As Planning Manager within our Digital Construction Consultancy, you will play a pivotal role in supporting the Programme Manager in delivering world?class planning, assurance, and digital project controls across major hyperscale data centre programmes across Europe.
You will lead the creation, implementation, and continuous improvement of advanced planning processes—leveraging digital tools, data?driven methodologies, and collaborative platforms to ensure that programme outcomes are predictable, efficient, and aligned with client objectives.
You will be accountable for all programme?level planning activities (from post?concept design onwards) and will ensure that schedule integrity, accuracy, and performance are maintained across all stages of the project lifecycle.
Your core responsibilities:
Leadership & Team Management
- Lead and manage planning teams across multiple concurrent European data centre projects, ensuring alignment to programme goals and digital delivery standards.
- Develop the capability of the planning team by setting performance expectations, mentoring planners, and identifying growth opportunities for high?potential individuals.
- Drive a culture of digital excellence and innovation across all planning functions.
Programme Scheduling & Controls
- Oversee the development and maintenance of fully integrated, resource?loaded schedules that reflect design, procurement, permitting, manufacturing, construction, commissioning, and client readiness activities.
- Ensure all schedules incorporate key digital construction workflows, including BIM coordination, offsite manufacturing timelines, and commissioning sequencing.
Contract & Delay Management
- Lead the assessment and acceptance/rejection of contractor programmes, ensuring compliance with client standards and NEC or FIDIC contract requirements.
- Oversee delay analyses, time?impact assessments, and forecasting of schedule risks and opportunities.
Digital Reporting & Data Integrity
- Lead all programme schedule reporting, ensuring the accurate transfer of schedule data to digital cost and estimating systems.
- Ensure real?world activity durations and contractor performance metrics are captured and fed back into enterprise planning databases to strengthen future project benchmarks.
Cost & Risk Alignment
- Support formal programme cost reviews by verifying alignment between the programme schedule, cost plan, and digital cost forecasts.
- Contribute to Monthly Cost Forecasts, maintaining forecast accuracy through robust planning data and digital progress tracking.
- Support the management of Programme/Project Risk & Opportunity Registers, quantifying the time impact of each item and suggesting mitigation strategies.
What skills and attributes are we looking for?
- Experience in project planning or project controls on major capital programmes, preferably in data centres, technology facilities, pharmaceutical, life sciences, or high?tech infrastructure sectors.
- Expertise using Primavera P6; familiarity with digital planning tools (Power BI, BIM 4D platforms, Navisworks, Synchro) highly advantageous.
- Experience planning multi?project, multi?country, fast?track programmes with complex interfaces.
- Knowledge of NEC or FIDIC contract suites highly desirable.
- Experience working within live operational technology environments desirable.
- Strong commercial and financial awareness, including understanding of CAPEX planning, earned value management, and forecasting.
- Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills—capable of presenting complex information simply at executive level.
- Personal resilience, adaptability, and the ability to manage ambiguity in fast?paced digital delivery environments.