Project Controller

Most project controllers can build a schedule. Fewer can tell you, with evidence, why it’s going to slip, what it’ll cost and what to do about it.

If you’re in the second group, read on.

A major UK defence business is growing its project control team and hiring several Project Controllers and Project Planners, at a range of levels. These are long-running, engineering-led programmes, hardware, test, manufacture and through-life support, where the schedule runs to thousands of activities, the customer is government, and the numbers get properly scrutinised.

Before you go further, due to security clearance requirements, you must be a British citizen, or a dual UK national with British citizenship.

• Validating project schedules so they’re accurate, logic-linked and stand up to challenge, critical path, float and all
• Building and owning the integrated baseline schedule, then protecting it through baseline management and change control
• Running schedule risk analysis (SRA) and what-if analysis, and turning the results into decisions
• Challenging costs to go and EAC forecasts, and catching the outliers before they become cost control problems
• Using earned value (EVM), schedule and resource data to judge project health and flag risk early
• Supporting bid teams, so new work starts life with a plan that’s actually deliverable

• Project controls, project planning or planning engineer experience on complex engineering programmes, ideally defence, aerospace, nuclear, oil and gas, energy or another regulated, hardware‑led environment
• Hands‑on scheduling in Primavera P6 or a comparable enterprise tool, from detailed plans to summary milestone plans
• A solid grasp of critical path analysis, total and free float (slack), and resource‑loaded schedules
• Working knowledge of earned value management (EVM) and schedule risk analysis (SRA)
• Experience creating and maintaining WBS, CBS and OBS structures
• Baseline management and change control experience
• The confidence to own the quality of project control data and reporting, and to challenge project managers when the numbers don’t add up
• British citizen, or dual UK national with British citizenship

• SAP, ARM or Oracle Unifier experience
• Involvement in EAC or forecast cost at completion reviews
• Risk and opportunity management

To be upfront, this suits people who’ve controlled programmes with physical deliverables and long life cycles. If your planning background is mainly software releases, IT infrastructure or telecoms rollouts, this probably isn’t the one for you.

£40,000 to £48,000 depending on experience, plus:

• Company bonus up to £2,500
• Pension up to 14% total contribution
• Paid overtime
• Up to 15 extra days of flexi leave
• Hybrid working, 2 to 3 days a week on site in Stevenage

And room to grow, in a project control team that’s expanding, not standing still