Job Description/Specification:
A Planning Engineer role focused on project controls combines schedule management, cost control, forecasting, performance analysis, and financial reporting. This position supports project teams by tracking budgets, commitments, expenditures, progress, and forecasts while helping management understand whether projects are performing against approved cost and schedule baselines.
The opportunity is suited to experienced professionals with backgrounds in project planning, project controls, cost engineering, construction management, project finance, or related disciplines.
💼 Key Responsibilities
- Support project financial systems, reporting processes, and project control procedures.
- Monitor project budgets, commitments, expenditures, and forecasts.
- Develop and maintain Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) for assigned projects.
- Establish project cost and schedule baselines using drawings, specifications, and scope information.
- Monitor actual costs and schedules against approved baselines.
- Perform cost and schedule variance analysis and identify emerging issues.
- Collect project data for trending, forecasting, and performance analysis.
- Support Earned Value Management (EVM) and progress measurement activities.
- Track manpower requirements, labor hours, and labor costs against approved budgets.
- Monitor purchase orders, subcontract commitments, and project expenditures.
- Analyze project revenue, costs, commitments, and forecasts.
- Support project scheduling and monitor critical milestones.
- Assess the financial impact of scope changes and other project changes.
- Prepare regular project cost, schedule, and performance reports.
- Participate in project cost review meetings and provide relevant analysis.
- Maintain accurate project controls information for management decision-making.
🎯 Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Construction Management, Project Management, or a related field.
- 7–10 years of relevant experience in project controls, cost control, planning, project finance, or cost engineering.
- Understanding of project controls and cost management principles.
- Knowledge of budgeting, forecasting, cost tracking, and variance analysis.
- Basic understanding of Earned Value Management (EVM).
- Knowledge of WBS, cost baselines, schedule baselines, and progress measurement.
- Understanding of project scope and change management.
- Ability to analyze manpower, labor hours, and labor costs.
- Understanding of purchase orders, subcontract commitments, and project expenditures.
- Basic knowledge of accounting and financial principles.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Good communication, reporting, and presentation abilities.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and project reporting tools.
- Familiarity with Primavera P6, MS Project, SAP, Oracle, or similar systems is advantageous.
🚀 Why You'll Love This Opportunity
This role provides broad exposure to the financial and operational side of major infrastructure projects.
Professionals can gain experience across cost management, scheduling, earned value, forecasting, change control, project reporting, and performance management rather than focusing on only one project-control function.
The position also offers exposure to multidisciplinary project teams and the opportunity to contribute to management decisions using cost and schedule data.
The advertised work model is hybrid, combining workplace and flexible working arrangements.
👤 Who Should Apply?
This opportunity is suitable for experienced Planning Engineers, Project Controls Engineers, Cost Engineers, Cost Controllers, Project Finance professionals, and Project Planning Specialists.
Candidates should be comfortable working with numbers, schedules, budgets, and large volumes of project information. The role requires someone who can identify differences between planned and actual performance and investigate what is driving those differences.
Engineers who have moved from technical project roles into planning or project controls may also find the position relevant.
⭐ Skills That Will Help You Succeed
A successful Planning Engineer needs both analytical and project-management skills.
Important capabilities include:
- Primavera P6 or MS Project.
- Cost control and forecasting.
- Budget monitoring.
- Earned Value Management.
- WBS development.
- Progress measurement.
- Schedule analysis.
- Cost and schedule variance analysis.
- Change management.
- Financial reporting.
- Excel and data analysis.
- Project performance reporting.
Understanding how cost, schedule, scope, resources, and progress interact is particularly important. A delay, scope change, or productivity issue can affect several project-control indicators simultaneously.
💡 How to Stand Out
Your CV should show real project-control responsibilities and measurable results.
Instead of simply stating that you "prepared reports," highlight the type of projects you supported, the size of the budgets or contracts involved, the systems used, and the type of reporting you produced.
Emphasize experience with:
- Cost and schedule baselines.
- Forecasting and budget updates.
- Monthly project reporting.
- EVM.
- Primavera P6.
- Change orders and variations.
- Subcontractor costs.
- Procurement commitments.
- Manpower and productivity analysis.
- Cost and schedule recovery.
If you have helped identify cost overruns, schedule delays, productivity problems, or forecast changes, include those achievements with measurable figures where possible.
🎤 Interview Preparation
Prepare for questions around cost control, planning, scheduling, forecasting, and project performance.
You may be asked:
- How do you establish a project baseline?
- What is Earned Value Management?
- How do you analyze a cost variance?
- How would you identify a potential cost overrun?
- How do you measure project progress?
- How do you handle a major schedule delay?
- How do you assess the impact of a scope change?
- How do purchase orders and commitments affect project forecasting?
Be prepared to explain a real project where you identified a performance problem and supported corrective action.
For technical questions, understand the relationship between PV, EV, and AC, as well as common schedule and cost performance indicators.
📈 Career Growth
Experience across project controls can lead to positions such as Senior Planning Engineer, Senior Project Controls Engineer, Cost Control Manager, Project Controls Manager, Planning Manager, or Project Manager.
Developing expertise across both cost and schedule management can be particularly valuable because major projects increasingly require integrated performance management rather than isolated cost or planning functions.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How much experience is required?
The vacancy specifies 7–10 years of relevant experience in project controls, cost control, project planning, project finance, cost engineering, or related areas.
Is Primavera P6 required?
The listing describes Primavera P6 as an advantage rather than an absolute requirement, alongside tools such as MS Project, SAP, and Oracle.
What degree is required?
A Bachelor's degree in engineering, finance, accounting, business administration, construction management, project management, or a related discipline is accepted.
What does the role cover?
The position combines cost control, project planning, budgeting, forecasting, EVM, schedule monitoring, change management, and project reporting.
Is the position hybrid?
Yes. The advertised Work Location Model is Hybrid.