Planning Lead Engineering Integration & Release Planning

Role Summary Planning Lead to support engineering integration, testing, release planning and programme delivery activities. The role will be responsible for creating and maintaining a structured planning framework, ensuring alignment across multiple engineering teams and improving visibility of timelines, resources, risks, issues and dependencies. The candidate should be capable of converting inputs from different teams into clear, actionable plans and management-ready reports to support effective decision making. Key Responsibilities  Develop, maintain and improve the integrated planning framework for engineering integration, testing and release activities.  Prepare and manage programme timing plans across multiple workstreams.  Create resource planning models, capacity reports and workload transparency dashboards.  Coordinate regular operations / planning sync meetings, including agenda preparation, action tracking and follow-up.  Prepare weekly or fortnightly status reports covering progress, risks, issues, dependencies and forward outlook.  Align planning inputs from integration, test, release and programme teams.  Identify delivery risks, dependency gaps and escalation points in advance.  Support continuous improvement of planning structures, reporting cadence and decision-support processes.  Work closely with engineering leads, programme teams and cross-functional stakeholders to ensure planning accuracy and delivery visibility. Expected Deliverables  Integrated project / programme planning framework.  Programme timing plans for integration, testing and release milestones.  Resource capacity and utilisation reports.  Operations review meeting packs and action logs.  Management reporting packs covering status, risks, issues and next steps.  Dependency logs, planning assumptions and escalation summaries.  Recommendations for improving planning and reporting processes. Required Skills & Experience  Strong experience in programme planning, project planning, or delivery planning within an engineering environment.  Ability to convert multiple inputs into structured and actionable plans.  Good understanding of resource planning, capacity modelling and workload reporting.  Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.  Experience in preparing reports for management or senior leadership review.  Ability to coordinate cross-functional meetings and drive action closure.  Good analytical thinking and problem-solving ability.  Experience working in complex engineering, product development, integration, or release environments. Tools Knowledge Experience in any of the below tools will be preferred:  MS Project  Jira  Confluence  Primavera  Microsoft Excel  Power BI  Think-cell  PowerPoint / reporting tools Preferred / Additional Knowledge  Basic understanding of software and hardware integration.  Knowledge of release governance and configuration management.  Experience in automotive, product engineering, embedded systems, or systems integration projects.  Exposure to engineering programme delivery and milestone-based planning. Behavioural Competencies  Ownership and accountability  Strong coordination mindset  Clear and professional communication  Attention to detail  Ability to work with multiple stakeholders  Proactive risk identification  Continuous improvement mindset  Team collaboration and delivery focus