Sr. Planner and Scheduler

Mariana Minerals; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Mariana Minerals seeks a Planner/Scheduler to own and optimize the project schedule for a major capital initiative in Texas. You will build Level 1–4 critical path schedules in Primavera P6, defend the baseline, and drive continuous improvement through look-ahead planning and risk analysis.

Ideal candidates bring extensive experience with EPC scheduling, DCMA-style health checks, and data tools (SQL, Power BI, Python).

Qualifications

• Experience planning and scheduling capital projects in mining, minerals, refining, chemicals, power, or heavy industrial environments.
• Hands-on work on an integrated EPC schedule through construction and commissioning.

Responsibilities

• Own the integrated schedule with Level 1–4 critical path schedules in Primavera P6 across engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction, commissioning, and start-up.
• Define work breakdown structure, activity codes, calendars, and resource loading aligned to cost loading for reconciliation.
• Run critical path, float, and near-critical analyses each cycle and identify driving activities.
• Establish and maintain baseline; manage change through a formal process and preserve variance history.
• Review schedules for logic quality and constraints; perform DCMA-style health checks and close findings.
• Define rules of credit, collect progress data, and produce S-curves and earned-value inputs.
• Run look-ahead schedules (90 days, six weeks, weekly) and tie to master schedule.
• Build schedule risk models and translate P50/P80 results into contingency decisions.
• Write monthly schedule narratives and present to project teams and executives.
• Automate statusing, health checks, and reporting pipelines to shorten the monthly cycle.

Skills

Clear communicator

Independent judgment

Collaborative

Growth-minded

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering or construction management

Tools

Primavera P6

XER/XML

SQL

Power BI

Python

Acumen Fuse

Safran Risk

Primavera Risk Analysis

@Risk

Job description

About Mariana Minerals

Mariana Minerals is a software-first, vertically integrated minerals company on a mission to supply the critical minerals powering modern energy, AI, and defense technologies. We’re reimagining the minerals supply chain by combining deep industry expertise with advanced software, automation, and data-driven decision-making.

The Role

We are hiring a Planner/Scheduler to own schedule management for one of Mariana's capital projects, from the Level 1 summary leadership uses to the Level 4 detail the field works from.

You will work with internal teams to build schedules that reflect how they actually plan to execute the work, build and defend the critical path, hold EPC contractors to a clear scheduling standard, and turn progress data into forecasts people can act on. You will also help build the tools behind that work, so leadership and project teams can run what-if scenarios, see where the schedule risk sits, and make decisions with real data in front of them. The goal is a schedule nobody has to second-guess.

What you'll do

• Own the integrated schedule. Build and maintain Level 1 through Level 4 critical path schedules in Primavera P6 covering engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction, commissioning, and start-up, and keep them integrated across owner and contractor scopes
• Set the structure. Define the work breakdown structure, activity codes, calendars, and resource and cost loading, aligned to the cost breakdown structure so cost and schedule reconcile
• Own the critical path. Run critical path, float, and near-critical analysis every cycle, state plainly which activities are driving the date, and recommend recovery options when they slip
• Control the baseline. Establish and maintain the baseline, run schedule changes through a documented change process, and keep the variance history intact
• Hold contractors to a standard. Review submitted schedules for logic quality, constraints, open ends, and float manipulation using a DCMA-style health check, and work findings to closure
• Measure progress. Define rules of credit with cost control, collect and validate progress, and produce S-curves, earned-value inputs, and workhour histograms that match what is happening in the field
• Drive the look-ahead process. Run ninety-day, six-week, and weekly look-aheads with construction and commissioning leads, and tie them back to the master schedule
• Support risk analysis. Build the schedule model for quantitative schedule risk analysis and translate P50 and P80 results into decisions on contingency and milestones
• Report with judgment. Write the monthly schedule narrative, milestone status, and the analysis behind any date change, and present it to project teams. Comfortable presenting to executive leadership
• Automate the cycle. Statusing, health checks, and report production are rules-based work. Build, or partner with software engineers to build, the checks and pipelines that turn a weeks-long monthly cycle into hours

Desired qualifications

• Experience. 5–12 years planning and scheduling capital projects in mining, mineral processing, refining, chemicals, power, or heavy industrial, with hands‑on work on an integrated EPC schedule through construction and commissioning
• Primavera P6. Expert and current: building, analyzing, and defending schedules, not only statusing them
• Critical path fundamentals. Logic, constraints, calendars, total and free float, and the ability to defend a critical path when it is challenged
• Data fluency. Comfortable with P6 data outside the P6 interface: XER and XML exports, SQL, Power BI, or Python, and interested in automating repeatable work
• Progress measurement. Experience setting rules of credit and reconciling reported progress against physical work in place
• Schedule quality. Working knowledge of the DCMA 14-point assessment or a comparable schedule health standard
• Field credibility. You have spent real time on a construction site and can hold a conversation with a superintendent
• Education. BS in engineering, construction management, or a related field. Equivalent field planning experience is considered
• Certification. PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP) or AACE Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP) is a plus
• Schedule risk tools. Acumen Fuse, Safran Risk, Primavera Risk Analysis, or @Risk
• Commissioning and start-up. Planning for commissioning, start-up, and system-based turnover
• Delay analysis. Forensic delay analysis, time impact analysis, and extension of time assessment
• Schedule ownership. Has owned an integrated EPC schedule end to end, rather than a portion of one
• Owner‑side experience. Time on the owner's side of the table managing multiple EPC or EPCM contractors
• Tool building. A track record of building scripts, apps, or dashboards that automate schedule creation, updating, reporting, or visualization

How you work

• Clear communicator. You can explain a critical path to a CFO and a three‑week look‑ahead to a foreman, in writing and in the room
• Independent judgment. You make the call on schedule logic and stand behind it, and you change your mind when the data says so
• Constructive challenger. You push back on optimistic dates and weak contractor schedules without damaging the working relationship
• Collaborative. You work closely with engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, and cost control, and treat their input as part of the schedule
• Growth‑minded. You want more scope, ask for it, and raise the standard of the people around you by sharing what you know
• Always removing friction. You notice where a process slows people down, question whether each step needs to exist, then simplify it or automate it

Our culture is built on four principles:

Everyone Gets Home Safe. We never put speed or cost ahead of people.

Extreme Ownership. We take full responsibility for outcomes, relentlessly driving toward solutions.

Engineer Out Requirements, then Automate. We simplify, optimize, and then automate for scale.

Share Your Legos. We collaborate openly, share knowledge, and empower each other to build bigger, better solutions.

Join us as we build the future of responsible mineral sourcing and supply!