Manpower Demand Planner

ELECTRA; Dubai Emirate; On-site; AED 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

ELECTRA in the United Arab Emirates seeks a Manpower Demand Planner to forecast, plan and coordinate manpower across projects and departments. You will align demand with workforce availability, ensuring resources are available when needed and costs are controlled.

Responsibilities include rolling manpower forecasts, capacity analysis, stakeholder coordination, and continuous improvement of planning processes using analytics and Power BI.

Qualifications

• At least 4 years in manpower/workforce or resource planning.
• Experience in analytics and forecasting for project-based environments.

Responsibilities

• Develop short-, medium-, and long-term manpower forecasts based on project pipeline and priorities.
• Coordinate with Operations, Projects, HR, Recruitment and Finance to validate requirements.
• Maintain manpower trackers, dashboards and planning versions.

Skills

Manpower planning

Demand forecasting

Capacity planning

Workforce analytics

Data analysis

Tools

Power BI

ERP/HRMS

Job description

Job Overview

To forecast, plan and coordinate manpower demand across projects and departments, ensuring the right resources are available at the right time. The role aligns manpower requirements with workforce availability and provides accurate plans to support recruitment, mobilization, deployment, utilization and cost control

Main Accountabilities

The Manpower Demand Planner will be responsible for the following, but not limited to;

• Demand Planning: Develop short-, medium- and long-term manpower forecasts based on project pipeline, workload, schedules and business priorities.
• Capacity Planning: Compare forecast demand with available headcount and skill mix to identify shortages, surpluses and timing constraints.
• Stakeholder Coordination: Work with Operations, Projects, HR, Recruitment and Finance to validate manpower requirements, priorities and deployment dates.
• Resource Optimization: Recommend transfers, recruitment, temporary manpower or other actions to balance demand and capacity while minimizing idle time and cost.
• Data Governance: Maintain accurate manpower planning data, assumptions and approved planning versions, ensuring changes are traceable and communicated.
• Reporting: Provide regular forecasts and dashboards covering manpower demand, capacity gaps, utilization, mobilization status and planning performance.

Specific Tasks

• The Manpower Demand Planner will perform the following specific tasks:
• Data collection and consolidation: Collect manpower requirements by project, role, skill, location and required date and consolidate them into one demand plan.
• Demand validation: Review requests against project schedules, approved scope, productivity assumptions, historical trends and budgets.
• Rolling manpower forecast: Maintain the forward manpower plan, including mobilizations, demobilizations, leave and expected attrition.
• Demand versus capacity analysis: Reconcile forecast requirements with workforce availability and planned releases to identify resource gaps or excess capacity.
• Recruitment and mobilization priorities: Convert confirmed gaps into clear hiring, onboarding and mobilization requirements with target dates.
• Resource deployment planning: Support timely transfers and redeployment between projects based on competency, availability and operational priority.
• Scenario planning: Prepare manpower scenarios for new awards, delays, scope changes, peak periods and other material changes.
• Planning meetings: Support weekly and monthly manpower reviews, documenting decisions, actions, owners and due dates.
• Systems and master data: Keep manpower trackers, ERP/HRMS records and dashboards aligned with approved requirements and deployment data.
• Forecast variance analysis: Compare actual manpower usage with forecast, investigate major variances and improve future planning assumptions.
• Continuous improvement: Improve planning processes, workforce utilization, reporting automation and data quality using analytics, Power BI and AI where applicable.

Deliverables and KPI's

• The Manpower Demand Planner will deliver the following, but not limited to;
• Rolling Manpower Demand Plan: Current manpower requirements by project, department, role, skill and period in the approved planning format/system.
• Demand and Capacity Gap Analysis: Visibility of shortages, surpluses, timing conflicts and recommended actions to close resource gaps.
• Manpower Planning Dashboard: Regular reporting of demand, capacity, open requirements, mobilization status, utilization and key exceptions.
• Forecast Accuracy: Track forecast versus actual manpower usage and improve accuracy through variance analysis and corrective actions.
• Recruitment and Mobilization Inputs: Timely, prioritized manpower requirements provided to HR/Recruitment and Operations for hiring and deployment.
• Workforce Utilization and Cost Control: Support effective utilization and reduced idle manpower, overtime and avoidable workforce cost.

General Obligations towards Health and Safety Environment

• You will correctly use machinery, appliances, tools, transport and all equipment issued by the company.
• You will correctly use personal protective equipment supplied by the company.
• You will not remove any safety devices for any machinery or installations.
• You will perform all tasks set forth by safety regulations and cooperate with Electra to ensure a working environment and conditions that do not pose any risks in terms of health and safety.
• Reduce and monitor resource consumption as contribution to reduce environmental aspects and impacts.

Knowledge & Experience

• Experience: At least 4 years in manpower, workforce or resource planning, preferably in a project-based environment.
• Expertise: Demand forecasting, capacity planning, utilization, mobilization/demobilization and manpower analytics.
• Analytical skills: Ability to validate, analyze and interpret workforce data and planning assumptions.
• Workforce planning, data analytics, project planning