Subcontract Manager

Job Description

Job Title: Subcontract Manager

Location: Rochester

Salary: Circa £65,000 dependent on experience

What you’ll be doing:

• Develop requirements and manage subcontractor selection within a cross-functional team
• Manage all subcontract documentation, data, and reports accurately and on time
• Negotiate terms, price agreements, and contracts with subcontractors, resolving conflicts and ensuring compliance
• Ensure adherence to contractual obligations, including payments, claims, warranties, and contract amendments
• Proactively manage subcontractor performance to meet schedule, cost, and quality requirements, and embed KPIs
• Effectively manage variations to subcontracts, minimising impacts and ensuring clear communication
• Identify and manage emerging risks, including those within the subcontractor’s supply chain
• Build and maintain effective relationships with suppliers and internal teams (engineering, project management) ensuring a coordinated approach to the interface with subcontractors is maintained
• Travel occasionally to suppliers’ sites in the UK/ or overseas

Your skills and experiences:

Essential:

• Experience in subcontract, project, and/or commercial management
• Proven ability to develop and negotiate complex contracts with customers or suppliers
• Track record of successfully delivering major subcontract obligations
• Experience in complex engineering or manufacturing industries

Desirable:

• Experience in defence, aerospace industry
• Relevant qualifications, such as a degree in engineering, manufacturing, or a commercial discipline, or a professional procurement/project management certification
• Knowledge of mechanical, electro-mechanical, or optical commodities

Benefits:

As well as a competitive pension scheme, BAE Systems also offers employee share plans, an extensive range of flexible discounted health, wellbeing and lifestyle benefits, including a green car scheme, private health plans and shopping discounts – you may also be eligible for an annual incentive.

The Procurement team

As a Subcontract Lead, you will be responsible for managing the full subcontracting lifecycle for one or more key subcontractors. You will ensure they meet project requirements while coordinating across teams to drive success. Building and maintaining effective relationships with subcontractors, project teams, and business functions will be essential to meeting obligations and managing future partnerships.

At BAE Systems Rochester, we design and deliver cutting-edge commercial and defence electronics, including high-integrity controls, inceptor systems, head-up and head-mounted displays, power and propulsion solutions, and avionics support. With a global supply chain spanning the UK, Europe, the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Japan, and Sri Lanka, we operate across the entire product lifecycle, from advanced research to in-service support.

Now is an exciting time to join us! With significant growth and increasing demand fr our mission-critical projects, we are investing in the future—transforming our site with a new 20,000m² factory and extensive refurbishments already underway

Why BAE Systems?

This is a place where you’ll be able to make a real difference. You’ll be part of an inclusive culture that values diversity of thought, rewards integrity, and merit, and where you’ll be empowered to fulfil your potential. We welcome people from all backgrounds and want to make sure that our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. If you have a disability or health condition (for example dyslexia, autism, an anxiety disorder etc.) that may affect your performance in certain assessment types, please speak to your recruiter about potential reasonable adjustments.

Please be aware that many roles at BAE Systems are subject to both security and export control restrictions. These restrictions mean that factors such as your nationality, any nationalities you may have previously held, and your place of birth can restrict the roles you are eligible to perform within the organisation. All applicants must as a minimum achieve Baseline Personnel Security Standard. Many roles also require higher levels of National Security Vetting where applicants must typically have 5 to 10 years of continuous residency in the UK depending on the vetting level required for the role, to allow for meaningful security vetting checks.

Closing Date: 11th March 2026

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

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