Senior Planner (SRO)

Yorkshire Water; Leeds; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual incentive up to 15% salary

Pension up to 12% company contribution

Life assurance 4x pensionable salary

25 days leave + 2 wellness days

Health cash plan / healthcare options

Critical illness insurance

Dental insurance

Retail savings scheme

Online GP service

Cycle to work scheme

Gym membership discounts

Job summary

Yorkshire Water is seeking a Senior Planner (SRO) to join the Asset Delivery PMO in Leeds. You will lead complex planning activities for major capital programmes, ensuring schedules align with governance and regulatory expectations.

The role requires extensive Primavera expertise and proven PMO experience. You will collaborate across Cost, Risk, and Commercial teams, drive baseline management, and provide strategic planning leadership to senior stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years’ planning experience on large-scale infrastructure programmes.
• Advanced knowledge of Oracle Primavera and project scheduling.
• Experience in PMO environments and governance.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams and mentor others.

Responsibilities

• Schedule Management: Create and maintain complex programme schedules.
• Compliance & Governance: Align timelines with regulatory gates and standards.
• Baseline & EVM: Establish baselines and monitor earned value.
• Partner Oversight: Review contractor schedules for NEC parameters.
• Performance Tracking: Produce dashboards using SPI/CPI metrics.
• Risk & Scenario Planning: Run what-if analyses and mitigate bottlenecks.
• Cross-Functional Unity: Collaborate with Cost, Risk and Commercial teams.
• Advisory Leadership: Guide senior leaders and project managers.

Skills

Planning

Scheduling

Stakeholder communication

Risk management

Tools

Oracle Primavera

Job description

Hello! Thanks for stopping by. Let us tell you about all the great reasons to join us here at Yorkshire Water:

• Annual incentive related bonus (up to 15% of annual salary)
• Attractive pension scheme (up to 12% company contribution)
• Life assurance cover of 4 times pensionable salary
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays – plus two extra wellness days!
• A great benefits package – choose from health cash plan scheme, critical illness insurance, dental insurance, life assurance flex and partner cover.
• Retail savings scheme
• Online GP service, cycle to work scheme, gym membership discounts and many more!

Location:

Leeds Valley Park (LS10), hybrid working (2 to 3 office days a week as required)

Work type:

Permanent. 37 hours per week, Monday – Friday.

We have an exciting opportunity for a senior professional role within the Asset Delivery PMO Team at Yorkshire Water and be a part of helping Yorkshire Water to provide the best service to our customers. Could this be you?

What we do:

Everyone has an idea of what a water company does. Here in Yorkshire, we make sure that over 5.4 million people living in the region and the millions of people who visit our region each year, can rely on our services, and have clean and safe drinking water on tap and that their wastewater is taken away. But for us, it’s so much more than this.

We look after communities, protect the environment, and plan to look after Yorkshire’s water, today, tomorrow 24/7, 365 days a year. We provide essential water and wastewater services to every corner of the Yorkshire region, and play a key role in the region’s health, wellbeing, and prosperity.

New environmental legislation, unprecedented levels of investment and changing expectations from customers means that this is an exciting time to discover opportunities within the water industry. The Asset Delivery team deliver Yorkshire Water’s major asset investment projects and programmes and are a key part of how we plan to meet the changing expectations of customers and regulators.

Under our Strategic Resource Options (SRO) programme we will support a programme of major project capital investment across Yorkshire and the wider UK. The Senior Planner (SRO) will be an integral member of the PMO leadership team and will play a critical role in the set-up of the SRO PMO and the longer-term success of the programme through establishing a holistic and scalable approach to Project, Programme and Business Risk Management.

The SRO PMO will be closely aligned to the core Asset Delivery PMO which sits within the Asset Delivery Directorate at Yorkshire Water. It will also work to fulfil and adhere to the needs of RAPID (the Water Industry joint regulatory body governing the SRO programme).

Where you fit in:

As our Senior Planner (SRO), you will:

Core Responsibilities

• Schedule Management: Create and maintain complex, integrated programme schedules and work breakdown structures.
• Compliance & Governance: Align timelines with Ofwat’s gated process and internal corporate standards and requirements.
• Baseline & EVM: Build resource-loaded baselines suitable for Earned Value Management (EVM).
• Partner Oversight: Validate third-party contractor schedules against NEC contractual parameters.
• Performance Tracking: Monitor progress using SPI/CPI metrics and produce executive dashboards.
• Risk & Scenario Planning: Run "what-if" scenarios, resolve schedule slippage, and proactively mitigate bottlenecks.
• Cross-Functional Unity: Collaborate with Cost, Risk, and Commercial teams to manage change controls.
• Advisory Leadership: Provide expert planning guidance to senior leaders and project managers.

What skills & qualifications you will need:

Minimum of 10 years’ experience in Planning, ideally working on large scale infrastructure projects/programmes. Significant experience in all aspects of planning and scheduling and fluent in the use of Oracle Primavera working within a project portfolio including:

• Work Breakdown and Control Account creation
• Preparation and update of logic linked programme
• Baseline management
• Critical path analysis
• Preparation of periodic reports
• Expert knowledge of resource and cost loaded schedules to create programmes, progress measurement, earned value analysis, completion forecasting and status reporting

We also require you to have:

• Ability to challenge undesired behaviours appropriately
• Experience of working within Programme Management Office (PMO) environments
• Good IT skills and the ability to operate professional planning tools, specifically P6
• Ability to collaborate and build relationships across the wider teams.

You will also benefit from having:

• Experience of driving sustainable performance against challenging business targets.
• Previous experience in a commercially orientated and/or regulatory environment.
• Understanding of Ofwat Major Water Infrastructure Programme Gated Process.
• Knowledge of Project Controls tools and principals.
• APM/PMP certification

Although we operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it’s important to us that we support flexible working patterns and job share options (when we can), to help you make the best of both your work and home life. We know that juggling childcare responsibilities or getting that ideal work/life balance isn’t always easy!

Accessibility

We are committed to removing barriers and ensuring our recruitment process is accessible to everyone. We offer a range of adjustments to make your application experience as comfortable and straightforward as possible.

If you have an accessibility need, disability, or condition that requires changes to the recruitment process, please include this information in your application. We will then discuss any reasonable adjustments required.

All our roles are subject to a medical questionnaire, and further medicals when required.