Lead Project Planner

Rolls Royce SMR Ltd.; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 57,000 - 76,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading engineering company is seeking a Lead Project Planner to join their team in Manchester. The successful candidate will have a strong background in project planning, especially with large-scale engineering programmes. This role involves leading a high-performing planning team, developing robust project schedules, and ensuring effective communication with stakeholders. The position offers a salary range of £57,500 to £75,600, along with various benefits including a bonus and flexible working options.

Benefits

Annual benefits allowance

Bonus opportunity

Pensionable life assurance

Income protection

Generous holiday policy

Flexible working options

Qualifications

• Strong experience as a planner on large-scale engineering programmes.
• Experience leading planning teams and ensuring quality outputs.
• Knowledge of Earned Value Management and risk management principles.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate a team of project planners.
• Develop and maintain detailed project schedules using Primavera P6.
• Work with stakeholders to ensure alignment of timelines.

Skills

Project planning

Team leadership

Risk management

Primavera P6

Stakeholder management

Education

Primavera P6 Practitioner

APM PMQ

APM PPC (Practitioner)

Tools

Primavera P6

Job description

LI-VS1#LI-HybridYou’ll be joining a forward-thinking organisation that values transparency, fairness, and innovation. We offer a flexible, inclusive, and supportive working environment, opportunities for career growth in a rapidly scaling business, and a culture that values diversity, innovation, and continuous learning.

The impact you’ll have

We need you to lead and inspire a high‑performing project planning team, ensuring our schedules are robust, realistic, and aligned to delivering one of the UK’s most complex and exciting engineering programmes. You’ll bring structure, insight, and coordination across our integrated programme—helping us stay on track, anticipate risks early and make confident, data‑driven decisions. As a Lead Project Planner, you’ll oversee planners and senior planners, guide best practice, mentor developing talent, and shape the standards that underpin success across the organisation. Your contribution will directly influence programme performance, stakeholder confidence, and our ability to deliver a first‑of‑a‑kind SMR solution.

What you’ll be doing

• Lead and coordinate a team of project planners, setting clear expectations and ensuring high‑quality planning outputs.
• Develop, maintain and continuously improve detailed project schedules using Primavera P6, ensuring strong front‑end scheduling, WBS structure management, coding frameworks and defined fields.
• Operate confidently within an Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) environment, ensuring horizontal and vertical logic is correct and meaningful.
• Work closely with key stakeholders across engineering, programme management, supply chain, procurement, operations and manufacturing to ensure alignment and shared understanding of timelines and dependencies.
• Lead planning meetings, workshops and schedule reviews to drive accuracy, challenge assumptions and support decision‑making.
• Monitor progress, identify slippage or risk, propose mitigations early and support effective baseline control.
• Provide consistent reporting and schedule insight, including dashboards and commentary for senior leadership.
• Coach and mentor junior planners and apprentices, helping grow capability across the team.
• Promote planning standards, best practice and continuous improvement across the PMO.

What you’ll bring

Essential experience

• Strong experience working as a planner or senior planner on complex, large‑scale engineering or infrastructure programmes. Nuclear experience is an advantage, but not essential—complex programmes from other sectors translate well.
• Experience leading or coordinating teams of planners.
• Deep practical knowledge of Primavera P6 (front‑end scheduling + architecture including WBS, coding, resource dictionaries, user‑defined fields).
• Experience working within an IMS / Master Integrated Plan environment with clear understanding of structured reporting.
• Knowledge of Earned Value Management (EVM) principles and the ability to apply them. The specific EVM toolset is less important than strong theory and process knowledge.
• Experience of change management and baseline change control.
• Ability to identify, integrate and manage schedule‑related risks.

Nice to have

• Awareness of NEC contracts and how schedules support customer deliverables. Valuable but not mandatory.
• Experience delivering schedules within a contractual / bid environment.

Minimum training & qualifications (Equivalent experience considered)

• Primavera P6 Practitioner –
• APM PMQ
• APM PPC (Practitioner)

Why join us

You’ll join an inclusive, supportive and ambitious organisation shaping the future of clean energy. We value diversity, respect individuality, and create an environment where everyone can contribute meaningfully. We’re committed to providing reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process and throughout employment. You’ll work with talented engineers and programme experts, have real influence across complex programmes, and play a central role in building a new generation of planners.

What we can offer you

• £57,500 – £75,600 base salary
• £2,200 annual benefits allowance
• 12.5% bonus opportunity
• 6× pensionable life assurance
• 50% income protection
• 28 days holiday + bank holidays
• £250 new joiner payment
• Flexible & part‑time working options available

Working location

This is a hybrid role which will require some days in our offices in either Warrington, Derby or Manchester.

If you’re excited by complex schedules, integrated delivery, and shaping the future of clean energy—and you enjoy leading people, developing capability and driving best practice—we’d love to hear from you.

Location

Rolls‑Royce SMR is a radically different approach to proven nuclear technology. Each Rolls‑Royce SMR power station will generate 470MW of low‑carbon energy – equivalent to more than 150 onshore wind turbines and enough to power a million homes for over 60 years. With its SMRs, Rolls‑Royce will play a vital role in supporting renewable energy by helping to overcome intermittency and ensure a stable, sustainable energy future.