Lead Project Planner in Manchester

Location: Manchester, Derby or Warrington with Hybrid Working

The impact you’ll have

We need you to lead and inspire a high‑performing project planning team, ensuring our schedules are robust, realistic, and aligned to delivering one of the UK’s most complex and exciting engineering programmes. You’ll bring structure, insight, and coordination across our integrated programme—helping us stay on track, anticipate risks early and make confident, data‑driven decisions.

As a Lead Project Planner, you’ll oversee planners and senior planners, guide best practice, mentor developing talent, and shape the standards that underpin success across the organisation. Your contribution will directly influence programme performance, stakeholder confidence, and our ability to deliver a first‑of‑a‑kind SMR solution.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate a team of project planners, setting clear expectations and ensuring high‑quality planning outputs.
• Develop, maintain and continuously improve detailed project schedules using Primavera P6, ensuring strong front‑end scheduling, WBS structure management, coding frameworks and defined fields.
• Operate confidently within an Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) environment, ensuring horizontal and vertical logic is correct and meaningful.
• Work closely with key stakeholders across engineering, programme management, supply chain, procurement, operations and manufacturing to ensure alignment and shared understanding of timelines and dependencies.
• Lead planning meetings, workshops and schedule reviews to drive accuracy, challenge assumptions and support decision‑making.
• Monitor progress, identify slippage or risk, propose mitigations early and support effective baseline control.
• Provide consistent reporting and schedule insight, including dashboards and commentary for senior leadership.
• Coach and mentor junior planners and apprentices, helping grow capability across the team.
• Promote planning standards, best practice and continuous improvement across the PMO.

What You’ll Bring

We’re realistic—if you meet around 75% of the below, we still want to hear from you.

Essential Experience

• Strong experience working as a planner or senior planner on complex, large‑scale engineering or infrastructure programmes.
• Nuclear experience is an advantage, but not essential—complex programmes from other sectors translate well.
• Experience leading or coordinating teams of planners.
• Deep practical knowledge of Primavera P6 (front‑end scheduling + architecture including WBS, coding, resource dictionaries, user‑defined fields).
• Experience working within an IMS/Master Integrated Plan environment with clear understanding of structured reporting.
• Knowledge of Earned Value Management (EVM) principles and the ability to apply them.
• Experience of change management and baseline change control.
• Ability to identify, integrate and manage schedule‑related risks.

Nice to have

• Awareness of NEC contracts and how schedules support customer deliverables. Valuable but not mandatory.
• Experience delivering schedules within a contractual/bid environment.

Minimum Training & Qualifications (Equivalent experience considered)

• Primavera P6 Practitioner
• APM PMQ
• APM PPC (Practitioner)

Why join us

You’ll join an inclusive, supportive and ambitious organisation shaping the future of clean energy. We value diversity, respect individuality, and create an environment where everyone can contribute meaningfully. We’re committed to providing reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process and throughout employment. You’ll work with talented engineers and programme experts, have real influence across complex programmes, and play a central role in building a new generation of planners.

What we can offer you

• £57,500 – £75,600 base salary
• £2,200 annual benefits allowance
• 12.5% bonus opportunity
• 6× pensionable life assurance
• 50% income protection
• 28 days holiday + bank holidays
• £250 new joiner payment
• Flexible & part‑time working options available

Working location

This is a hybrid role which will require some days in our offices in either Warrington, Derby or Manchester.

Ready to make an impact? If you’re excited by complex schedules, integrated delivery, and shaping the future of clean energy—and you enjoy leading people, developing capability and driving best practice—we’d love to hear from you.

Why Join Us?

You’ll be joining a forward‑thinking organisation that values transparency, fairness, and innovation. We offer:

• A flexible, inclusive, and supportive working environment.
• Opportunities for career growth in a rapidly scaling business.
• A culture that values diversity, innovation, and continuous learning.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all backgrounds. Inclusivity is important to us, and as a Disability Confident organisation, we are committed to fair, supportive, and continually improving recruitment practices that ensure everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Confidence can sometimes hold us back from applying for a job. But we’ll let you in on a secret: there’s no such thing as a 'perfect' candidate. If you feel you meet 75% of the requirements for this role, we would love to hear from you. Also, if you are considering a career move or a sector‑jump, please get in touch – we welcome applications from people with transferable skills.

Our Application Process

Due to the safety regulations within the nuclear industry, applicants will be required to participate in additional screening. These are:

• Obtaining Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) clearance
• Satisfactory completion of a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check
• Satisfactory completion of a basic financial probity check