Project Planner

Public Sector Resourcing•London Britain Township, PA

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

Network Rail is seeking a Project Planner for a 12-month contract. This hybrid role requires up to three days a week in the London Paddington office and can only be worked within the UK. Staff must be able to commute to the specified location within 90 minutes. The successful candidate will develop, maintain and assure robust project schedules, working with Project Managers, engineering teams, technical specialists and stakeholders. The role ensures activities, dependencies, milestones, risks and delivery constraints are accurately represented in project plans. The position falls within the scope of Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation, and quoted payment rates reflect the gross daily assignment rate before applicable taxes and statutory costs.

Requirements

Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Project, including building and maintaining complex, logically linked schedules.
Proven experience developing and managing plans for complex technical, engineering, infrastructure or technology projects.
Strong understanding of critical path analysis, dependency management, schedule baselining and progress tracking.
Experience integrating risk and dependency management into project planning.
Ability to interrogate schedules and identify unrealistic assumptions, missing dependencies, constraints and potential delivery risks.
Experience working with multidisciplinary technical teams to establish credible activity durations and sequencing.
Ability to assess the schedule impact of emerging risks, issues and scope changes.
Strong analytical skills and attention to detail.
Strong stakeholder management skills and confidence to constructively challenge delivery assumptions.

Nice To Haves

Previous experience working within the rail industry.
Knowledge of the Network Rail environment, governance and project delivery processes.

Responsibilities

Develop, maintain and manage detailed technical project plans and integrated delivery schedules using Microsoft Project.
Develop, review and interpret Primavera P6 schedules, ensuring alignment between programme-level and project-level planning where required.
Translate technical, engineering and delivery requirements into clear, logically structured and achievable plans.
Establish and maintain work breakdown structures, milestones, activities and sequencing.
Identify, map and manage internal and external dependencies, including their impact on milestones and the critical path.
Work with Project Managers, engineers, technical specialists, suppliers and stakeholders to validate durations, sequencing, constraints and delivery assumptions.
Ensure project risks, issues, assumptions and dependencies are appropriately reflected in schedules.
Undertake critical path and schedule impact analysis, identifying activities or dependencies that could affect delivery dates.
Support scenario planning and assess opportunities to accelerate delivery, including bringing activities forward or undertaking them in parallel.
Establish and maintain schedule baselines and track actual progress against agreed plans.