Senior Planner in Warrington

Shape the future of one of the UK's most significant infrastructure programmes.

We're looking for an experienced Senior Planner to lead planning and scheduling activities across a complex portfolio of major projects.

This is an opportunity to play a pivotal role in delivering strategic outcomes, leading a team of planning professionals and providing expert scheduling insight that supports confident decision-making at the highest levels.

About the Role

As our planning subject matter expert, you'll be responsible for developing and maintaining integrated programme schedules, driving planning excellence, and ensuring robust governance, assurance and reporting standards are embedded across the programme.

This is a hybrid role with successful individual to be based at either one of our NWS Offices at either Herdus House in Cumbria, Hinton House in Warrington or Helios Building, Didcot

Responsibilities

• Developing and managing integrated programme schedules across multiple projects, creating a single logic-driven plan that supports scenario modelling, performance analysis and informed decision-making.
• Managing programme dependencies, interfaces, milestones and constraints to ensure effective coordination and delivery.
• Maintaining schedule baselines, resource forecasts and cost information, ensuring all changes are managed in line with governance requirements.
• Producing high-quality planning outputs for executive, government, regulatory and assurance stakeholders.
• Acting as the Primavera P6 Subject Matter Expert, providing expert guidance on planning systems, standards and best practice.
• Leading schedule assurance activities, assessing the quality, maturity and robustness of project and programme schedules.
• Conducting schedule analysis to support critical path management, risk assessment and programme performance evaluation.
• Providing clear planning insight and narrative to support reporting, governance and strategic decision-making.
• Driving continuous improvement, standardisation and planning excellence in line with industry best practice, including NDA Integrated Project Controls (IPC), IPA and APM principles.
• Leading, coaching and developing a team of planners, fostering capability, consistency and high performance across the planning function.

Qualifications

You'll be a highly experienced planner with a strong track record of delivering planning and scheduling excellence on large, complex programmes, ideally within a regulated environment.

• Required Skills
• Extensive experience leading planning and scheduling activities on major programmes or infrastructure projects.
• Advanced knowledge of Primavera P6 (PPM & EPPM) and integrated programme scheduling.
• Experience using planning assurance and schedule quality methodologies, including DCMA 14-Point Assessment and tools such as Deltek Fuse 360.
• Proven ability to develop and manage integrated programme schedules across multiple projects.
• Strong understanding of wider project controls disciplines, including cost, risk, change control and performance reporting.
• Experience managing complex dependencies, interfaces and critical paths.
• Demonstrable people management experience, including leading and developing planning professionals.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with the ability to present complex planning information to senior audiences.
• Experience reporting schedule performance metrics, including critical path, float erosion and earned value indicators.
• Relevant project, programme or planning qualification (for example PMQ, MSP, PRINCE2 or equivalent experience).
• Preferred Skills
• Experience of Earned Value Management (EVM) and Schedule Risk Analysis.
• Experience in qualitative and quantitative risk analysis, ideally using Safran.
• Experience operating within highly regulated and assured environments.
• Membership of a recognised professional body such as APM.
• Pay range and compensation package
• Salary for this role is £64, 879 with opportunity to progress to £76,847
• Generous annual leave package - 25.5 days plus bank holidays and 13 accrued days
• Bonus of up to £4,100 company bonus plus additional 5% personal incentive bonus
• Various other competetive benefits package
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