Lead Planner in Retford

Salary Banding: £52,500-£75,000 (Dependant on experience)

We are actively recruiting on either a contract or permanent basis.

Description of job

The Lead Planner will lead and be accountable for the planning and scheduling development for a large, technically complex fusion energy programme involving advanced engineering, multidisciplinary design, specialist procurement, manufacturing, high-accuracy construction, and commissioning phases with a value of circa £20M.

The role ensures integrated planning across scientific, engineering, manufacturing, construction, and regulatory workstreams; provides decision-quality schedule intelligence to senior leadership; and drives schedule governance needed to deliver a first-of-a-kind fusion facility, safely, on time, and within budget.

The ideal candidate combines deep technical knowledge of engineering, manufacturing, and construction programmes planning with advanced programme and project schedule management expertise.

The Lead Planner will report to the Programme Planning and Delivery Manager.

Responsibilities

• Support the development of sequenced design, manufacturing, construction, assembly, and commissioning plans.
• Support the development of multi-tier (L2–L4 schedule) capturing all Tokamak subsystems, engineering, manufacturing, construction, and programme phases deliverables.
• Identify critical paths, key dependencies, and resource requirement.
• Promote best practices in Programme and project planning, and reporting.
• Perform schedule simulations, “what-if” analyses, and scenario planning to support executive decision-making.
• Facilitate the development of WBS and work packages to support IPT and Programme deliverables.
• Coordinate baseline schedule updates, recovery plans, and forecasting.
• Monitoring progress using earned value management (EVM) and variance analysis.
• Analyse deviations from baseline and recommend corrective actions.
• Develop and maintain detailed resource-loaded schedules.
• Perform baselining, re-baselining, configuration control, and maintain full schedule audit history.
• Conduct continuous critical path analysis and identify near-critical paths across engineering, manufacturing, and construction programmes.
• Evaluate schedule impacts to change requests in programme deliverables.
• Lead and coordinate the alignment between Programme objectives, project plans, resource allocation, and deliverables.
• Work closely with project managers and delivery teams to define scope, milestones, activities, dependencies, and resource requirements.

Qualifications, experience and skills

Strong knowledge of project planning and scheduling principles.

Ability to develop and maintain logically linked and resource-informed schedules.

Proficiency in critical path analysis, forecasting, and earned value concepts.

Strong analytical, problem-solving, and organisational skills.

Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication abilities.

Ability to manage competing priorities within complex project environments.

Understanding of programme controls, governance, and risk management processes.

Degree in Engineering, Physics, Project Management, Construction Management, or equivalent experience.

Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

Expert level proficiency in programme management and scheduling tools such as Primavera P6 and MS Project.

Proven experience working in a senior or leadership position.

Experience in Earned Value Management.

Proven experience in SRA (Monte Carlo) schedule analysis.

Experience in NEC form of contract.

Professional certifications (APM, PMI-SP, PSP, PMP).

If you can demonstrate experience in approximately 60% of the roles and responsibilities outlined, we would still encourage you to apply.

We recognise that the right candidate may not meet every requirement and can bring transferable skills and behaviours, with the potential to develop further in the role.

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