Lead Project Planner – AC Substations

Job Description Summary Job Description Stafford, UK | Hybrid | Permanent

• Develop detailed project schedules and establish approved project baselines in collaboration with customers and internal stakeholders.
• Maintain and periodically update project schedules, including resource forecasts, throughout the full project lifecycle.
• Identify activity prerequisites, interfaces, dependencies and potential blockers, working with project teams and third parties to address them proactively.
• Monitor and challenge progress, agree realistic forecasts and develop mitigation, recovery and catch-up plans where required.
• Analyse schedule performance and emerging trends using appropriate planning techniques and indicators, including schedule movement analysis, S-curves, commodity curves, on-time delivery, Say/Do ratios, resource loading and productivity measures.
• Identify schedule-related risks and opportunities and work with the wider project team to develop effective mitigation strategies.
• Provide clear, evidence-based schedule information to support Project Managers in decision-making and escalation.
• Collaborate with functional task owners and resource owners to optimise activity durations, sequencing and resource requirements.
• Ensure forecast durations, schedule logic and delivery commitments are understood and agreed by the relevant task owners.
• Present schedule status, trends, forecasts and anticipated outcomes during project and management reviews, making recommendations that support strategic decisions.
• Produce and communicate accurate internal project reporting.
• Prepare contractually required customer reports and engage directly with customers on planning and scheduling matters.
• Coordinate schedule interfaces with customers, partners, contractors and other third parties, including maintaining an interface register.
• Maintain schedule and cost risk information in collaboration with the Project Risk Manager.
• Provide schedule-related calculations and analysis to support accurate change-order cost and programme assessments.
• Work with the Cost Controller to reconcile Primavera P6 schedules with approved project cost phasing.
• Develop “what-if” scenarios to optimise project execution and assess their feasibility with the wider project team.
• Support dispute resolution, extension-of-time assessments and the analysis of schedule-related claims.
• Take full ownership of the planning output for assigned projects, working in close partnership with the relevant Project Manager.

• A degree in engineering, project management or another relevant discipline.
• Strong project planning and schedule-management experience within EPC or turnkey project environments.
• Advanced working knowledge of Primavera P6.
• Experience supporting projects within the electrical transmission sector, with knowledge of AC electrical substations.
• A sound understanding of project dependencies and logical sequencing across engineering, procurement, manufacturing, construction, installation, testing and commissioning.
• Experience producing schedule analysis, forecasts, recovery plans and resource projections.
• Confidence working directly with customers, project partners and third-party contractors.

• Experience working on large and complex infrastructure projects.
• Experience operating within an international or multicultural project environment.
• Knowledge of forensic schedule analysis and extension-of-time claim preparation.
• Experience integrating project schedules with cost, resource and risk-management processes.

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build effective relationships across functions and levels of seniority.
• A proactive approach, with the confidence to challenge assumptions, influence decisions and anticipate potential delivery issues.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to translate schedule data into clear, evidence-based recommendations.
• Customer-focused and comfortable presenting complex planning information in a transparent and accessible way.
• Collaborative, resilient and able to remain effective in a complex project…