Warren East, CEO of Rolls-Royce, poses for a portrait at the company aerospace engineering and development site in Bristol, Britain December 17, 2015. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

(Reuters) - Rolls-Royce RR.L said on Sunday it is cutting more than 200 management jobs as part of its ongoing restructuring.

Chief Executive Warren East launched a turnaround programme last year, with the aim of saving between 150 million and 200 million pounds ($195 mln-$260 mln) a year by 2017.

“This is part of our ongoing transformation programme, designed to remove complexity and cost by simplifying our processes and our structure”, a Rolls-Royce spokesperson said in a statement.

In July, East said his plan was beginning to deliver and that the company would cut costs by 50 million pounds this year, at the top end of a 30 to 50 million pound range.

Before the restructuring started, Rolls-Royce had about 2,000 senior managers. In January East announced the loss of a few dozen senior management jobs and in March revealed the loss of another 150 positions.

Under the changes which came into effect in January, East scrapped a layer of management and the heads of five units -- civil aero-engines, defence, nuclear, marine, and power systems -- started to report directly to the CEO, eliminating the aerospace, and land and sea divisions which had straddled the different businesses.

Founded in 1884, Rolls-Royce the aero-engine maker was separated from the luxury car brand of the same name in the 1970s when it was under state ownership before establishing itself as one of Britain’s most prominent engineering companies.

($1 = 0.7686 pounds)