Turnaround Planning & Scheduling Lead

Astron Energy South Africa (Pty) Ltd; Milnerton; On-site; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Astron Energy South Africa (Pty) Ltd is seeking a Turnaround Planning and Scheduling Lead to develop, coordinate and manage turnaround plans to meet time, cost, quality and safety targets. You will own the overall strategy, timelines and governance for planning and scheduling across shutdowns and statutory inspections.

The role requires extensive Primavera P6 experience, leadership of cross-functional teams, and collaboration with Operations, Maintenance and Engineering to ensure readiness and

Qualifications

• Professional Qualification and Certifications: Engineering Degree, BTech or equivalent; Planning & Scheduling certification; Project Management certification desirable.
• Work Experience: 10+ years relevant industry experience; 10+ years Primavera P6 scheduling; 6+ years turnaround/shutdown experience; Maintenance and project planning experience desirable.
• Skills and Knowledge: Planning & Scheduling; Primavera P6; STO Planner; Project Management; Budgeting; Contractor Management; Communication; Power BI, MS Office; Risk Management.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain integrated turnaround schedules using Primavera P6 from scope development to execution, handover, start-up and close-out.
• Coordinate readiness reviews, gate reviews, and event planning milestones; monitor readiness and mitigate risks.
• Lead the turnaround schedule change management process during planning and execution phases.
• Provide schedule analysis, scenario modelling, and risk assessment to refine duration, resources and sequencing.
• Own and maintain schedule KPI’s for each event and report to leadership.

Skills

Planning & Scheduling

Project Management

Budgeting

Contractor Management

Communication

Power BI

MS Office

Risk Management

Education

Engineering Degree / BTech or equivalent

Planning & Scheduling certification

Project Management certification

Tools

Primavera P6

Power BI

MS Office

Job description

The Turnaround Planning and Scheduling Lead is responsible for developing, coordinating, and managing all turnaround planning and scheduling activities to ensure scope is planned and executed within approved timeline, cost, quality and safety requirements. Responsible for developing and maintaining turnaround schedules, coordinating planning inputs from internal and external stakeholders and ensuring contractor readiness, providing input to long-range turnaround plans, resource optimisation and schedule assurance.

Operational Effectiveness Capture and maintain schedule of long-range turnaround plan ensuring that events are appropriately aligned with the refinery operating plan, maintenance strategy and business requirements.

Own and facilitate the overall turnaround planning and scheduling strategy, establishing the planning approach, standards, timelines and governance requirements.

Lead and coordinate the planning and scheduling activities for all turnaround, shutdown, regeneration and statutory inspection events.

Develop and maintain integrated turnaround schedules using Primavera P6 or equivalent scheduling software, incorporating the full lifecycle of the event from scope development and planning through execution, handover, start-up and close-out.

Participate in scope identification, challenge, prioritisation, and freeze processes. Challenge turnaround scope where appropriate and identify opportunities to improve execution efficiency. Ensure all work scopes are fully planned, resourced, estimated, and scheduled prior to execution. Work with Operations to compile a resource loaded schedule SCS schedule. Incorporate handover and start-up schedules, ensuring that the transition from maintenance activities back to Operations is properly planned and sequenced.

Responsible for obtaining input and compiling the Plan-to-Plan (P2P) Schedule, the master planning schedule used to define, monitor, and control all the planning activities required to prepare the turnaround itself.

Coordinate readiness reviews, gate reviews, and event planning milestones. Monitor turnaround readiness against agreed milestones and identify and mitigate risks. Advise on event critical and near critical paths. Lead the turnaround schedule change management process during both the planning and execution phases, ensuring that changes to scope, priorities, resources, sequencing or execution strategy are formally assessed for their impact on the schedule.

Support the Turnaround Lead and refinery leadership with schedule analysis, scenario modelling, risk assessment and recommendations relating to turnaround duration, resource requirements, sequencing and execution strategy. Drive continuous improvement and incorporation of applicable lessons learned following each turnaround event. Develop and maintain Refinery Turnaround planning and scheduling standard. Provide schedule assurance, adherence and quality reviews, as well as schedule risk analysis. Own and maintain schedule KPI’s for each event.

Financial Management: Support cost development and provide input to turnaround budgets. Monitor turnaround planning and execution schedule man-hours against approved budgets. Participate in scope challenge sessions to optimize expenditure and eliminate non-essential work. Provide man-hour input for cost estimating and forecasting and schedule-driven resource forecasting. Identify opportunities for cost reduction while maintaining safety and quality standards.

People Management: Lead and develop planning and scheduling personnel assigned to turnaround events. Drive a culture of high performance and accountability and encourage team members to live the Company values. Provide coaching, mentoring, and technical guidance to planners and schedulers in Turnaround Team, as well as to members of the Centralised Planning & Scheduling Team. Ensure competency development within the planning and scheduling team. Manage contractor planning resources and external service providers. Establish and monitor planning team performance indicators and objectives.

Safety, Health, Environment and Quality: Ensure compliance with all Safety, Health, Environmental (SHE) and all other applicable regulatory statutes, and all other safety and quality processes for the area of responsibility/work. Steward the Operations Management System (OMS) within Astron Energy to ensure continuous improvement. Promote a strong visible safety culture within planning team during all turnaround phases. Participate in safety audits, risk assessments, and incident investigations. Ensure all planned turnaround activities conform to refinery permit-to-work and isolation requirements. Support process safety and operational integrity objectives.

Stakeholder Relationship Management: Facilitate effective coordination between Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, Inspection, Projects, Procurement, HSE/SHEQ, contractors and other stakeholders to ensure that schedule interfaces and dependencies are effectively managed. Own and manage the planning and scheduling interface with external contractors and service providers. Lead turnaround planning and progress meetings across all relevant stakeholders, including senior leaders. Own and provide consolidated reporting on turnaround schedule performance, risks, constraints, and resource requirements to leadership teams.

Qualifications and Experience Required

Professional Qualification and Certifications: Engineering Degree, BTech or equivalent relevant qualification Planning & Scheduling certification Project Management qualification or certification desirable.

Work Experience: 10+ years relevant industry experience 10+ years Primavera P6 scheduling 6+ years turnaround/shutdown experience Maintenance and project planning experience desirable.

Skills and Knowledge: Planning & Scheduling Primavera P6 STO Planner Project Management Budgeting Contractor Management Communication Power BI, MS Office Risk Management.

Application deadline: 23 October 2026

Astron Energy is a leading supplier of petroleum products in South Africa, with a vast network of Caltex-branded service stations that make us one of the country’s top two petroleum brands. We are strongly committed to being a responsible corporate citizen, promoting education, health and economic development in an effort to build stronger communities and drive sustainable economic growth. We own and operate the country’s third-largest crude oil refinery in Cape Town, which has a capacity of 100,000 barrels a day, and a lubricants manufacturing plant in Durban.