Lead Planner (Project Controls) - Energy & Natural Resources

We are seeking an experienced and highly motivated Lead Planner (Project Controls) to lead planning and scheduling activities across major programmes and projects. This role is critical in driving planning excellence, establishing robust scheduling practices, and ensuring successful project delivery outcomes for clients. As a Lead Planner, you will provide planning leadership across complex projects, working closely with project teams, clients, and stakeholders to develop, implement and maintain integrated schedules that support informed decision-making and successful delivery. You will play a key role in mentoring planning professionals, driving best practice and ensuring project controls processes are embedded throughout the project lifecycle. Day-to-Day Duties • Lead the planning and scheduling function across a portfolio of major programmes and projects, ensuring alignment with client objectives, project requirements and organisational goals. • Manage, mentor and support Planning professionals, providing technical guidance, coaching and development to foster a high-performing and collaborative team environment. • Develop, review and maintain integrated project schedules, ensuring robust planning methodologies, schedule quality, critical path analysis and effective programme controls throughout the project lifecycle. • Act as the lead planning resource for client engagements, providing expert advice and recommendations on planning strategy, schedule performance, forecasting and project delivery. • Establish and implement planning standards, processes and best practices, ensuring consistency, accuracy and compliance with programme governance requirements. • Lead schedule management activities including baseline development, progress measurement, change control, schedule updates and performance reporting. • Proactively identify, analyse and mitigate schedule risks, opportunities and constraints, developing recovery plans and corrective actions where necessary. • Coordinate planning activities across multidisciplinary teams including Project Management, Cost Management, Commercial Management, Risk Management and Engineering functions to ensure integrated project delivery. • Support resource planning and forecasting activities, working with project teams and stakeholders to optimise resource utilisation and delivery performance. • Produce and present high-quality planning reports, dashboards and performance metrics for clients and senior stakeholders, providing clear insight into project status, schedule health and key risks. • Facilitate planning workshops, schedule reviews and stakeholder engagement sessions to ensure alignment on programme objectives, milestones and delivery strategies. • Support wider Project Controls activities by integrating planning outputs with cost, risk and performance management processes to provide a comprehensive view of project performance. • Build and maintain strong relationships with clients, project teams and key stakeholders, acting as a trusted point of contact for planning and scheduling matters. • Champion continuous improvement initiatives, driving innovation in planning practices, tools and reporting capabilities to enhance project outcomes. • Support business development activities, bid submissions and client opportunities by contributing planning expertise and demonstrating the capability of the Planning and Project Controls team. You will have professional Project Controls experience specialising in Planning and Scheduling across one or more sectors throughout the full project lifecycle. While Nuclear experience is desirable, it is not essential. You will possess strong knowledge of project planning principles and scheduling methodologies, with advanced proficiency in Prim