Job Description:

Project Engineer - Digital Engineering

Location: Reading / Hybrid
On-site: 2 days per week (50% minimum)
Rate: £70-£80 per hour inside IR35 (bill rate)
Contract: 6-month rolling contract
Clearance: Active SC Clearance mandatory; DV Clearance highly desirable

The Opportunity

We are currently recruiting for four Technical Project Engineer positions supporting sensitive MOD and aerospace programmes. The roles sit within Digital Engineering and cover:

• Synthetics
• ITEA
• TLS
• Process & Integration

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced Project Engineer / Technical Project Engineer with a background in Defence, Aerospace or Defence Digital environments.

You will be responsible for the technical execution and delivery of projects and engineering work packages, acting as a key interface between engineering teams and Delivery Management.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate technical activities across engineering teams and stakeholders.
• Plan and track technical projects, milestones, dependencies and critical paths.
• Manage technical risks, issues, assumptions and changes.
• Provide technical leadership and first-level technical decision-making.
• Act as an escalation point for engineering issues.
• Manage technical interfaces across customers, suppliers and internal teams.
• Support project reporting, forecasting and performance monitoring.
• Develop and maintain project plans and technical roadmaps.
• Facilitate technical reviews and milestone assessments.
• Provide and manage inputs into artefact and deliverable lifecycle management.
• Support effort estimation, resource planning and workload prioritisation.
• Track delivery against project objectives, schedules and quality criteria.
• Ensure compliance with engineering governance, processes and standards.
• Support configuration and change management.
• Communicate project status, risks and mitigation plans to key stakeholders.
• Collaborate closely with architects, engineers and delivery teams.

Essential Skills & Experience

We're looking for candidates with:

• Minimum 3 years' experience within the Aerospace or Defence industry.
• Demonstrable experience delivering complex technical projects or engineering work packages.
• Experience with project planning, scheduling, critical paths and milestones.
• Strong understanding of dependency, interface and integration planning.
• Experience managing risks, issues, assumptions and change.
• Experience with estimation, resource and capacity planning.
• Strong progress measurement, forecasting and reporting skills.
• Excellent stakeholder coordination and facilitation skills.
• Experience working across complex engineering environments.
• A background in MOD, Defence Digital or UK aerospace programmes.
• A Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical discipline.

Desirable Experience

• Digital Engineering, testing, simulation or through-life support lifecycles.
• Regulated Aerospace, Defence or Automotive environments.
• Multi-partner, supplier and cross-functional delivery.
• Experience with APM, PRINCE2, PMI, Agile or scheduling methodologies.
• DV Clearance.

Security Clearance

Active SC Clearance is mandatory due to the requirement to access restricted data and documentation. DV Clearance is highly desirable and may be required for certain programme activities.

Working Pattern

This is a hybrid role based in Reading, with a minimum requirement of 50% on-site working (typically 2 days per week).

Contract Details

£70-£80 per hour inside IR35
6-month rolling contract
Reading - Hybrid / 50% on-site
SC Clearance mandatory | DV preferred

If you're a Technical Project Engineer with strong Defence or Aerospace experience and are looking for your next contract opportunity, we'd be keen to hear from you.