Senior Planning Manager (SBU)

Role Overview

Senior Planning Manager (SBU) at JASARA PMC, based in Saudi Arabia. This role oversees planning and scheduling activities for stadium and arena developments aligned with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 initiatives.

Role Purpose

Manage complex project schedules for large-scale stadium and arena construction, coordinate multidisciplinary teams, identify risks, and ensure timely delivery of planning and scheduling functions within a program management environment.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Team Development

• Manage the team's deliverables through effective leadership by setting individual objectives, managing performance, and developing the team to maximize performance.
• Demonstrate leadership skills to set clear goals, motivate teams, and deliver results.
• Lead the function's direction, endorsing or opposing practices as needed.
• Foster a culture of flexibility and adaptability in responding to changing business requirements.
• Expertly manage and prioritize the workload of the team in a deadline-driven environment.

Planning, Scheduling & Cost Management

• Lead the team in all aspects of Planning, Cost, Resourcing, and Risk.
• Ensure the team adheres to the Schedule Management Plan, Planning processes, and internal standards.
• Lead the weekly and monthly updating of schedules as design and construction work develops.
• Validate Baseline and Target schedules before submission.
• Manage the planning and scheduling of own work to meet required timelines and outputs.
• Brief the team to ensure that schedule fundamental principles and details are understood and transferred to the construction phase of the project.
• Lead coordination with the commercial function to implement an effective controls system covering budget, cost, reporting, risk, and change management.

Quality & Documentation

• Improve the provision and quality of services provided to the Project teams.
• Lead improvements in the quality of schedule presentation, information, and documentation.
• Lead improvements to ensure optimal project schedule quality and evaluate reports.

Risk & Impact Assessment

• Assess the impacts of design and construction changes and schedule slippages.
• Work with the team to provide solutions to identified risks and impacts.
• Identify key interfaces and manage them efficiently to ensure seamless coordination.

Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Lead communication and collaboration with other teams.
• Manage integration plans with stakeholders, key interfaces, and others.
• Lead strategic planning exercises with the wider team.
• Lead team collaboration and cross-department integration collaboratively across multiple departments.
• Connect people and issues and drive a quick response.

Reporting & Communication

• Review Project progress tracking and reporting and communicate updates to stakeholders, Senior Management, and the Board.
• Respond accurately and in a timely manner to team queries regarding the content of schedule submissions.
• Leverage exceptional written and verbal skills in English to effectively articulate ideas, strategies, and project performance to a range of audiences.

Project Delivery Support

• Support the Project Management function in delivery and tender, as required, ensuring they are delivered on time and profitably.
• Assess inputs in setting up processes and procedures and implement them.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree or postgraduate qualification in Engineering, Architecture, Construction Management, Business Management, or relevant field of study.
• 15 years of related planning and scheduling experience within construction delivery, ideally across both Contractor and Consultancy environments.
• Recognized project management certification (e.g., PMP, PRINCE2).
• Primavera Certification (Preferred).
• Previous KSA and Middle East experience (Preferred).
• Demonstrated hands-on experience in delivering projects with strong technical and commercial working knowledge.

Skills & Competencies

• In-depth knowledge of enterprise-level management software, including P6 and MS Office (Excel, Word).
• Power BI experience (Preferred).
• Significant discipline and industry presence recognized and valued by industry peers as an authority able to work with teams to solve technical problems and achieve a high level of assurance on project deliverables.
• Significant experience in development, implementation, and management of business systems, including policies and procedures applicable to the role and across the project.
• Analytical and thorough problem-solving ability.
• Ability to perform under pressure and manage multiple priorities effectively.