Planning and Scheduling Manager in Bolton

An exciting opportunity for you to broaden your skills and contribute to the green revolution. This is the perfect time to make the move into this forward thinking and fast-growing sector of the Electrical and Renewables industry. We are working with the industry leader, with a vision to change the way people drive. They have made it their mission to install a charging point everywhere you park. To make that vision a reality we need the best talent in the industry - a vision Search Energy are proud to support.

We are looking for a highly organised, proactive and solutions-focused Planning and Scheduling Manager to join our growing operations team. This is a pivotal role at the heart of the business, responsible for ensuring our team of planners and schedulers are supporting the field management team and field engineers to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right information and resources to deliver an exceptional service to our customers.

You will supervise the planning and scheduling of new installations, planned preventative maintenance (PPM), reactive and remedial works, service visits, and urgent breakdowns across the UK. You'll work with your team to balance forward planning with real-time operational demands, continually review and adapt schedules to maximise engineer productivity, minimise travel time and ensure all work is completed within agreed customer timescales and SLAs.

Working closely with your team, the Field Ops Managers, Engineering Teams, customers, contractors and other internal stakeholders, you will be a central point of communication and play a key role in keeping day-to-day operations running smoothly. If you enjoy problem-solving, working with data, coordinating people and resources, and making quick, informed decisions in a fast-paced environment, this could be an excellent opportunity for you.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage the team to deliver the most effective planning and scheduling service for Installations, PPM, reactive, remedial and other field service works in line with contractual frequencies, priorities and customer requirements.
• Ensure the team are allocating jobs to the most appropriate engineer based on location, skills, availability, workload and priority.
• Help the team focus on optimising engineer diaries and travel routes to reduce travel time and maximise productive working hours.
• Balance workloads effectively to ensure resources are used efficiently.
• Build and maintain daily, weekly and longer-term work plans.
• Ensure planned and reactive works are scheduled within agreed SLAs and contractual timescales.
• Ensure the team are continually reviewing and adjusting schedules throughout the day in response to emergencies, delays, cancellations, access issues and changing priorities.
• Coordinate subcontractors and external resources where required.
• Ensure completed works, cancellations, access issues and customer requests are accurately recorded and schedules remain up to date.
• Identify and escalate potential scheduling risks, service issues or resource constraints to the management team.

Engineer Coordination

• Act as an escalation point for engineers throughout the working day.
• Ensure the team provide engineers with accurate job instructions, customer details, site contacts, access information and any specific requirements.
• Support team to ensure engineers have the information, tools, parts and resources required to complete their work effectively.
• Monitor team progress and proactively adjust schedules where necessary.
• Identify and resolve scheduling conflicts quickly and effectively.
• Ensure team keep engineers and ops managers informed of changes to appointments, priorities and customer requirements.

Customer & Stakeholder Communication

• Handle any customer escalations or complaints regarding scheduling / planning service.
• Ensure team are notifying customers promptly and professionally of delays, changes or rescheduled visits.
• Respond to scheduling enquiries and manage customer expectations effectively.
• Build positive customer relationships through clear, professional and proactive communication.
• Coordinate effectively with your team, ops managers, engineers, contractors, customers and internal teams to ensure smooth delivery of services.

Data, Performance & Continuous Improvement

• Use operational data and system information to support planning and decision-making.
• Monitor and contribute to reporting on key operational measures such as engineer utilisation, scheduling efficiency, productivity and first-time fix performance.
• Identify trends, recurring issues and opportunities to improve operational performance.
• Recommend improvements to scheduling processes, workflows and systems.
• Support the development and improvement of planning tools and processes.
• Work closely with the management team and wider operations team to improve engineer utilisation, customer service and overall efficiency.

About You

We're looking for someone who is highly organised, commercially aware and confident managing competing priorities. You will be comfortable working in a fast-paced operational environment where plans can change quickly, and decisions need to be made calmly and effectively.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Previous experience in a supervisory or management capacity with planning, scheduling, coordination, logistics or workflow management teams.
• Excellent organisational and time-management skills.
• Strong ability to prioritise workloads and manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Excellent geographical awareness and confidence with route planning.
• Strong IT skills and confidence using Microsoft Outlook, Excel and business management systems.
• Ability to quickly learn and use scheduling and field service management software.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong attention to detail and a high level of accuracy.
• Ability to analyse information and use operational data to make effective decisions.
• Ability to remain calm, proactive and solution-focused under pressure.
• Professional, customer-focused approach.
• Ability to communicate effectively with engineers, customers, contractors and internal stakeholders.

Desirable Experience

• Experience within engineering, facilities management, utilities, wastewater, water hygiene, HVAC, telecoms, transport/logistics or another field service environment.
• Experience of managing a team who are responsible for coordinating multiple mobile engineers or field-based teams.
• Previous experience of PPM scheduling and preventative maintenance programmes.
• Understanding of SLAs, contractual service requirements and operational KPIs.
• Experience using route optimisation, CRM or field service management systems.

Why Join Us?

This is an exciting opportunity to become a key part of our operations team and make a genuine impact on how effectively our services are delivered. You'll have the opportunity to:

• Play a central role in a busy and growing operation.
• Contribute to the drive for sustainability in the UK.
• Make a measurable difference to engineer productivity and customer satisfaction.
• Develop your supervisory skills within a planning, scheduling and operational management environment.
• Work closely with experienced engineering and operational teams.
• Help shape and improve our scheduling processes and systems.
• Take ownership of your workload and contribute ideas that improve the way we operate.

We value people who are proactive, dependable, organised and always looking for a better way of doing things. If you are a confident planner who enjoys solving problems, coordinating people and keeping operations moving, we would love to hear from you.

Salary: £34,000 plus bonus OTE £36,000 - £38,000 per annum. Additional benefits include EV Salary Sacrifice Scheme, Pension, Life Insurance, Employee wellbeing and retail discounts, 21 days holiday, rising 1 per year. Holiday purchase scheme.

Experience: Planning and Scheduling Manager experience: 2 years preferred.

Successful candidates will be contacted w/c 31st August.

Search is an equal opportunities recruiter and we welcome applications from all suitably skilled or qualified applicants, regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/beliefs, sexual orientation or age.