Design Office Planner

Design Office Planner

Location: Hurn, Bournemouth

Hours and contract type: 6 month fixed-term contract

Draken offer exciting careers that matter.

We believe that mission success does not start with the mission itself. It begins with our people.

Role Overview

As Design Office Planner, you’ll establish and maintain an integrated demand and resource management plan for the Design Office, bringing together programme, fleet and business-as-usual requirements into a clear, achievable schedule aligned with organisational priorities.

Working closely with the Head of Design Office, programme leads and technical leads, you’ll ensure work is clearly defined, estimates are provided by the appropriate technical owners, and activities are scheduled against available capacity and skills. You’ll track progress, maintain workload forecasts and communicate the impact of changing demand, helping teams make informed planning decisions.

Key Responsibilities

Demand & Resource Planning

• Establish and maintain an integrated Design Office plan covering project and business-as-usual work.
• Coordinate demand capture and definition, obtaining estimates of effort, resource requirements, dependencies and timescales from technical leads.
• Assess demand against available capacity and skills, identifying constraints, scheduling conflicts and options for resolution.
• Maintain a prioritised, achievable schedule aligned with agreed programme and organisational priorities.

Progress Tracking & Forecasting

• Track progress, effort and resource utilisation against the agreed plan.
• Maintain workload forecasts and identify future resource needs.
• Provide accurate, timely reporting on variances, risks, capacity gaps and the implications of changing demand.

Stakeholder Collaboration & Communication

• Build effective relationships across technical and programme teams to gather and clarify planning inputs.
• Explain planning information, constraints and implications clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Present evidence-based options and facilitate agreement where demands compete for limited resources.
• Influence and constructively challenge stakeholders without relying on line management authority.

Change Control & Planning Governance

• Assess the impact of new demand and proposed priority changes on the plan.
• Coordinate agreed changes and communicate their impact on capacity, schedules and priorities.
• Escalate competing priorities and resource conflicts to the appropriate decision makers.
• Ensure adherence to agreed demand management, estimating, planning, change control and reporting processes, following up missing inputs and deviations.

Continuous Improvement & Knowledge Sharing

• Identify opportunities to improve planning processes, information quality and ways of working.
• Implement agreed improvements and review their effectiveness.
• Share knowledge and explain planning methods in a practical, accessible way.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Ability to apply demand management, estimating, scheduling and resource planning techniques.
• Ability to analyse workload, resource capacity and skills, and assess the completeness and consistency of estimates, assumptions and dependencies.
• Ability to interpret progress and utilisation data, report variances and forecast future resource needs.
• Ability to apply process improvement techniques to strengthen planning practices.
• Proficiency in MS Project, SharePoint and the Microsoft 365 suite.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong planning, organisation and prioritisation skills, with the ability to evaluate competing demands against programme and organisational priorities.
• Effective questioning and listening skills, with the ability to gather and clarify information from different stakeholders.
• Clear communication skills, translating planning data into accessible explanations and evidence-based recommendations.
• A collaborative approach, building relationships across technical and programme teams and facilitating agreement on resource priorities.
• Confidence to influence and constructively challenge others, supported by initiative, sound judgement and appropriate escalation.
• Adaptability to changing needs while maintaining a disciplined approach and a commitment to continuous improvement and knowledge sharing.

Key Measures of Success

• Programme, fleet and business demand captured, with estimates, resource needs and priorities agreed with the appropriate leads.
• A current, capacity-based Design Office plan aligned with agreed programme and organisational priorities.
• Changes assessed and agreed before incorporation into the plan, with impacts communicated and priority conflicts escalated promptly.
• Accurate, timely reporting of progress, resource utilisation, workload forecasts, variances and capacity gaps.
• Consistent adherence to planning processes, with deviations addressed and agreed improvements implemented and reviewed for effectiveness.

Our employee values

Draken is committed to eliminating unlawful and unfair discrimination and we celebrate the differences that a diverse workforce brings. A range of perspective and talent supports our values and drives our success, with a mix of voices generating better discussions, business decisions and outcomes for all.

At all our sites internationally, every member of the Draken team is accountable to ensure that we are all treated fairly and with respect.

We are also an Armed Forces friendly organisation, and as part of our commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant, welcome applications from veterans and services spouses and partners who met the criteria in our job specifications.

In line with our Disability Confident Commitments, we provide reasonable adjustments to facilitate our interview process, please liaise with us if any reasonable adjustments are required.