Commercial Project Manager

Bright Ascension Ltd; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 38,000 - 43,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative space technology company is looking for an experienced Project Manager to lead commercial projects in Edinburgh. The role involves ensuring successful software solution delivery while managing customer relationships and financial performance. Candidates should have experience in project management with skills in Agile methodologies and project finance management. Flexible and hybrid working is offered with a competitive salary range of £38k-£43k depending on experience.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Flexible hours and hybrid working

36 days paid holiday

Enhanced Company Sick Pay

Health Cash Plan

Life Assurance cover

Employee Benefit Trust

Opportunities for international travel

Investment in skill development

Company events for social engagement

Qualifications

• Experience with Agile, Scrum or hybrid development methodologies.
• Ability to manage project cost and revenue budgets.
• Experience in customer-facing project management roles.

Responsibilities

• Act as primary point of contact for customers.
• Develop and manage project plans and budgets.
• Provide project updates to customers and stakeholders.

Skills

Agile methodologies

Customer relationship management

Project finance management

Communication skills

Problem-solving

Education

Certification in project management (PMP, PRINCE2, SAFe)

Tools

JIRA

MS Project

Redmine

Job description

We are looking for an experienced and motivated customer facing Project Manager to lead commercial projects as we approach our next exciting period of growth.

As a key member of our team, you would be responsible for ensuring the successful delivery of mission-critical software solutions while maintaining strong customer relationships and financial performance. In this role you would manage the delivery of project objectives, schedules, budgets, risks, and customer expectations.

This role is a balance of customer relationship management, project financial oversight, and pragmatic problem-solving. It is a key interface between customers, engineering teams, and stakeholders, and overseeing projects that support satellite operations, onboard flight software, mission control, and ground station systems.

We see this role as being full time, although this is negotiable. Ideally, we would like this role to be based in Edinburgh on a hybrid basis, to allow for regular interaction with teams responsible for Product Management, Customer delivery and operations, Finance, Business Development and Sales and Marketing.

What you will do

As a member of the Service Engineering team, reporting to the Head of Service Engineering, your key responsibilities would be:

Customer Relationship Management, Engagement & Service Excellence

• Act as the primary point of contact for customers, ensuring alignment between technical solutions and business needs
• Establish and maintain strong, trust-based relationships with satellite operators, space agencies, and other commercial customers
• Work with relevant Engineering teams to translate customer requirements into actionable project plans, ensuring feasibility and realistic delivery timelines
• Address and resolve customer concerns proactively and pragmatically, balancing technical, financial, and operational constraints
• Travelling regularly for face-to-face and onsite customer meetings, ensuring strong customer relationships are maintained

Project Planning & Execution

• Develop and manage detailed project plans, budgets, and resource allocations for software development and deployment projects
• Work with relevant Engineering team members to ensure on-time, on-budget, and high-quality delivery of flight and ground software solutions
• Coordinate software engineering, DevOps, testing, and customer operations (support) to drive progress and problem resolution
• Identify, assess, and mitigate risks related to software development, testing, and mission-critical operations
• Provide regular project updates, reports, and performance metrics to both customers and internal stakeholders

Financial Success & Cost Control

• Manage project budgets, cost forecasting, and financial reporting, ensuring profitability and cost efficiency
• Identify opportunities for upselling additional services, support contracts, and value-added solutions
• Ensure scope management, balancing customer needs with financial sustainability and project feasibility

Pragmatic Solution Finding

• Work closely with technical teams to find creative, feasible solutions to customer challenges
• Mediate technical and operational trade-offs, ensuring solutions align with customer priorities and mission needs
• Adjust project approaches as necessary, ensuring that challenges are handled flexibly and efficiently

Essential skills & experience

We see experience with the following as essential to the job:

• Ability to work with engineering teams using Agile, Scrum, or hybrid development methodologies
• Competence with project management tools (JIRA, MS Project, Redmine, Monday.com, or similar)
• Project finance management in context of managing project cost and revenue budgets to target in a commercial environment
• Certification in project management (e.g., PMP, PRINCE2, SAFe)

Personal skills

We’re especially looking for someone who has:

• A customer-focused mindset, ensuring high levels of service and satisfaction
• Strong communication and negotiation skills, with the ability to bridge technical and business conversations
• Excellent financial management skills, ensuring project profitability and budget control
• A proactive problem-solving mindset, balancing technical feasibility, financial constraints, and customer needs
• Resilience and adaptability, able to handle unexpected challenges in high-pressure mission environments
• Collaborative leadership, working effectively across engineering, finance, and customer-facing teams

We think that the following skills would definitely be valuable in this role:

• Knowledge of satellite systems, aerospace, or other mission-critical environments is a plus
• Experience managing software development projects in the satellite or aerospace industry
• Understanding of flight software, ground segment solutions, and mission-critical software systems
• Familiarity with satellite operations, telemetry & command (TT&C), and mission control systems

What we can offer you

• A competitive salary in the range of £38k-£43k depending on experience, with regular reviews.
• A fantastic opportunity to join a growing, innovative, employee-centred business pushing boundaries in the space industry.
• Flexible hours and hybrid working, enabling you to create your ideal work life balance.
• 36 days paid holiday per annum.
• Enhanced Company Sick Pay and Long-Term Sickness cover.
• A Health Cash Plan to cover costs such as dental, physio and optical.
• Life Assurance cover (x4 salary).
• As a member of the Bright Ascension team you would have a stake in the business through our Employee Benefit Trust.
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay.
• Opportunities for international travel for exhibitions and trade shows.
• Investment in you and your skill development and the opportunity to attend relevant events and conferences to aid career / skill development.
• Company events and regular activities for social engagement and team building.
• An open, supportive, inclusive environment where you can explore your ideas and make a big difference to the product and business.

About Bright Ascension

We are a fast growing, innovative company changing the way that software is developed in the space industry. With customers across the world, ranging from universities and space agencies, to commercial organisations and start-ups, our core technologies enable our customers to develop and operate space-based systems and services faster, more cost effectively and more reliably.

Innovation is at the heart of what we do and it is our team which drives that innovation; this is reflected in our commitment to employee ownership, which gives all of us a voice, and a stake, in our current and future success. With offices in Dundee, Edinburgh and Bristol we now have more than 50 members of staff and plans to expand significantly over the next 12 months. We are at a very exciting time in our ambitious growth plans and have fantastic opportunities for talented individuals to join our team.

Our Values

We worked together to identify and shape the values that underpin everything we do, our actions, our vision and all things Bright Ascension.

Enjoy what you do and have fun. Be curious and be fearless. Unconventional ideas and passion are the paths to true innovation.

Sharing knowledge helps the team thrive. Start a dialogue and win through teamwork. Success comes through collaboration and support.

Respect & Integrity

Recognise differences and accept opinions. Integrity, respect and high standards create unbreakable trust and builds reputation.