Project Planner in London

Discover Firstco: A World of Innovation. Firstco consults, designs, delivers and supports automation and control systems across critical infrastructure sectors including rail, airports, defence, data centres and industrial automation. Our work directly impacts the reliability and performance of systems society depends on every day.

About the Role: Engineering A Better World. We are seeking a Project Planner to join our centrally managed Project Controls team. This is a shared resource role, supporting multiple project teams across the business and acting as the subject matter expert for planning and scheduling.

The Planner will work closely with Project Managers, Project Controllers, and engineering teams to develop, maintain and analyse project schedules. The role is critical to ensuring projects are delivered predictably, risks are identified early, and performance is clearly understood across the portfolio. As with other PMO roles, this position is designed to increase engineering capacity, improve consistency, and embed best practice across all projects.

Key Responsibilities

• Planning & Scheduling
  • Develop and maintain integrated project schedules (primarily in Microsoft Project) across all phases of delivery.
  • Define and structure Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) in collaboration with project teams.
  • Ensure schedules are resource-loaded, logically linked, and aligned with contractual milestones.
  • Establish and maintain baseline schedules and manage change control impacts.
  • Support the sales team and help develop schedules for bids.
• Monitoring & Reporting
  • Track progress against plan and identify variances (time, resource, critical path).
  • Support the production of earned value and performance metrics alongside Project Controllers.
  • Provide clear, concise reporting to Project Managers and senior stakeholders.
  • Highlight risks, delays, and opportunities early, with recommended mitigation actions.
• Project Support
  • Work directly with Project Managers to support planning strategy and delivery approach.
  • Facilitate planning workshops and coordination across multidisciplinary teams.
  • Interface with cost control, risk management and document control to ensure integrated project control as part of a PMO function.
  • Liaise directly with our clients’ planners to resolve scheduling issues.
• Standards & Best Practice
  • Develop, maintain and improve planning standards, templates, and processes.
  • Drive consistency of planning approach across all Firstco projects.
  • Provide coaching and support to engineers and PMs in planning principles.
  • Contribute to continuous improvement of the Project Controls function.
• Portfolio-Level Insight
  • Support consolidation of schedules for programme or portfolio reporting.
  • Provide input into resource planning and forecasting across projects.
  • Contribute to development of historical data and benchmarking for future estimating.

Key Skills and Experience

Essential

• Proven experience in project planning / scheduling roles.
• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Project, Primevera P6, or equivalent scheduling tools.
• Understanding of critical path analysis, dependencies, and schedule risk.
• Experience working within project delivery environments (engineering, infrastructure, or similar).
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capability.
• Excellent communication skills, with ability to engage both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Desirable

• Experience in project controls environments (cost, risk, commercial integration).
• Familiarity with NEC contracts and project lifecycle delivery.
• Knowledge of Earned Value Management (EVM).
• Experience supporting multi-project or programme environments.

Personal Attributes

• Highly organised and detail-oriented.
• Proactive and confident in challenging assumptions.
• Collaborative, with strong stakeholder management skills.
• Able to work across multiple projects and priorities effectively.

Why Join Firstco: A Place Where You Can Thrive

• Grow Your Career: Access coaching, mentoring, and professional development opportunities (including APM pathways).
• Make an Impact: Play a key role in delivering critical infrastructure projects.
• Be Valued: Contribute to a high-performing, supportive team environment.
• Develop Expertise: Become a recognised SME in project planning within a growing organisation.

Career Development

This role sits within the Project Controls discipline, with clear progression opportunities into:

• Senior Planner / Lead Planner.
• Project Controls Lead.
• Programme / Portfolio Controls roles.

The role aligns with Firstco’s commitment to professional development and can support progression towards APM or equivalent professional accreditation. We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation, or age.