Senior Planning Consultant/Senior Project Planner in Birmingham

Mott MacDonald is a global engineering, management, and development consultancy with over 20,000 employees across more than 50 countries and 140+ offices. We work across incredible global industries, delivering exciting work that is defining our future and making an important societal impact in the communities we serve. Our people power our performance – we succeed when they do. With countless opportunities to collaborate, learn, and grow, the possibilities for excellence are as varied as every individual.

About the business unit

Mott MacDonald’s Advisory and Programme Delivery (APD) unit delivers both project, programme & commercial management (PPCM) services and advisory solutions across the built environment, defence, energy, water, environmental, transportation, health and care sectors. We deliver tailored solutions that directly address our clients’ key challenges, combining our world-leading project expertise with unrivalled programme delivery capabilities and advisory services.

What you will contribute to the Team:

• Establish and deliver professional and comprehensive planning and scheduling services across a variety of complex projects, providing accurate and verified schedule management service either as a managed service or as part of an integrated team.
• Collaborate with delivery team, supply chain, end users, customers and stakeholders to develop, baseline, and maintain high-quality project schedules.
• Support alignment by setting up and delivering collaborative / integrated planning workshops and capability to show and confirm alignment across multiple organisations and supply chains.
• Develop, underpin, assure, and set up credible baseline schedules for our customers or projects validating all information incorporated into the schedule through authoring detailed Basis of Schedule documents.
• Establish tool techniques and procedures to determine and confirm progress, determine performance to date and forecast accurately future progress.
• Provide expert advice to our customer and project managers on planning tools, methodologies, best practices and options to maintain schedule alignment to required benefits and outcomes.
• Mentor and guide junior planners, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and knowledge sharing.
• Contribute to business development efforts and the evolution of planning capabilities within the organization.

Proven experience as a Senior Project Planner, with a strong record in planning, monitoring, and controlling project delivery across various industries and contract types. Expertise in integrated planning across engineering, procurement, and construction, including facilitation of planning workshops. Must have excellent attention to detail and be outcomes oriented with the ability to work independently or lead teams. Proficiency in developing detailed project schedules from technical data or scope statements, including resource and cost integration. Skilled in applying industry-standard scheduling techniques (e.g., Critical Path, Critical Chain, Resource Levelling, Earned Value). Ability to estimate and document schedule assumptions and present schedules in assurance reviews. Experience in coordinating with stakeholders to assess progress at activity, WBS, and project levels. Strong analytical skills to interpret schedule variances and support corrective action planning. Confident in preparing and delivering progress reports and planning summaries to clients and senior management. Proficient in conducting schedule assurance reviews (e.g., DCMA), time impact analysis, and schedule risk assessments. Advanced user of Oracle Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project. Experience in complex, highly regulated industries. Solid understanding of estimating, risk management, and cost control, with experience collaborating across project controls disciplines.

Flexible to travel to client site in Plymouth 2-3 days per week inclusive of overnight stays. Degree or equivalent in a relevant field. Experienced working on Defence projects. Strong client-facing and stakeholder engagement skills. Demonstrated ability to manage complex situations with professionalism and integrity. Experience supporting business development and contributing to proposal efforts. Familiarity with the full project lifecycle, from concept through to commissioning. Excellent communication and people skills. Proven leadership and team development capabilities. Expert-level proficiency in Primavera and MS Project. Experience with risk and reporting tools such as Safran and Power BI.

Please be advised that offers for this role are conditional upon obtaining the appropriate level of Security Clearance. We are actively recruiting a diverse workforce that is reflective of the communities we serve. We recognise that differences in ability, skills and experience are a strength and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion: We put equality, diversity, and inclusion at the heart of our business, seeking to promote fair employment procedures and practices to ensure equal opportunities for all. We encourage individual expression in our workplace and are committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels they can contribute.

We offer some fantastic benefits including:

• Private medical insurance for all UK colleagues.
• Health cash plan to support you with everyday health costs and treatments.
• A variety of wellbeing support is available through our comprehensive wellbeing program.
• Financial wellbeing: We match employee pension contributions between 4.5% and 7%.
• Life assurance equal up to 4 × your basic salary.
• A minimum of 33-35 days holiday each year, inclusive of public holidays.
• Enhanced family leave policies, including 26 weeks paid maternity and adoption leave.
• Primary annual professional institution subscription.