Planning Consultant

Reporting to the Manager, Business Operations, the ITS Planning Consultant provides subject matter expertise to translate goals between ITS and corporate financial planning. They partner with ITS departments to support the preparation and development of robust business cases, annual ITS budgeting, and enable an ITS-wide business plan to secure resources and funding aligned with MBLL’s business and strategic goals.

Additionally, the IT Planning Consultant monitors the use of approved resources within ITS, providing oversight and reporting to ensure spending aligns with the plan and contributes to organizational and ITS objectives.

• In collaboration with the CIO and leadership team, develop comprehensive budgets for all ITS programs, including capital and operational expenses, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and enterprise strategies.
• Collaborate with departmental leaders to identify funding needs, clarify objectives for proposed initiatives, assess feasibility and risks associated with proposed initiatives, identify potential barriers and recommending solutions. (e.g.: resource constraints, common dependencies/milestones).
• Collaborate with corporate finance to recommend and develop financial models that evaluate options analysis and assess potential implications.
• Develop and recommend detailed business cases based on Corporate Finance requirements. This position will be the central point of contact for Finance for ITS business cases.
• Facilitate leadership discussions and collaborate with finance and strategy teams to align the ITS-wide business plan and proposed initiatives with organizational strategic plan.
• Analyze current and future ITS business needs by evaluating expenditures, comparing budgeted outcomes to actual results, identifying areas for next fiscal year improvement, and optimizing spending based on data and trends.
• Work with technical leads to understand the business and technical requirements to complete detailed costing, resourcing needs and implications.
• Working in partnership with Finance to conduct financial analysis to complete and validate cost estimates, ROI projections, and funding allocations (e.g., capital vs. operational expenditures).
• Provide guidance to ITS Staff on the business case and plan templates, process, and instructions received from corporate finance.
• Prepare detailed resource and financial forecasts for multi-year activities to support strategic planning and resource allocation.
• Prepare, obtain approval for and present recommendations to the Executive Management Committee (EMC) to support informed decision‑making and adjust budgets and forecasts based on their feedback.
• Monitor and evaluate departmental spending regularly to ensure resources are utilized efficiently and effectively and within approved business plan and budgets.
• Monitor and measure key performance indicators (KPIs), benefits realization and milestones for funded initiatives to measure progress against objectives.
• Investigate, analyze and negotiate solutions to address variances or deviations and support internal audit as needed.
• Analyze and develop action plans to address gaps or recommend fund alternatives.
• Conduct periodic reviews and validation of expenditures, to identify root cause of and provide variance explanations to corporate finance.
• In collaboration with corporate finance, provide regular reporting to senior leadership on overall ITS expenditures, resource utilization, highlighting trends, risks, and opportunities for optimization or reallocation
• Advise departments on reallocation or rebalancing of funds if changes in scope or unforeseen challenges arise including facilitating budget transfers to meet demand.
• Collaborate with finance teams to reconcile…