Senior Delivery Manager

This role requires someone who combines defense domain experience with strong delivery leadership. You need to understand how defense institutions operate and how product teams deliver, and you need the judgment to bridge both worlds.

Experience

7+ years in delivery management, program management, or senior project management in technology-driven environments. You have orchestrated delivery across multiple teams or workstreams simultaneously, not just managed single projects.

Military or defense background: at least 2 years working within or directly alongside armed forces, a ministry of defence, or a defense contractor. You understand how defense organizations make decisions, procure technology, structure framework agreements, and communicate.

Product-led delivery experience: you have worked in or alongside empowered product teams. You understand the difference between a feature factory and a product organization, and you know how to protect team autonomy while ensuring external commitments are met.

Defense procurement familiarity: you have navigated government procurement processes, framework agreements, or similar institutional buying cycles. Experience with Dutch or NATO procurement structures is a strong plus.

Skills and capabilities

Portfolio-level thinking: you naturally operate at the level above individual teams. You see dependencies, conflicts, and trade-offs across workstreams and surface them before they become problems.

Structured communication: you can brief a ministry partner on delivery progress in the morning and facilitate a cross-team dependency review in the afternoon. Written and verbal communication in English is essential; Dutch is a strong plus.

Delivery discipline without bureaucracy: you know how to create clarity and accountability through lightweight processes, regular cadences, and transparent tracking without introducing overhead that slows empowered teams down.

Technical fluency: you do not need to write code, but you are comfortable working with software and systems engineers. You understand enough about C2 systems, APIs, and software delivery to have credible conversations about feasibility and timelines.

Bias to action: given incomplete information, you move forward with a reasonable plan and adapt, rather than waiting for perfect clarity.

Preferred qualifications

PMP, PRINCE2, SAFe, or Agile certifications

Experience with complex systems integration or defense technology platforms (BMS, C2, ISR)

NATO or multi-national defense program experience

Familiarity with uncrewed systems (UxV) or autonomous platforms

Operational deployment experience; you have been in or supported field operations, not just managed them from a desk