Lead Planner - #1684468

Lead Planner

Bristol or London

Hybrid Working (2-3 days in the office)

6-12 Month Contract

Inside IR35

Role summary

Our client requires a dedicated and highly experienced Senior Planning lead to spearhead the planning of delivering corporate service modernisation. You will have primary responsibility for developing and maintaining the overarching portfolio plans and ensuring that the portfolio has a coherent and achievable plan to deliver. Your role will provide clarity on key milestones to define what, when and how activities will be organised to ensure the outcomes of the portfolio can be achieved, with the resources available. You will lead on all aspects of project planning, which will include the development, updating and monitoring of plans and schedules. You will identify tasks, activities, interdependencies and outputs for the portfolio and work with the programme teams to track and monitor progress against the plan throughout the life of the project.

The post holder will be expected to work closely with the PMO teams and leaders from across the portfolio to lead the overall portfolio planning activities.

The post holder must have extensive experience of leading planning activities in a shared service and ERP/Oracle transformation. Previous experience of working in Defence and/or government would be desirable.

Role Responsibilities

• Delivery and leadership – Provide visible and effective leadership, lead the planning team and work with the programme managers to deliver the business case benefits and outcomes. Develop clear vision and standards and champion the use of best practice project planning standards, tools and processes. Build strong networks both internally and externally.

• Project planning – Apply advanced knowledge in the discipline of planning for the analysis and successful resolution of risks and issues and identification of opportunities.

• Resources – Identify future capacity and capability needs of the project planning function and puts in place strategies to meet them.

• Stakeholder management – Build and maintain external networks to access technical and professional best practice.

• Project performance and controls – Analyse performance data, looking at trends to identify areas for improvement and collaboration, and selecting appropriate methods and tools to resolve them.

• Guidance and support – Provide specialist advice and support to ensure successful delivery of programmes. Provide guidance and advice to the Programme Manager during project initiation on selection of planning approach, tools, processes and proportionality. Identify and lead the introduction of best practice planning processes, tools and templates, using industry standard best practice as a benchmark. Build planning capability.

Person specification

1. Experience of shared services, HR, Finance & Commercial functional transformation and/or Oracle/ERP transformations is desirable

2. A positive, proactive and resilient attitude needed to operate in a highly complex, fast moving and ambiguous environment

3. Deep expertise in Portfolio and Programme Management, particularly planning and scheduling, in a large-scale enterprise-wide transformation

4. A track record of delivering the highest quality results in time pressured and complex environments

5. The ability to quickly establish and develop productive relationships with diverse stakeholders, delivering through others and bringing together disparate programme structures into a coherent model

Company information

At First Recruitment Group we understand just how important it is to secure the right people. That is why our Recruitment Consultants always take the time to understand requirements in detail and offer sound advice to both clients and candidates. We actively recruit at all levels and this is a superb opportunity for a Lead Planner looking for new employment.

As part of putting people first, we strive to be an equal opportunities employer and we are always looking to increase the diversity of our workforce, working closely with our clients to ensure everyone is included.