Senior Associate (Planner)

What You Will Do

• Lead the development and management of detailed project and programme schedules using Primavera P6 or equivalent tools
• Establish and maintain planning and scheduling process and procedures
• Lead the development of an integrated Work breakdown Structure that aligns to project or programme scope and its governance lifecycle

• Implement and enforce the planning standards for the Portfolio/Programme/Project that aligns to client governance 
• Conduct schedule assurance reviews to ensure functional compliance, and provide input (LoD2, and support in preparation for LoD3 project audits 
• Champion planning excellence and continuous improvement within the controls function

• Lead schedule progress assessments, performance trending and variance analysis to senior leadership
• Identify schedule risks, develop mitigation strategies and conduct impact assessments 
• Ensure there is integrated controls between Schedule, Cost and Risk functions through collaborative project leadership

• Engage with senior stakeholders, clients and contractors to ensure schedule accuracy
• Facilitate planning and coordination workshops 
• Ability to translate schedule data into actionable insights for decision-making by senior leadership

• Lead, mentor and develop a functioning team of planners, ensuring high standards of delivery
• Act as an SME and advocate for Planning and Scheduling and wider project controls

• Contribute to Risk management strategies and support the development of change control 
• Support the management of the project risk and opportunity register to identify, quantify, and deliver efficiency improvements 
• Lead the planning input for claims and delay analysis when required 

• Lead schedule reporting, ensuring schedule data, tender timescales, and actual out-turn durations are captured, classified, and fed back into the cost estimating database to continuously improve planning and estimating accuracy
• Support the preparation and delivery of monthly cost forecasts to within ±5% accuracy, integrating the cost plan with the activity schedule
• Support the implementation and delivery of schedule reporting

• Strong communicator at all levels, being able to lead workshops, extract information from the project team and present to senior management.
• Has experience of working with multiple senior stakeholders with competing interests.
• Has the ability to translate and distil complex data and information into clear and engaging messages and reports.
• Able to plan and structure reports and presentations to convey information concisely.

About You

• Experience in providing planning services on major capital projects or programmes of £100m+ including within a live operational environment. Experience in nuclear, energy, rail, aviation, utilities, highways, defence or other major infrastructure sectors would be particularly relevant.
• Demonstrable experience in leading and managing a controls function 
• Proven track record of building and maintaining integrated programmes
• Previous experience in monitoring and maintaining forecast schedules against a baseline
• Demonstrated success in working within a structured PMO or project controls environment
• Experience of delivering or supporting delivery of dashboard style reports using Excel and/or Power BI
• A competent user of scheduling software (Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project) and the Microsoft Office suite. 
• Familiar with standard forms of construction contracts (e.g. NEC)
• Strong communication skills, able to liaise with stakeholders on all levels, lead workshops and present to senior management, able to build strong relationships with clients and network effectively
• Experience of working with multiple senior stakeholders with competing interests
• Able to translate and distil data and information into clear and engaging messages and reports.
• Able to plan and structure reports and presentations to convey information in a clear and concise manner.
• Able to deliver high quality work in challenging timeframes within a consultancy environment
• Has excellent organisational, planning and proactive time management skills.
• Self-motivated, self-starter- able to achieve deliverables and objectives with minimal supervision.
• Motivated and ambitious

About Us