Senior Associate (Planner)

We are currently looking for a Senior Associate Planner to support with the growth of the business and the continued delivery of world class service to our diverse client base. This role will provide the planning function with strategic direction across complex projects and programmes, ensuring schedule integrity, effective planning governance and alignment to the project or programme's objectives. You will provide an adept level of planning and scheduling support, mentor junior planners and work closely with leadership to drive quality and performance. This role will require an advanced level of technical ability coupled with the ability to provide clear communication and leadership. There are also opportunities to be involved in market leading initiatives, utilising emerging scheduling cloud technology, play a role in our sector communities, specialist forums and business development.

What You Will Do

• Strategic Schedule Leadership: Lead the development and management of detailed project and programme schedules using Primavera P6 or equivalent tools. Establish and maintain planning and scheduling processes and procedures. Lead the development of an integrated Work Breakdown Structure that aligns to project or programme scope and its governance lifecycle.
• Planning Governance and Assurance: 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.
• Schedule Performance Monitoring & Forecasting: 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 control between Schedule, Cost and Risk functions through collaborative project leadership.
• Stakeholder and Interface Management: 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.
• Team Leadership and Development: 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.
• Change & Risk Management: 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.
• Reporting: 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.
• Coordination and Communication: 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. Aviation experience is highly desirable but not essential.
• 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.