Technical Project Manager

THE LAST FRONTIER

The Arctic is a place of extremes: unforgiving, untamed, and undergoing rapid change. A literal defrosting reveals a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity spanning energy, defence, logistics, research, and infrastructure.

ARD was founded on a paradox. The Arctic is both the next great economic frontier and one of the most hostile environments on Earth. Rich in resources and strategically vital, yet bone-chillingly cold, dark for months, and fundamentally inhospitable to humans. This paradox - an explosion of activity in a place that resists human presence - is why we exist. Our solution is autonomy.

We build systems that operate reliably and intelligently in the Arctic, so that humans don't always have to.

Founded by record-holding pioneers with decades of polar experience, we take calculated risks on hard problems that matter. If you want to build and deploy ground-up technology with real-world impact, at an inflection point in history that won’t reappear, we’d like to talk.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Our engineering team is expanding rapidly, and we’re looking for a Technical Project Manager to sit at the heart of it, driving delivery across our engineering portfolio. This is a hands-on role for someone who thrives on ambiguity, moves fast, and can bring order to multiple complex, multi-disciplinary hardware projects without slowing them down.

You'll be responsible for planning, tracking, and de-risking delivery across products at varying stages of maturity - from early-TRL prototypes through to fielded, mission-ready systems - and from field-ready energy systems to autonomous surface and sub-surface platforms.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Own project planning and delivery tracking across concurrent engineering projects and work streams (firmware, electronics, mechanical, testing), translating product strategy and portfolio priorities into executable projects with clear milestones, owners, and outcomes.

• Convert ambitious commercial and operational deadlines into realistic, resourced delivery plans — holding the line on both ambition and delivery discipline.

• Maintain visibility across work streams, dependencies, risks, decisions, and resourcing gaps, managing technical risk and dependency mapping across products at different Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) and adjusting project rigour and testing requirements accordingly.

• Take ownership of BOMs for any existing and future products, manage key supplier relationships and keep track of all materials deliveries.

• • Technical Expertise: Understand the architecture, dependencies, and technical challenges of hardware design and development.
  • Support engineering teams in resolving technical issues.
  • Ensure compliance with industry standards and government regulations, such as MIL-STD, UK DEFSTAN, and STANAG testing and qualification requirements across the product lifecycle.

• Act as the connective tissue across engineering, procurement, business development, security, product, commercial, and customers — driving cross-functional alignment and ensuring technical progress, customer commitments, and delivery constraints are understood on all sides.

• Identify and resolve blockers fast, escalate early and clearly, and provide concise, decision-ready updates on consequential tradeoffs.

• Build and refine the project management tooling, processes, and reporting cadence as ARD scales — you'll be creating much of this from scratch.

• Identify missing handoffs and unwritten work, converting them into accountable plans, and facilitate requirements and scope definition with product, customer, and technical owners.

• Lead pilots, implementations, migrations, rollouts, adoption, and operational handoffs.

WHAT YOU’LL BRING

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Computer, Aerospace, Mechanical Engineering, or adjacent discipline - or - experience working in a technical engineering role prior to working as a project manager.

• 4+ years proven experience in Technical Engineering Project Management across multiple concurrent projects,, delivering complex hardware products, ideally in defence, aerospace, or another regulated hardware environment; and ideally at a range of company maturity stages.

• Working familiarity with MIL-STD testing standards, UK DEFSTAN, and NATO STANAG requirements, and how these shape project planning and qualification timelines.

• Comfort operating across a range of TRL levels — from early, rapid prototyping and experimentation through to production-grade delivery — and judgement on how to flex process accordingly.

• A genuine start-up mentality: comfortable with ambiguity, resourcefulness, and getting hands dirty where needed, rather than waiting for the perfect process.

• A track record of hitting ambitious deadlines in fast-moving, resource-constrained environments.

• Strong stakeholder management skills — able to communicate technical risk and progress clearly to both engineers and non-technical leadership.

• Willingness to travel to remote and extreme environments as part of the role if deemed necessary.

DESIRABLE SKILLS

• Knowledge of environmental and reliability testing (e.g. thermal cycling, vibration, shock)

• Familiarity of electrical systems to ensure a holistic approach to hardware design

• Basic understanding of RF systems and components

• Previous experience working within an R&D workshop

• Experience with satellite communications, RF hardware, or Arctic/extreme-environment systems.

• Familiarity with export control considerations (ITAR/EAR, UK export licensing) relevant to dual-use technology.

• Experience working with or alongside defence primes, MOD, or NATO procurement processes.
  

WHAT WE OFFER

• Competitive compensation

• Equity: meaningful options as an early employee at an early-stage company

• Private Healthcare for you and your family, including dental and optical

• Enhanced maternity & paternity leave

• Mission-driven culture: focus on impact, not hours logged

• Small team, real ownership: what you build matters and ships

**Before you take time to apply, please note that at this timing unfortunately we are not able to sponsor a visa for this position**

A note on who we want to hear from

We're building for one of the most demanding environments on Earth and we believe diverse teams build more resilient systems. We actively welcome applications from people who are underrepresented in engineering - whether that's by gender, ethnicity, disability, or background. If you're not sure you meet every requirement, apply anyway and tell us what excites you about the problem.

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