R&D Senior Project Manager

Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE

Working Pattern: On site

Type: Permanent

Salary: Dependent on experience

Relocation: Open to candidates relocating — international applicants welcome

Company: Tektora, supporting an established defence technology client

Tektora are supporting an established defence technology client in Abu Dhabi who are looking to speak with experienced R&D Project Managers for a permanent opportunity delivering complex hardware and software development programmes.

This role is open to relocation. The client is actively considering candidates from outside the UAE and will support the move for the right person.

This role would suit someone who has run multi-disciplinary R&D projects where the hardware and the software are developed together — PCB, FPGA, firmware and RF alongside the software stack — and who is comfortable owning schedule, budget and risk rather than reporting on them. It is a tactical execution role sitting under a Programme Manager, not a portfolio or governance post.

The Role

You Will Be Involved In

• Authoring project charters and building work breakdown structures to define scope and project boundaries
• Controlling the scope baseline and enforcing change management to protect project integrity
• Directing the daily operation of cross-functional project teams across technical and business tracks
• Identifying and monitoring the critical path, uncovering blockers early and removing impediments
• Developing roadmaps, project plans and team schedules, and keeping them aligned with the product roadmap
• Managing the project budget, forecasting and tracking actual costs to maintain a healthy Cost Performance Index
• Working with Supply Chain and Procurement on the on-time delivery of critical materials and third-party resources
• Performing qualitative and quantitative risk analysis and maintaining the risk response register
• Modelling resource requirements across people, hardware and software, and resource levelling across assignments
• Reporting performance to the Programme Manager, steering committees and executive sponsors
  
  

Key Experience Required

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering — Electrical, Aerospace, Computer or Systems — or a related technical discipline
• PMP or PRINCE2, plus an Agile credential such as SAFe, PMI-ACP or CSM
• Demonstrable delivery of complex R&D projects to time, budget and scope
• Deep understanding of the hardware and software development cycle
• Experience with project budget ownership, cost forecasting and CPI tracking
• Strong working knowledge of MS Project, Jira and Confluence or equivalent
• Understanding of military standards such as MIL-STD
• Experience using AI to optimise project or PMO processes
• Comfortable leading highly specialised engineering teams toward a single milestone
• Excellent written and spoken English
  
  

Desirable Experience

• MBA or Master's degree in Project Management
• Projects involving PCB, FPGA, firmware and RF design
• Implementing AI to optimise company or PMO processes
• Experience in start-up and agile environments
• Defence, aerospace or another regulated, high-assurance environment
  
  

Interested?

Tektora are looking to speak with experienced R&D Project Managers from a hardware and software development background who are open to relocating to Abu Dhabi.

Please apply with your CV and we will be in touch to discuss the opportunity, the package and the relocation support in more detail.