Principal Project Planner

An exciting opportunity to join the North West Enhancements team as a Principal Project Planner. The North West Enhancements team is a busy and vibrant team who are responsible for the delivery of circa £750M worth of Enhancement projects within CP7 across the North West of England.

The team are based in Manchester Square One and the successful candidate should be willing to work in the office 2-3 days a week as a minimum. We are looking for a self-motivated and highly organised individual with a demonstrable background in Project Planning. The successful candidate will be the lead for a small team of planning professionals to whom they will be responsible for providing guidance and direction to ensure our all our projects have robust schedules in place which will assist the project manager deliver their project on time.

About the role (External)

1. Provide professional leadership in respect of the planning processes; identification of key stakeholders; communication; promote awareness of accountabilities and responsibilities.

2. Develop, maintain and progress quality project plans / schedules in line with the functional processes and project requirements.

3. Maintain key interdependencies between projects and programmes confirming appropriate monitoring and action is undertaken as required in a timely manner.

4. Demonstrate through agreed performance indicators the efficiency and effectiveness of the project plans / schedules developed and utilised

5. Validate plans / schedules inline with the agreed functional Quality Management Plan for completeness and fitness for purpose.

6. Provide the key point of interface between the planning function and the project teams and interface between the other project support functions such as Risk & Value; Cost Management etc.

7. Oversee and confirm that the ‘contractor schedules’ comply with the Network Rail procedural and quality requirements

8. Provide technical expertise and guidance to the project team and provide functional expertise as required.

9. Support the continued personal and professional development of the planning resources within the project or programme.

· Membership of a relevant professional body and/or have a CPD established to attain membership

· Relevant successful experience in the management, planning and delivery of major construction/engineering projects.

· Relevant successful experience of proprietary software planning/scheduling tools

· Previous knowledge and expertise within the field of project resource management.

· Good communication skills at all levels and a team player.

· Good information technology user skills.

We would also like but it isn’t crucial to have/to be:

· Knowledge of/experience in Network Rail’s processes and systems.

· Knowledge of/experience in the UK rail industry.

· Educated to “A” level standard in a mathematics or information technology-related topic.

Are you ready to make a difference in people's lives? At Network Rail, we connect passengers and freight customers, ensuring safe and efficient transportation across the country. We're an organisation where people truly matter, and when you join us, you matter to us and millions of others. Click here to watch our inspiring video to learn more about us!

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Investing in our people is key to enhancing the safety, reliability, and efficiency of our railway system. If you're passionate about making a meaningful impact, then this opportunity is for you!

About our people and the recruitment process - We're an inclusive employer of choice and we welcome applications from everyone! We encourage our colleagues to work flexibly, as we know traditional working patterns don't always fit. If you want to consider working flexibly, just let us know and we'll do our best to help and invest in your career with us, whilst you have a healthy work life balance.

We're also a Disability Confident Leader employer and we'll try our best to adapt the process and offer a reasonable alternative to help support people with disabilities access, apply and interview for roles.

You will be part of the North West & Central Region (NW&C) which consist of three routes – North West, Central and West Coast South – and a regional team supporting Regional Major Programmes & Professional services.