Project Manager - Design Engineering

Job Summary

Are you a dynamic leader with the ability to drive customer‑focused engineering projects to success? We’re looking for a Project Manager to manage a key customer‑specific design engineering program, ensuring seamless execution across scope, schedule, quality, and delivery. In this highly visible role, you’ll serve as the primary interface between the customer, internal stakeholders, and a multidisciplinary engineering team, ensuring alignment, progress, and results. Your leadership will be essential in ensuring on‑time delivery, uncompromised quality, and team wellbeing, while balancing customer priorities with operational excellence. This is an opportunity to challenge the status quo and bring disruptive thinking to the way projects are run in the aerospace sector.

What you’ll do

• Lead and operationally manage a Design Engineering team, ensuring effective execution of customer‑specific projects.
• Act as the primary customer interface, building strong relationships and aligning project scope, requirements, and expectations.
• Develop and maintain project plans, schedules, and deliverables, ensuring progress is tracked and communicated transparently.
• Drive stakeholder management, engaging internal cross‑functional teams to meet program commitments.
• Monitor and report performance against key milestones, proactively managing risks and issues.
• Foster a culture of team wellbeing, collaboration, and accountability, empowering engineers to deliver their best work.
• Champion continuous improvement in project execution, efficiency, and delivery practices.
• Champion a positive, inclusive culture aligned with GKN’s Great Place to Work values.

What you’ll bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Project Management, Business, or related field.
• 10+ years of complex project management and cross‑functional leadership experience, ideally within complex engineering or aerospace environments.
• Project Management certification (e.g., PMP, PRINCE2, IPMA).
• Multiple years of aerospace experience is a strong advantage.
• Strong skills in stakeholder management, team leadership, and prioritization.
• Ability to balance customer demands with operational constraints, ensuring delivery excellence.
• Excellent communication skills and a collaborative leadership style.
• Experience leading engineering design projects in aerospace or other high‑technology industries.
• Strong problem‑solving abilities, with a proactive and disruptive mindset to challenge the status quo.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver on‑time and on‑quality while maintaining team engagement and wellbeing.

What we’ll offer

• Grade O role; salary depends on experience and qualifications.
• 8 % holiday allowance.
• 42 paid holidays for full‑time employment in line with the Collective Labor Agreement Metalektro (29 holidays and 13 ADV days).
• An excellent pension scheme (PME) and travel allowance.
• A pleasant and informal working environment in which we work together to achieve the best result for our customers.
• Competitive salary and benefits package.

Who we are

Fokker Elmo, part of GKN Aerospace, is a leading player in the design, manufacturing and support for the Electrical Wiring Interconnection Systems (EWIS) for Aerospace and Defence programmes. We produce wiring harnesses for well‑known aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus, Collins Aerospace and Lockheed‑Martin. We operate worldwide at several sites, including Papendrecht where approximately 1,200 employees work. Quality and airworthiness are at the heart of everything we do.

How to apply

Please apply online by submitting your CV and cover letter. Due to data privacy reasons we do not handle applications sent by e‑mail. For additional questions you can contact Glenn Duggert, Talent Acquisition, via

Our culture

Everyone is welcome to apply to GKN. We believe that we can only achieve our ambitions through a coming together of diverse minds who enjoy collaborating in an inspirational environment. Through our commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging and by living our five powerful principles we’ve created a culture where everyone feels welcome to contribute, and it’s a culture that won us ‘The Best Workplace Culture Award’. By embracing and celebrating what makes us unique we encourage everyone to bring their full self to work.

Recruitment accommodations

We’re also committed to providing an accessible recruitment process. If you require reasonable adjustments at any stage during our recruitment process, please get in touch and let us know.

EEO statement

We are the place where human dreams, plus human endeavour, shape the future of aerospace innovation and technology. A Great Place to Work needs a Great Way of Working. By embracing and celebrating what makes us unique we encourage everyone to bring their full self to work.