Project Planner

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and manage high-quality, fully integrated master schedules for large-scale, multi-disciplinary projects using Microsoft Project Professional.
• Identify, articulate, and maintain the critical path; conduct scenario planning to support decisions on resourcing, phasing, and dependency management.
• Collaborate closely with IPT (Project Managers, Project Engineers and Supply chain) to ensure the schedule accurately reflects work package plans, dependencies, risk mitigations, and agile planning inputs (sprints).
• Collaborate with Scrum masters to define WBS in Jira.
• Engage in gathering task data from sprint review sessions in Jira to update schedules.
• Integrate engineering design, validation, and delivery milestones across a complex Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
• Work with project risk owners to identify and reflect risks, treatment plans, and emergent work into the schedule.
• Provide clear, insightful reporting on schedule performance, critical paths, (near critical) float paths, progress trends, and forecasting; recommend mitigation options and actions to key stakeholders.
• Support and enable Agile planning cycles by aligning IMS-level activities with sprint/epic planning and delivery cadences.
• Support the senior planner to embed governance for schedule baselines, change control, and schedule quality; enforce schedule standards and tools across the team.
• Liaise with external customer planners and ensure alignment of schedule data, formats, and reporting expectations.
• Lead project teams in planning best practices and act as the schedule subject matter expert within the programme community.

Essential

• Proven experience in schedule management for large-scale, multi-year, engineering-based programmes (ideally in defence, aerospace, or high-tech manufacturing).
• Demonstrated experience of building and managing Integrated Master Schedules using Microsoft Project Professional, Standard.
• Strong understanding of project risk management and its scheduling implications.
• Strong understanding of creating views for critical and float paths in MS Project Professional.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, including direct liaison with customers.
• Ability to work autonomously and collaboratively in a high-performance, multi-disciplinary environment.
• Data analysing, interrogating Excel data for transfer and manipulation into MS Project.

Desirable

• Experience working with Agile, Waterfall, and Hybrid delivery frameworks; familiarity with JIRA or similar Agile task management tools.
• Experience of working with resource allocation tools and scenario modelling.
• Degree qualified in a relevant discipline (or equivalent experience).
• Exposure to Earned Value Management (EVM) and cost/schedule integration; membership of a recognised PM body (APM, PMI).
• Familiarity with DCMA assessment.
• Experience of planning schedules, creating critical or float paths and integration with other ERP tools using Oracle P6.

• A dynamic role with influence across strategic programmes.
• Hybrid and flexible working arrangements.
• Opportunities for professional development in a growing, high-performing team.
• The chance to directly shape and influence the delivery of high-impact national defence projects.

All candidates must meet the security vetting requirements relevant to the role. For reasons of national security, applicants must be British nationals. Dual nationals may be permitted in exceptional circumstances.

Mid-Senior level

Full-time

Project Management and Information Technology

Defense and Space Manufacturing