Programme Planner

Job Title: Programme Planner Location: Havant Duration:6 months Work Model: 2-3 days onsite Description:

Key Responsibilities

Planning & Scheduling

• Develop, own, and maintain the integrated master schedule covering incumbent supplier exit plans, new contract supplier transition plans, and client's internal readiness activities.
• Break down complex multi supplier scope into clear work packages, milestones, and dependencies.
• Map cross party obligations, commercial dependencies, contractual triggers, and regulatory constraints.
• Maintain schedule baselines and track any variance, slippage, or critical path shifts.
• Support scenario planning (e.g., staged vs. fixed commercial switchover dates, alternative transition routes).
• Ensure that planning reflects regulated operating constraints and commercial commitments.

Transition Readiness & Coordination

• Collaborate with incumbent and new suppliers to validate activity durations, resource expectations, and sequencing.
• Work with Client technical and operational teams to confirm internal dependencies, readiness criteria, and hand-offs.
• Facilitate multi-stakeholder planning workshops to align timelines, identify potential conflicts, and confirm ownership.
• Support cutover planning, contingency planning, fall-back strategies, and readiness reviews.
• Ensure the IMS reflects current supplier delivery plans and contractual boundaries.

Monitoring & Reporting

• Manage daily schedule updates, ensuring accuracy of progress, actuals, and forecast impacts across all parties.
• Perform critical path analysis, highlight broken or at-risk dependencies, and escalate impacts early.
• Produce regular dashboards, timelines, and exception reports for programme leadership and senior stakeholders.
• Provide clear insight and challenge where supplier or internal slippage threatens key commercial or regulatory dates.
• Maintain high-quality, audit-ready schedule reporting consistent with regulated industry expectations.

Governance & Assurance

• Ensure all schedules comply with Compass PMO standards, reporting cycles, audit requirements, and governance forums.
• Document planning assumptions, constraints, and supplier obligations.
• Support commercial checkpoints, stage-gates, assurance reviews, and transition readiness assessments.
• Maintain RAID artefacts related to schedule risks, ensuring linkages into the IMS and programme reporting.

Stakeholder Management

• Work closely with Group IT Services, the seven business units, incumbent suppliers, new supplier teams, service transition, and operations.
• Communicate timelines, impacts, and risks clearly across both technical and senior stakeholder groups.
• Manage competing priorities across multiple delivery organisations, ensuring alignment and transparency.
• Coordinate cross-team dependencies, particularly where exit and transition plans interact with internal readiness activities.
• Build trusted relationships with PMs, architects, commercial teams, and supplier leads to drive proactive scheduling discipline.

Skills & Experience

Essential

• Proven experience as a Project Planner/Scheduler in large scale IT transformation or multi supplier transition programmes.
• Strong proficiency with planning tools such as MS Project, Project Online, or Primavera P6.
• Experience managing schedules across multiple suppliers, including exit and transition planning.
• Strong understanding of service transition, cutover planning, dependency mapping, and readiness gating.
• Ability to interpret complex technical and commercial information and translate it into actionable plans.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management, including senior leaders.
• Ability to work proactively in fast-moving, high pressure environments with competing priorities.
• Demonstrable ability to challenge constructively and highlight risks early.

Desirable

• Experience in regulated industries (energy, utilities, financial services).
• Familiarity with IT outsource contracts, service models, or commercial transition triggers.
• Exposure to ITIL, service transition, SIAM, or large-scale multi-supplier operating models.
• Understanding of Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid delivery environments.
• Professional planning or project management certifications beneficial (APM, PMI-SP, PRINCE2)

Guidant, Carbon60, Lorien & SRG - The Impellam Group Portfolio are acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.