Lead Planner

John Sisk & Son have been building excellence as a family-owned international construction company by offering trust, certainty and value to our clients whilst being at the heart of change.

We are seeking an experienced Lead Planner to take ownership of planning and programme management across a busy and growing construction framework operating within a live, highly regulated and challenging environment.

The role will be responsible for managing and coordinating multiple concurrent project programmes across the framework, from pre-construction through design, procurement, construction, commissioning and handover.

The successful candidate must have previous framework experience and be comfortable working across a portfolio of projects with different priorities, delivery stages, constraints and stakeholders.

As the framework and workload continue to grow, the Lead Planner will also be responsible for managing and developing a growing team of planners, establishing consistent planning standards, allocating workload and ensuring the planning function has the capability and capacity to support the wider business.

This is not simply a programme-update role. The Lead Planner will be expected to provide active planning leadership, challenge project teams and subcontractors, identify emerging programme risks, test programme logic and drive appropriate mitigation and recovery strategies.

Responsibilities

• Lead the planning and programme management function across a portfolio of concurrent construction projects.
• Manage and coordinate multiple programmes operating simultaneously within a framework environment.
• Lead, manage and develop a growing team of planners as the framework and business expand.
• Allocate planning resources across projects in accordance with workload, project priorities and delivery requirements.
• Support the recruitment, onboarding and development of additional planning resources as required.
• Provide technical guidance, mentoring and support to planners within the team.
• Establish and maintain consistent planning standards, processes, templates and reporting requirements across the framework.
• Review and assure the quality, logic and consistency of programmes produced by the planning team.
• Develop and maintain detailed programmes from pre-construction, design and procurement through construction, commissioning and handover.
• Establish appropriate programme structures, WBS, activities, logic, dependencies and milestones.
• Develop and maintain an integrated framework-level view of all projects, identifying resource, sequencing and programme interfaces.
• Work closely with Project Managers, Construction Managers and Design Managers to ensure design deliverables, surveys, approvals and information requirements are properly integrated into project programmes.
• Integrate procurement schedules, subcontractor lead times, manufacturing periods and long-lead items into the overall programme.
• Review subcontractor programmes and challenge durations, sequencing, assumptions, logic and resource requirements.
• Identify critical and near-critical activities and clearly communicate programme risks to the wider project team.
• Undertake critical path analysis and assess the impact of delays, changes and emerging constraints.
• Develop programme mitigation and recovery plans in conjunction with delivery teams.
• Monitor actual progress against baseline and current programmes and provide accurate forecasts.
• Highlight programme slippage at an early stage and ensure corrective actions are agreed, allocated and tracked.
• Support Project Managers in assessing the programme impact of client changes, design changes and Early Warning items.
• Maintain appropriate programme records to support commercial and contractual discussions.
• Work closely with the commercial team where programme events may have time or cost implications.
• Support extension-of-time and delay assessments where required.
• Facilitate regular programme reviews with project teams, subcontractors and the client.
• Produce clear weekly and monthly programme reporting covering progress, milestones, critical path, look-ahead activities, variance, constraints, design, procurement, risks and mitigation.
• Prepare short-term look-ahead programmes to support site delivery.
• Ensure shutdowns, isolations, permits, access restrictions and operational constraints are correctly incorporated within project programmes.
• Support development and continuous improvement of standard planning processes and programme templates across the framework.
• Provide planning support during tendering and pre-construction, including programme development, sequencing and buildability assessments.
• Participate in project risk reviews, progress meetings and client programme meetings.
• Ensure programmes remain realistic, forward-looking management tools rather than retrospective reporting documents.
• Work with senior management to forecast future planning-resource requirements in line with expected business growth and workload.
• Ensure programme management and reporting are aligned with the relevant NEC contractual requirements, including accepted programmes, Early Warnings, Compensation Events and programme revisions where applicable.