Project Planner

ESCO Maritime is seeking an experienced Project Planner to join our Programmes team, leading the development, integration, and maintenance of Integrated Master Schedules (IMS) across a portfolio of high-value, strategically important engineering programmes. These complex, multi-year programmes comprise multiple workstreams, significant technical and commercial dependencies, and a diverse stakeholder environment spanning customers, suppliers, and internal delivery teams.

Role Purpose

As a critical member of the programme delivery team, you will work alongside Programme Managers, Engineering Leads, Scrum Masters, and customers to develop and maintain robust, integrated schedules that support effective decision-making, governance, and delivery assurance. Operating at the centre of a fast-paced, cross-functional environment, you will provide clear visibility of programme status, critical path activities, resource demand, schedule risks, and delivery scenarios, helping to drive successful outcomes across the portfolio.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and manage high-quality, fully integrated master schedules for large-scale, multi-disciplinary projects using Microsoft Project Professional. Desirable you have used Microsoft Project in the last 6 years.
• Identify, articulate, and maintain the critical path; conduct scenario planning to support decisions on resourcing, phasing, and dependency management.
• Collaborate closely with Programme Managers and functional leads to ensure the schedule accurately reflects work package plans, dependencies, risk mitigations, and agile planning inputs (epics, sprints).
• Integrate engineering design, validation, and delivery milestones across a complex Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
• Work with project risk owners to identify and reflect risks, treatment plans, and emergent work into the schedule.
• Provide clear, insightful reporting on schedule performance, progress trends, and forecasting; recommend mitigation options and actions to key stakeholders.
• Support and enable Agile planning cycles by aligning IMS-level activities with sprint/epic planning and delivery cadences.
• Own the governance of schedule baselines, change control, and schedule quality; enforce schedule standards and tools across the team.
• Liaise with external customer planners and ensure alignment of schedule data, formats, and reporting expectations.
• Mentor team members in planning best practices and act as the schedule subject matter expert within the programme community.

Qualifications and Experience

• Proven experience in schedule management for large-scale, multi-year, engineering-based programmes (ideally in defence, aerospace, or high-tech manufacturing).
• Experience building and maintaining integrated project schedules, including activities, dependencies, milestones and progress updates. Transferable planning skills gained using other tools are welcome, provided you are willing to learn and use it in the role.
• Strong understanding of project risk management and its scheduling implications.
• Desirable experience working with Agile, Waterfall, and Hybrid delivery frameworks; familiarity with JIRA or similar Agile task management tools.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, including direct liaison with customers.
• Ability to assess resource requirements and compare planning scenarios to understand their impact on delivery. Experience using resource allocation tools and scenario modelling is desirable.
• Ability to work autonomously and collaboratively in a high-performance, multi-disciplinary environment.
• Degree qualified in a relevant discipline (or equivalent experience).
• Desirable: Exposure to Earned Value Management (EVM) and cost/schedule integration; membership of a recognised PM body (APM, PMI).

What We Offer

• A dynamic role with influence across strategic programmes.
• Hybrid and flexible working arrangements.
• Opportunities for professional development in a growing, high-performing team.
• The chance to directly shape and influence the delivery of high-impact national defence projects.
• Note: All candidates must meet the security vetting requirements relevant to the role. For reasons of national security, applicants must be British nationals.