1–2: absorb the project plan, grant terms, and partner agreements; stand up the delivery infrastructure (plan, RAID log, reporting cadence, document control).
• Month 1: run project kick-off with our partner's security team; agree ways of working, meeting rhythm, and escalation routes; begin scoping and threat modelling coordination.
• Month 2: land the first milestone — PID signed, threat model approved by the partner's security team, and baseline metrics agreed with measurable targets.
• Month 3: staging deployment underway and on track; user research plan drafted and first sessions scheduled ahead of live deployment.

What you will own:

• Project delivery — day-to-day management of the 12-month programme: milestone tracking, project plan, dependencies, and keeping everyone honest about progress.
• Governance and reporting — RAID log, monitoring reports, document control, and Innovate UK compliance. You'll make grant reporting painless for everyone else.
• Stakeholder coordination — the working rhythm between Strand, our water utility partner's security team, and specialist subcontractors. Meetings that matter, minutes that get read.
• User research — structured interviews, workflow observation, and survey design with the analysts using our platform day to day. You'll build the evidence base for user acceptability.
• Requirements and prioritisation — translating research findings into clear, traceable product requirements, and working with engineering to prioritise them into two feedback-driven releases.
• Evaluation and case study — pulling together the final KPI evidence, user acceptability results, and project close-out, including a published case study with our partner.

What we're looking for:

• 5+ years in project delivery, business analysis, or product — you've owned projects end-to-end, from kick-off to close, with milestones, budgets, risks, and multiple stakeholders, ideally in software, cyber, or a technical environment. You can point to a delivery you ran, not one you supported.
• A track record of hitting milestones — you've delivered to a funder, regulator, or demanding enterprise client where the dates and evidence actually mattered, and you can talk us through how you kept it on track when it wobbled.
• User-centred experience — you've run user interviews, usability sessions, workshops, or discovery work, and you know how to turn qualitative feedback into requirements a developer can act on.
• Organised and rigorous — RAID logs, reporting cadences, and document control don't scare you. You bring structure without bureaucracy, and you build it yourself rather than waiting for a PMO.
• Comfortable with technical users — you can sit with a SOC analyst, understand their workflow, and ask the right follow-up questions, even if you're not a security specialist yourself.
• Clear communicator — you write reports people actually read and run meetings people don't dread.
• Seed-stage temperament — comfortable with ambiguity, happy to wear multiple hats, and motivated by shipping rather than process for its own sake.

What would make you stand out:

• You've delivered a grant-funded project (Innovate UK, Horizon, or similar) and know the reporting drill.
• You've worked in or with regulated sectors: utilities, critical infrastructure, government, financial services, or healthcare.
• You've worked in cybersecurity, or alongside a SOC or security team.
• You hold a delivery qualification (PRINCE2, APM, Agile) or have formal UX research training, or both.

Compensation and benefits:

• Salary: £45,000 – £52,000 depending on experience, on a 12-month fixed-term contract.
• MacBook, monitor, and a fully-kitted home and office setup.
• £2,500 personal travel allowance per year, for your holidays.
• Your birthday off, on us.
• Team offsites, quarterly socials, and a genuinely good culture.
• Training and development budget aligned to your career path.

How to apply:

Send a short note explaining why this role and why Strand to . Tell us about a project you owned end-to-end: what the milestones were, what went wrong, and how you landed it anyway. If you've also got an example of research or discovery work that changed what a team built, even better. We read everything.

Strand Intelligence is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and are committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of the customers and communities we serve.