About the role
At Balfour Beatty Regional Civil Engineering, we deliver the infrastructure that connects communities, supports economic growth, and improves everyday life across the North West.
From major highways and bridges to coastal protection, environmental and public realm projects, our teams are delivering some of the region's most challenging and rewarding civil engineering schemes.
We're looking for an experienced Senior Planner to become one of the key planning leaders within our North West business.
This is not a role focused on maintaining programmes from behind a desk. This is an opportunity to influence how major projects are won, planned, and delivered.
As a Senior Planner, you'll work across a portfolio of complex civil engineering projects typically ranging from £20m to £150m in value.
You'll be involved from the earliest stages of project development, working alongside bid, design, commercial and operational teams to develop robust delivery strategies, construction methodologies and programmes that set projects up for success.
Whether supporting a major bid, advising an operational team on programme recovery, or helping shape the delivery strategy for a new scheme, you'll play a pivotal role in driving performance across our Regional Civils business.
You'll have the opportunity to influence decisions at every stage of the project lifecycle, working directly with senior operational leaders and project teams to ensure that our programmes are realistic, achievable, and aligned with the way projects are actually built.
What you'll be doing
- Leading planning activities across multiple regional civil engineering projects.
- Developing tender, pre-construction and contract programmes.
- Working closely with operational teams to develop practical and deliverable construction strategies.
- Providing programme assurance, critical path analysis, and risk management support.
- Monitoring progress, analysing performance, and supporting programme recovery where required.
- Challenging assumptions and identifying opportunities to improve project performance.
- Supporting resource planning and delivery optimisation.
- Presenting programme information to senior management, clients, and project stakeholders.
- Providing mentorship, support, and technical guidance to planners across the region.
- Driving planning best practice and continuous improvement within the business.
You will already be operating as a Senior Planner, Lead Planner or experienced Planning Engineer within a civil engineering or infrastructure environment.
You'll have experience producing and managing construction programmes across complex, multi-disciplinary projects, bringing together engineering, commercial, design and operational requirements into clear, deliverable plans.
You'll be a clear and effective communicator with strong stakeholder engagement skills, able to build credibility, influence decisions and communicate programme information with confidence at all levels of the business.
Most importantly, you'll understand that planning is about more than producing programmes. It's about helping teams understand risk, optimise delivery, solve problems, and make better-informed decisions throughout the project lifecycle. You'll also bring a strong working knowledge of planning and programme management under NEC contracts, understanding the important role that programmes play in the successful management and delivery of projects.
You'll ideally have experience delivering projects within sectors such as:
- Highways
- Bridges and structures
- Local authority infrastructure
- Flood alleviation and environmental works
- Public realm and regeneration
- Utilities and major infrastructure
Who we're looking for
- Strong Primavera P6 experience.
- Proven experience within civil engineering or infrastructure projects.
- Experience producing and managing construction programmes across complex, multi-disciplinary projects.
- Excellent understanding of construction sequencing and delivery methodologies.
- Strong working knowledge of planning and programme management under NEC contracts.
- NEC contract awareness and programme management experience.
- Clear and effective communication skills with the ability to engage and influence a wide range of stakeholders.
- Strong stakeholder management and relationship-building capability.
- Experience supporting both pre-construction and live project delivery.
- The ability to mentor and develop less experienced planners.
Why work for us
Day in, day out, our teams deliver some of the UK’s most ambitious, exciting and meaningful projects; developing, building and maintaining the vital infrastructure that supports national economies and strengthens communities.
Why join us?
As if contributing to and supporting work that makes life better for millions wasn’t rewarding enough, we offer a full range of benefits too. You’ll have the freedom to shape the package that’s right for you and your life. Here are some of our key benefits:
- Smart working, giving you more flexibility such as staggered start and finish times, with up to 40% remote working, where roles allow.
- 25 days paid annual leave (pro rata)
- Family friendly policies which include 28 weeks full pay for maternity/adoption leave and four weeks full pay for paternity/partners leave
- Pension, share incentive plan, volunteering leave, recognition schemes and much more…
About us
With a strong track record of delivery, our civils teams connect communities through infrastructure projects in the highways, public realm, rail, flood and coastal defence, and industrial sectors across England and Wales.
Diversity and inclusion
At Balfour Beatty we believe that diversity and inclusion are essential components of any successful, happy workplace. Through our Value Everyone Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan, we are growing our diverse workforce and developing our inclusive culture where everyone is able to thrive and reach their full potential, regardless of their identity or background. To find out how we are making this a reality, visit www.balfourbeatty.com/diversityandinclusion
To help and support us with our desired commitment to create an inclusive culture we are members of WISE, enei, Business Disability Forum and the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE). In 2020, we signed the Audeliss and Involve Open Letter to demonstrate our commitment to taking key long term and sustainable actions on Black Inclusion. Balfour Beatty is also a Gold Award holder in the Ministry of Defence 'Employer Recognition Scheme' and actively encourage applications from Armed Forces personnel, veterans and reservists.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we are committed to working with people who have disabilities and long-term health conditions to remove barriers for them in obtaining employment. We are also committed to offering applicants with a disability an interview if they meet the minimum requirements for the role. For more info, visit: https://disabilityconfident.campaign.gov.uk/
We are looking to continually improve our resourcing process and ensure that it is fair and inclusive for all. If you have any feedback on the process, please share this with us at: [email protected]
Job Reference: BBUK19299
