Technical Project Manager

Thales is a global technology leader trusted by governments, institutions, and enterprises to tackle their most demanding challenges. From quantum applications and artificial intelligence to cybersecurity and 6G innovation, our solutions empower critical decisions rooted in human intelligence. Operating at the forefront of aerospace and space, cybersecurity and digital identity, we’re driven by a mission to build a future we can all trust.

This is a delivery leadership role with an unusual brief: getting working technology into the hands of partner organisations — within Thales Group or external — at the right quality level. Not production-hardened, not a rough demo, but the calibrated middle ground that earns trust and enables the next conversation.

You'll own the full arc of capability transfer engagements, from scoping and planning through handover and follow-on support, working closely with engineering, design, and research colleagues to make sure what ships actually lands.

You have no direct reports in this role; your influence comes from credibility, clarity, and the quality of your relationships. You will need genuine technical fluency, strong stakeholder craft, and sharp judgment about what 'good enough' means in a given context — because that answer changes with every partner and every engagement.

What You'll Do

• Own end-to-end capability transfer engagements with organisations within Thales Group or external partners, from initiation through handover.
• Define and maintain transfer standards appropriate to the innovation lab context — rigorous where it matters, lightweight where it doesn't.
• Work with engineering leads and the Head of Engineering & Delivery to scope, sequence, and resource engagements realistically within agreed timeframes.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with partner stakeholders, managing expectations and surfacing risks early and honestly.
• Run transfer retrospectives and feed learning back into how the lab scopes and structures future engagements.
• Develop repeatable frameworks for capability handover — documentation, support windows, known limitations, onward pathways.
• Contribute to how the lab presents and positions its transfer capability externally.
• Provide regular updates to AIR Lab management on the status and outcomes of active engagements.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Proven track record delivering technology projects to external clients or partner organisations — you've owned the relationship, not just the plan.
• Strong judgment about quality calibration: you understand that lab output has different fitness criteria than a production system, and you can articulate and defend those criteria under pressure from both directions.
• Experience working in or alongside engineering teams — enough technical grounding to have substantive conversations about risk, architecture, and trade-offs.
• Excellent stakeholder management: you're comfortable with senior audiences, you communicate clearly under uncertainty, and you don't hide bad news.
• Strong scoping and estimation instincts — you've been burned by underscoping and learned from it.
• Experience running multiple concurrent engagements without losing grip on any of them.
• Solid grasp of modern delivery practices: agile methods, lightweight governance, risk management, and when to apply each.

Desirable Skills & Experience

• Background in an innovation lab, R&D function, consultancy, or venture environment where deliverables were inherently novel.
• Exposure to regulated or safety-conscious industries — you understand what additional rigour looks like and when it's warranted.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted development workflows and what they mean for transfer timelines, quality assurance, and what you can credibly promise a partner.
• Experience building or formalising transfer practice from scratch — playbooks, templates, onboarding, retrospective culture.
• Understanding of intellectual property and data governance considerations in capability handover contexts.

Essential Traits

• Calibration instinct — you know when something is good enough and you can hold that line without needing permission; you also know when it isn't and you say so.
• Partner empathy — you think from the receiving team's perspective, not just your own; you anticipate what they'll need six weeks after handover.
• Clear communicator under pressure — you give honest, structured updates when things are going sideways, not vague reassurance.
• Organised without being rigid — you bring structure to ambiguous engagements without imposing process that slows people down.
• Comfortable with the unfamiliar — every engagement is different; you don't need a template for everything to feel in control.

Desirable Traits

• Diplomatic directness — you tell partners things they don't always want to hear, and you do it in a way that strengthens rather than damages the relationship.
• Appetite for craft — you care about how things are handed over, not just that they are; documentation, framing, and presentation matter to you.
• Systemic thinker — you notice patterns across engagements and turn them into better practice, not just lessons learned that nobody reads.

At Thales, we’re committed to fostering a workplace where respect, trust, collaboration, and passion drive everything we do. Here, you’ll feel empowered to bring your best self, thrive in a supportive culture, and love the work you do. Join us, and be part of a team reimagining technology to create solutions that truly make a difference – for a safer, greener, and more inclusive world.