POSITION DESCRIPTION – PROJECT PLANNING ENGINEER

Job Summary

Develop and maintain project schedules, resource plans and controls to enable safe, on-time and on-budget delivery of drilling, completion and production projects. Provide scheduling, progress measurement, risk scheduling and change control support across multidisciplinary project teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain and baseline project schedules (short-term and long-term) using approved scheduling methodology; define critical path and key milestones.
• Produce detailed workpacks, resource loading and man-hour forecasts to support execution planning and logistics.
• Coordinate with drilling, completions, engineering, procurement, HSE and operations to integrate activities and validate schedule logic, constraints and assumptions.
• Prepare weekly and monthly schedule updates, progress reports, look-ahead plans and recovery plans; highlight slippages and recommend mitigation.
• Support planning of mobilization/demobilization, material deliveries, equipment availability and contractor interfaces to minimise NPT and logistical delays.
• Implement and maintain schedule change control, update baselines after approved changes and track impacts to cost and milestones.
• Develop and maintain project performance KPIs (SPI, CPI, percent complete), perform variance analysis and present to project leadership.
• Facilitate project planning workshops, pre-job schedule reviews and integrated master schedule meetings; ensure cross-functional alignment.
• Perform schedule risk analysis (Monte Carlo/PERT), identify schedule drivers and support contingency and mitigation development.
• Support cost control interfaces by providing earned value schedule inputs and milestone-based forecasting.
• Maintain scheduling files, activity dictionaries, resource and calendar definitions and ensure data integrity in scheduling tools.
• Provide training and mentoring to project teams and contractors on schedule reporting requirements and planning best practices.
• Support lessons-learned capture and continuous improvement of planning processes and tools.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Project Management, Construction Management or related discipline preferred.
• 3–8 years’ experience in project planning/scheduling within oil & gas, drilling, construction or field operations environments.

Technical Skills & Knowledge

• Proficiency in scheduling tools (Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, or equivalent); familiarity with Earned Value Management principles.
• Competence in resource and cost loading, critical path analysis, schedule compression techniques and schedule risk analysis tools.
• Strong Excel skills for data analysis, reporting and dashboards; experience with project controls systems advantageous.
• Understanding of drilling and well construction processes, logistics, procurement lead times and contractor interfaces.
• Knowledge of change control, baseline management and KPI generation (SPI/CPI, percent complete).

Behavioural & Interpersonal Skills

• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills; ability to influence project teams and contractors.
• Analytical mindset with attention to detail and ability to present complex schedule information clearly.
• Organised, proactive and able to prioritise competing demands in a dynamic project environment.
• Team player with facilitation skills for integrated planning sessions.

Experience & Conditions

• Experience supporting field projects, mobilisations and remote operations desirable.
• Willingness to travel to project sites and participate in pre-job planning or mobilization activities; occasional extended hours for critical schedule updates.

Performance Indicators

• Accuracy and timeliness of schedule updates, look-ahead plans and recovery forecasts.
• Level of alignment between planned and actual progress (SPI, adherence to milestones).
• Number and impact of schedule variances successfully mitigated.
• Quality of resource loading and forecast accuracy for mobilization and procurement.
• Stakeholder satisfaction with planning outputs and effectiveness of integrated planning workshops.

Desirable

• Certification in scheduling or project controls (APM, PMI-SP, AACE or equivalent).
• Experience with Primavera P6 advanced features, EVM implementation and schedule risk analysis (Monte Carlo).
• Knowledge of drilling project execution phases, onshore logistics and contractor management.

• Develop, maintain and baseline project schedules (short-term and long-term) using approved scheduling methodology; define critical path and key milestones.
• Produce detailed workpacks, resource loading and man-hour forecasts to support execution planning and logistics.
• Coordinate with drilling, completions, engineering, procurement, HSE and operations to integrate activities and validate schedule logic, constraints and assumptions.
• Prepare weekly and monthly schedule updates, progress reports, look-ahead plans and recovery plans; highlight slippages and recommend mitigation.
• Support planning of mobilization/demobilization, material deliveries, equipment availability and contractor interfaces to minimise NPT and logistical delays.
• Implement and maintain schedule change control, update baselines after approved changes and track impacts to cost and milestones.
• Develop and maintain project performance KPIs (SPI, CPI, percent complete), perform variance analysis and present to project leadership.
• Facilitate project planning workshops, pre-job schedule reviews and integrated master schedule meetings; ensure cross-functional alignment.
• Perform schedule risk analysis (Monte Carlo/PERT), identify schedule drivers and support contingency and mitigation development.
• Support cost control interfaces by providing earned value schedule inputs and milestone-based forecasting.
• Maintain scheduling files, activity dictionaries, resource and calendar definitions and ensure data integrity in scheduling tools.
• Provide training and mentoring to project teams and contractors on schedule reporting requirements and planning best practices.
• Support lessons-learned capture and continuous improvement of planning processes and tools.

• Proficiency in scheduling tools (Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, or equivalent); familiarity with Earned Value Management principles.
• Competence in resource and cost loading, critical path analysis, schedule compression techniques and schedule risk analysis tools.
• Strong Excel skills for data analysis, reporting and dashboards; experience with project controls systems advantageous.
• Understanding of drilling and well construction processes, logistics, procurement lead times and contractor interfaces.
• Knowledge of change control, baseline management and KPI generation (SPI/CPI, percent complete).
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills; ability to influence project teams and contractors.
• Analytical mindset with attention to detail and ability to present complex schedule information clearly.
• Organised, proactive and able to prioritise competing demands in a dynamic project environment.
• Team player with facilitation skills for integrated planning sessions.

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Project Management, Construction Management or related discipline preferred.
• 3–8 years’ experience in project planning/scheduling within oil & gas, drilling, construction or field operations environments.
• Certification in scheduling or project controls (APM, PMI-SP, AACE or equivalent) desirable.
• Experience with Primavera P6 advanced features, EVM implementation and schedule risk analysis (Monte Carlo) desirable.
• Knowledge of drilling project execution phases, onshore logistics and contractor management desirable.