Project Planner

UK Atomic Energy Authority; Culham; Hybrid; GBP 48,000 - 57,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading energy organization in the UK is searching for a Project Planner to lead project planning efforts to ensure successful project delivery. The role entails working with stakeholders, developing project schedules, and leading a small team. Candidates must have significant experience in project management and strong interpersonal skills. This position offers a competitive salary and the possibility of flexible working arrangements.

Benefits

Outstanding pension

Flexible working arrangements

Career development opportunities

Qualifications

• Experience leading planning for larger, complex projects.
• In-depth understanding of project planning/control processes.
• Ability to build effective project plans and critical paths.

Responsibilities

• Lead the planning team and develop project plans.
• Identify risks, issues, and opportunities for improvement.
• Coach and mentor junior planning team members.

Skills

Project management processes

Interpersonal skills

Team leadership

Project planning software (Primavera, Microsoft Project)

Education

Degree in physical sciences, economics, business studies, project management or equivalent

Job description

Job Description

The salary for this role is £56,596 (inclusive of Specialist Allowance) + excellent benefits including outstanding pension. Onsite working is expected for 3 days each week, however, we actively support requests for flexible working.

This role can be based at any of the following sites: Culham, Oxfordshire.

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), including the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions and possibly a search of open source data.

The Role

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to make a difference? Join our team and contribute to the future of fusion energy. As Project Planner, you will play a pivotal role to work with stakeholders to ensure all aspects of the project are defined. The planner provides clarity on key milestones to define what, when and how activities will be organised so that the outcomes of a project can be achieved, with the resources available. They lead on all aspects of project planning, which will include the development, updating and monitoring of plans and schedules. They identify tasks, activities, interdependencies and outputs for the project and work with the project team to track and monitor progress against the plan throughout the life of the project. Planners at this level lead medium complexity projects within a programme and manage a small team.

Additional Responsibilities :

• Provide visible and effective leadership, lead the planning team and work with the project manager to deliver the business case benefits and outcomes. Develop clear vision and standards and champion the use of best practice project planning standards, tools and processes. Build strong networks both internally and externally.
• Apply advanced knowledge in the discipline of planning for the analysis and successful resolution of risks and issues and identification of opportunities.
• Identify future capacity and capability needs of the project planning function and put in place strategies to meet them.
• Build and maintain external networks to access technical and professional best practice.
• Analyse performance data, looking at trends to identify areas for improvement and collaboration, and selecting appropriate methods and tools to resolve them.
• Provide specialist advice and support to ensure successful delivery of projects. Provide guidance and advice to the Project Manager during project initiation on selection of planning approach, tools, processes and proportionality.
• Identify and lead the introduction of best practice planning processes, tools and templates, using industry standard best practice as a benchmark. Build planning capability.
• Coach and mentor junior members of the planning team. Recruiting and line managing contractors, framework suppliers and UKAEA internal staff.

Qualifications

Essential Requirements :

• Experience of leading planning for progressively larger and more complex projects.
• An in-depth experience in the implementation and thorough execution of project management processes and project planning in the context of large and complex projects.
• An approachable person with excellent inter-personal skills able to interact with a range of people across the project.
• Ability to lead people at all levels of the project to build effective project plans, WBS structures and critical paths.
• An in-depth understanding of project planning and / or project controls processes.
• Highly experienced in the use of Primavera OR Microsoft Project planning software.
• Degree in physical sciences, economics, business studies, project management or other relevant subject or equivalent qualification / experience.

Desirable :

• Qualification in project management or controls such as APM-PMQ, APMG, PRINCE2 or equivalent experience.

Additional Information

A full list of our benefits can be found here https : / / careers.ukaea.uk / life-at-ukaea / employee-benefits /

UKAEA's mission is clean energy for all, and we welcome talented people from all backgrounds who want to help us achieve our mission. We are under-represented from some groups and so want to encourage applications in particular from women in STEM, people from Black British Caribbean and African backgrounds and from Pakistani and Bangladeshi British backgrounds. Our Executive team, supported by our 'Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' (EDI) and Wellbeing and our EDI Networks actively promote Inclusion and takes steps to increase diversity within our organization. We reinforce best practices in recruitment and selection and evaluate approaches to remove barriers to success.

UK Atomic Energy Authority is committed to being accessible. Please email [e-mail] if you have any questions or require help or adjustments to compete on a fair basis, for example, changes to the way we interview or share information.

Please note that vacancies are generally advertised for 4 weeks but may close earlier if we receive a large number of applications.