Senior Planner- Suffolk

FDM is a global business and technology consultancy seeking an experienced Senior Planner to support a major nuclear site transition and decommissioning programme. Working through a leading infrastructure consultancy, you will join a large integrated delivery team supporting an Energy client on a complex and nationally significant programme of work. This is initially a 12 month contract with good prospects to extend and will be a hybrid role based in Suffolk.

This is a unique opportunity to work client-side within one of the UK's most highly regulated environments, helping to shape and manage the transition, operational change, and eventual decommissioning activities of a critical energy asset.

We are looking for a planner who can do more than simply maintain schedules. The successful candidate will bring strong analytical thinking, programme insight, and the ability to challenge, influence, and drive effective decision making across complex workstreams and stakeholder groups.

The role offers the chance to contribute to a long-term programme with significant strategic importance and excellent potential for extension.

Overview:

As a Senior Planner, you will be responsible for developing, managing, and assuring integrated programme schedules across a complex portfolio of transition and decommissioning activities. You will work closely with programme managers, engineers, project controls teams, and client stakeholders to provide robust planning support, schedule analysis, and programme forecasting.

You will play a key role in identifying risks, understanding programme dependencies, challenging delivery assumptions, and ensuring that planning outputs support informed decision-making across the programme.

This position is ideally suited to an experienced planning professional who thrives in complex environments, enjoys solving challenging programme issues, and has experience operating within highly regulated industries.

Responsibilities:

• Develop, maintain, and manage integrated programme schedules across transition and decommissioning workstreams.
• Provide planning expertise and schedule assurance to programme and project delivery teams.
• Analyse complex programme dependencies, constraints, and critical path activities.
• Challenge schedule assumptions, sequencing, durations, and delivery approaches to improve programme performance.
• Work closely with project managers, engineers, and technical specialists to ensure realistic and achievable plans.
• Monitor programme progress against key milestones and strategic objectives.
• Identify schedule risks, opportunities, and potential delays, providing mitigation recommendations.
• Support scenario planning, what-if analysis, and programme forecasting activities.
• Produce planning reports, dashboards, and executive-level updates for senior stakeholders.
• Ensure planning standards, governance requirements, and programme controls processes are consistently applied.
• Support change control, risk management, and performance reporting activities.
• Collaborate across multidisciplinary teams to drive delivery alignment and programme transparency.
• Contribute to programme reviews, assurance activities, and stakeholder governance forums.
• Provide insight and planning expertise to support key strategic decisions throughout the programme lifecycle.