Head of Planning

Job Title: Head of Planning
Location: East Midlands
Salary: Competitive + bonus + benefits

Overview

A growing national technical services organisation is seeking an experienced Head of Planning to lead its operational planning function.

This senior leadership role is responsible for ensuring work sold commercially is effectively planned, delivered efficiently and handed over cleanly for billing. The position plays a critical role in coordinating the service flow between Sales, Operations and Finance to ensure predictable delivery, operational efficiency and strong revenue conversion.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the national planning and operational coordination function

• Manage and support planning, scheduling and resource coordination teams

• Establish clear accountability, escalation and decision making frameworks

• Own the full planning lifecycle from order handover through to completion of work

• Ensure efficient scheduling and utilisation of operational resources

• Maintain visibility of workload, capacity and operational constraints across multiple locations

• Balance customer responsiveness with structured operational planning

• Lead the implementation and optimisation of a central planning system

• Define planning processes, data standards and governance frameworks

• Drive adoption and continuous improvement of planning systems and operational processes

• Ensure completed work is handed over fully ready for billing

• Maintain accurate job records, documentation and scope confirmation

• Minimise delays between operational completion and invoice readiness

• Reduce billing disputes through structured planning and clean operational handovers

• Monitor planning KPIs including utilisation, backlog and aged work in progress

• Improve operational efficiency, service throughput and revenue per head

• Act as the key operational interface between Planning, Operations, Sales and Finance

• Support operational delivery of customer commitments

• Act as a senior escalation point for planning related issues

Skills and Experience

• Proven leadership experience managing planning, scheduling or service coordination teams

• Experience operating within multi site or national service environments

• Strong organisational and analytical skills with the ability to manage complex operational workflows

• Commercial awareness and understanding of operational drivers of revenue and cash flow

• Confident using operational data, dashboards and KPIs to drive decision making

• Experience implementing or improving planning or enterprise operational systems is desirable

• Background within infrastructure, construction, testing, engineering services or similar sectors would be advantageous