Lead Planner

About the Voith Group

The Voith Group is a global technology group. With its broad portfolio of systems, products, services, and digital applications, Voith sets standards in the energy, paper, raw materials, and transportation & automotive markets. Founded in 1867, Voith today has around 21,000 employees, €4.9 billion in sales and locations in over 60 countries around the world, Voith is one of Europe's largest family-owned companies.

Job summary

The Lead Planner is responsible for developing, maintaining, and monitoring the project schedules for the site erection and commissioning, focusing on the Snowy electrical and mechanical scope, including turbines, generators, hydraulic steel structures, BoPe, and BoPm. You will collaborate closely with project managers, engineers, procurement teams, and clients to ensure that project timelines and budgets stay within scope.

You will provide a clear status of all related interfaces and activities, ensuring the successful build, commissioning, and handover of the hydro power plant in line with the project schedule and contractual requirements. You will also identify deviations from the schedule, notify the relevant stakeholders, and propose mitigation measures to address any issues.

You will coordinate the customer interface for project schedule-related topics, targeting successful, on-time execution of the project plan and meeting customer expectations while safeguarding Voith's contractual position.

Your daily tasks will be similarly shared between the three main pillars:

• Direct working in the project schedule in Primavera for schedule development, assessment, strategy preparation, and reporting
• Manage interfaces with the main stakeholders on client´s, suppliers´ and Voith´s sides
• Lead, guide and support the planning team to develop and maintain the schedule and reports, to coordinate their own interfaces, and to further develop their skills

The Lead Planner will be based in Cooma. Once site operations begin, the role will transition to a full-time on-site position. The Lead Planner will be part of the onshore project team, reporting to the Local Project Director in Cooma.

Reports to

Onshore Project Director

Key Responsibilities

During the field preparation phase (off-site)

• Lead the development, and maintenance of a comprehensive Field Service Baseline Schedule in Primavera and the Integrated Programme (contractual schedule developed, maintained and updated together with the client), encompassing the complete E&M site installation & commissioning scope and activities, ensuring alignment with both internal and external contractual milestones.
• Oversee resource and cost loading of the Field Service schedule to help derive accurate site work-related costs to complete, ensuring the team's ability to meet budget and time constraints.
• Coordinate and drive the alignment of the Field Service schedule with all internal and external stakeholders, ensuring upstream functions provide deliverables as per site requirements and contractual obligations.
• Provide strategic guidance to ensure the schedule is aligned with overall project goals, managing any early-stage risks and issues that may affect timelines or budgets.

During the site installation phase (on-site)

• Own and oversee the Field Service Schedule and the Integrated Programme, ensuring both are consistently updated and synchronized with each other, the site management software, and actual site work progress, providing high-level visibility into project status.
• Lead monitoring efforts in coordination with the Senior Project Manager (SPM)(???) and other supervisors to track site execution progress, providing senior-level oversight on the timely completion of key milestones.
• Drive the successful coordination of critical interfaces (customer, civil works, deliveries, and other site-specific factors), ensuring that all milestones are met on time, while actively resolving any issues or delays.
• Develop and implement strategic preventive actions and alternatives to mitigate risks and reduce impacts to the critical path, proactively identifying potential disruptions.
• Analyze and recommend acceleration actions for preventive and corrective measures to prevent delays, particularly concerning key installation, commissioning, and operational milestones.
• Monitor and report Earned Progress, Float/Buffer Consumption
• Ensure transparency and visibility of the critical path, highlighting key interface risks and issues, and providing high-level communication to all relevant parties.
• Review and assess subcontractor progress reports and ensure they align with the overall project schedule, actively managing any discrepancies or delays.
• Provide leadership in schedule forecasting, including creating rolling look-ahead plans with the Site Production Manager, assisting in tracking progress, and ensuring alignment with overall project objectives.
• Identify deviations from plan and notify to the site production manager / site manager / master scheduler and propose mitigations or recovery plans
• Support a schedule focus / mindset together with the site manager / site production manager
• Act as a key strategic partner to Field Supervisors, Site Production Managers, and other key stakeholders, driving effective communication and alignment across all levels of the site team.

Education
:

• Engineering degree (Civil, Electrical or Mechanical)
• Project Management degree (MBA, P. Eng. or similar)

Skills

• HSE and Quality Mindset
• 10+ years in senior scheduling/planning, including 5+ years as a lead planner in large hydro power or similar construction projects.
• Sound technical and operational knowledge of hydro-power equipment installation and commissioning is a plus
• Solid contractual knowledge
• Extensive experience in mega projects, preferably in resource, oil & gas, or energy sectors, and with non-civil contractors
• Proficient in Primavera P6 and the planning methodologies (CPM, EVM, resource & cost planning, forensic / delay analysis and claim management)
• Power BI and SAP knowledge is a plus
• Strong analytical skills & structuring
• Hands-on, Customer-focused, accountable, and solution-driven
• Excellent Team player, respectful and open-minded, combined with strong leadership and project management skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English; additional languages are a plus

Project Information:

Snowy 2.0 is the next generation of the iconic Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme, and construction of this major pumped-hydro project is well underway. Once complete, the Scheme will provide 2000 megawatts of dispatchable, on-demand renewable power and approximately 350,000 megawatt hours of large-scale energy storage to the Australian National Electricity Market. Voith is the awarded Sub Contractor. The above role is in connection to this project.