Job title: Project Planning Engineer

Reporting to: Chief Technical Officer

Job Family: Project Services (PS)

Location: Nairobi based position

Job Ref No. PD/CTOO/PPE/2026

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.