Senior Planner

Kier Group; Witham; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Kier Group in Essex is seeking a Senior Planner to lead programmes from tender to handover on a circa £120m defence project in Suffolk. The role involves coordinating pre-contract and delivery activities and ensuring timely, cost-effective project outcomes.

You’ll work within the Construction Team on major regional projects across education, health and defence, with opportunities to mentor junior planners and influence project sequencing and resource planning.

Qualifications

• Advanced planning software skills with extensive pre‑contract and delivery experience.
• Ability to coordinate inputs from planners and project managers on large-scale projects.
• Strong planning, buildability and logistics interface capabilities.
• Experience across multiple sectors and contract types.

Responsibilities

• Plan all stages of the project lifecycle, incorporating contract conditions and requirements.
• Lead and coordinate pre-construction activities, including design programmes and tender event schedules.
• Prepare site logistics, phasing plans, and temporary works schedules.
• Produce internal and client progress reports, interpreting updates and providing mitigation strategies.
• Mentor and develop junior members of the planning team.

Skills

Advanced planning software

Pre-contract experience

Delivery experience

Stakeholder management

Presentation skills

Job description

We're looking for a Senior Planner to join our Construction team based in Essex with project location to be near Ipswich, Suffolk.

Location:

Essex with project location to be near Ipswich, Suffolk

Hours:

Full time - some flexibility on hours available if desired, just let us know when you speak to us.

We are unable to offer certificates of sponsorship to any candidates in this role.

We're seeking an experienced Senior Planner to lead and manage programmes of work across both pre-contract and delivery stages on a circa £120m defence project in Suffolk. You'll play a vital role in supporting profitable tenders, determining resource requirements, and managing the sequencing and timing of activities to exceed customer expectations. This is a fantastic opportunity to work on major regional projects in the education, health, defence, and other strategic sectors, while contributing to our sustainability and innovation goals.

What will you be responsible for?

As a Senior Planner, You'll Be Working Within The Construction Team, Supporting Them In Delivering Successful Projects From Tender To Handover. Your Day To Day Will Include

• Planning all stages of the project lifecycle, incorporating contract conditions and requirements
• Leading and coordinating all pre-construction activities, including design programmes and tender event schedules
• Preparing site logistics, phasing plans, and temporary works schedules
• Producing internal and client progress reports, interpreting updates and providing solution-focused mitigation strategies
• Mentoring and developing junior members of the planning team

What are we looking for?

This role of Senior Planner is great for you if:

• You have advanced planning software skills and considerable pre-contract and delivery experience
• You can confidently manage inputs from planners and project managers, prioritising work within complex, large-scale projects
• You possess advanced skills in planning, buildability, and logistics interface
• You have broad experience across multiple business sectors, project types, and contract types
• You can design and deliver confident presentations to both internal teams and external clients

Rewards And Benefits

We're proud to be able to offer our brilliant people a wide variety of benefits that you can tailor to your needs. You can see more information of benefits here.

Diversity and inclusion

Making Kier a diverse and inclusive place to work is a huge priority for us. We're proud of the steps we've taken so far, but we know we must always do more. Our employees are key in shaping Kier's diversity and inclusion initiatives and our people have made a huge impact on how we work, by using their experiences to shape our policies. You can see our D&I action plan here.

As a Disability Confident employer, we will ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria for this role will be offered an interview.

Due to the nature of this role, you will also be required to complete an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service Check (applicants with convictions will be treated on a case-by-case basis. We do not discriminate based on an applicant's conviction history or the details of any convictions disclosed to us). Some roles may also be subject to further pre-employment checks.