Team Lead, Planning at Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC)

Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) is the pioneer and leader of the petroleum industry in Nigeria. We invest heavily in our employees, which is reflected in our industry-leading development programme and our commitment to see our employees’ ideas travel and come to fruition.

We are recruiting to fill the position of:

Job Title: Team Lead, Planning

Location: Lagos
Job type: Full-time

Description

• Projects & Engineering (P&E) is Shell’s project execution engine that safely and efficiently executes new projects for our business partners in Upstream, Downstream, Integrated Gas and New Energies. P&E also provides differentiated, engineering support to existing assets, both at Shell and non-operated ventures. The P&E mission is ‘Creating World Class Assets’ i.e., delivering Best-in-Class projects and enabling our existing assets to achieve their full potential.
• In P&E we believe that an inclusive and diverse workplace is essential to our future success. Our selection criteria focus on getting the best talent for the job and we encourage you to apply for the role if you believe your experience, skills, competences, or diverse perspective can make the difference. We are committed to bias-free resourcing, allowing equal opportunity to everyone.
• This position reports directly to the Project Services Manager Deepwater Projects (DWP). This role is accountable for:
• Deliver and maintain standard, consistent, and realistic project plans reflecting the assessed risk parameters for Nigeria Deepwater projects. Lead the Planning Team and is accountable for the delivery of the Planning & Scheduling activities and deliverables. Set focused goals to deliver "Best in Class" competitive projects.

What is the Role?
As a Team Lead Planning you are to:

• Deliver and maintain consistent, integrated, and realistic plans and control structures for flagship, material, brownfield, and decommissioning projects. Develop list of plans required to execute the project and their hierarchy relationship. Drive, manage and ensure completeness of the development of activities, logic, resources, and progress for the integrated project schedule incorporating local requirements, leading to the creation of the baseline and its subsequent maintenance. Implement, ensure compliance, and utilize the Shell standard tools and processes.
• Incorporate project complexity factors and local requirements into project planning and assemble key input data such as project objectives, value drivers, scopes, contracting strategy, execution strategy, key risks/opportunities, schedule, and embed carbon reduction & abatement.
• Develop Schedule Basis to document how schedule/planning was developed. Manage Planning Data. Establish process to collect actual planning performance, condition and normalize data for ongoing/future use. Establish process to store Planning files in a consistent, secure location.
• Liaise with and challenge Business Opportunity Manager/Project Manager to ensure proper understanding of the key schedule sensitivities and drivers. Present a credible and competitive outcome to Senior Leadership.
• Review scope change requests for the impact on schedules and the critical path of the project.  Prepare reconciliation between earlier schedules and the current schedule. Consolidate the impact of approved changes and any deviations from the key project targets and milestones, including productivity monitoring and “What if scenarios” to aid project management decision-making.
• Contribute to the development of commercial/contract strategies documents. Ensure that all commercial/contract key dates and milestones align with the overall integrated plan. Evaluate contract bid schedules and review contractor plans to support contract award recommendations.
• Contribute to the development of the project’s risk profiles. Perform scenario comparisons and sensitivities on planning estimates, reflecting project risks. Analyze and interpret the Schedule Risk Analyses (Deterministic and Probabilistic). Provide expertise in establishing appropriate project schedule contingency.  Regularly track the schedule risk mitigation efforts, the criticality of the main paths to completion, float consumption and the release of the 50/50 schedule contingency.
• Instigate, develop, and police the Planning Engineers and progress monitoring procedures to ensure that each element of the project performs the processes timely and consistently. Own the overall schedule monthly progress update, forecast, critical path and trend analyses.  Develop status reporting framework and implement throughout the Planning hierarchy.
• Benchmarking of Duration. Develop benchmarking metrics at appropriate level to check duration results from top down versus both internal and external comparable data e.g., against historical performance, industry norms and established KPIs. Work with IPA forms and reports to understand comparison of Shell projects to latest industry datasets.
• Participate in Peer Reviews, Audits and Project Assurances.
• Capture actual data on identified risks and lessons learnt for ongoing/future use. Establish process to Risk files in a consistent, secure location.
• Liaise with SNEPCo Technical Planning to ensure alignment of DWP Nigeria goals with SNEPCo Plans.
• Motivate, coach, and develop Planning Engineers towards improving Planning & Scheduling Functional Excellence, Project Delivery, HSSE, and Quality culture and behaviors. Active management of continuous improvement.
• Direct Reports: 10 FTEs.
• Nigeria DWP advocate for comprehensive overview of DWP projects milestones to DWP Leadership Team, both for Business Performance Review (BPR) and Business Planning (OP).
• Member of Shell Project Controls Network. Collaborate with Shell Global Project Services (PS) and other Regions for standardization, tools calibration, data collection, benchmarking, continuous improvement, and Regional/Global Planning support.
• Opportunities/Projects could comprise of block bidding, deal, exploration, greenfield, brownfield, decommissioning from Identify, Assess, Select, Define, Execute to Decommissioning phases.
• Key stakeholders: Project Team, Discipline Engineering, Portfolio Managers, Operation Readiness & Commissioning & Start—Up, Wells, Development, Contracts & Procurement, Finance, HR, Commercial, Legal, HSSE, Assets, Decommissioning, Technical Planning, Group Project Services, Vendors, Contractors, NUIMS, NUPRC and Co-Venturers. 
• Ensure all internal and external stakeholders are aligned with key opportunity/project strategies and anticipated results. The Project Services Team has multiple tasks with different project team composition. It is imperative that the support effort is seen as highly credible by PS Team members and stakeholders. The incumbent needs the experience, behaviors, and skills to engage with multiple stakeholders and align on what is needed for successful outcomes.
• Key challenges: short turnaround planning and assurance due to project and contract timeline. Establish continuous planning support for all project maturation phases. Expedite Project Planning Engineers development to skill level at which they can perform independently as Planning professionals. Able to respond quickly to requirements to improve efficient execution & productivity, hence increase project competitiveness. Complexity is high in this matrix organization.

What We Need from You?

• Qualification: Engineering Degree or external certification as Certified Planning & Scheduling Professional (e.g., AACEI-PSP) is an added advantage
• Extensive number of years in oil & gas industry is a must
• At least 12 years of working experience
• Substantial number of years in Upstream Projects (8 years): Have significant experience in a role as a Planning professional with direct responsibility for the management of Project Services scope for post-DG3 projects, and proven experience in pre-DG3 projects. 
• Demonstrate skill level with Shell Project Planning principles, techniques, application, and tools i.e., Primavera P6, Acumen Fuse, and Primavera Risk Analysis.
• Excellent collaboration, integration, analytical, communication and written skills. Demonstrate skill level in presenting and communicating Planning and Risk analysis to various stakeholders. Able to establish credibility with stakeholders.
• Demonstrate thorough knowledge level of the overall project process and steps. Fully conversant with various project assurance process.
• Demonstrate good team leadership capability. Has experience in managing direct reports. Proven interpersonal and relationships skills in complex environments with ability to work with personnel of diverse backgrounds.
• Core competencies - possess skill level understanding of Project Planning principles. 

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply