Head of Planning Pre-Sales and Projects (based in Greenwich or Les Ulis) F/H

Company

We connect the world, We connect people.

With more than 850 000 km of optical underwater systems around the world, Alcatel Submarine Networks’ stands for adventure and daily innovation for one’s career. Our teams’ synergy drives our innovative high-tech solutions and lets us develop our exceptional know-how. Joining us means joining a collective, joining us means connecting the world! So, are you ready for your next adventure?

Post description

The Head of Planning Pre-Sales and Projects leads an end-to-end planning function, ensuring the development, production, coordination, and governance of plans of work across multiple projects and all budgetary and binding offers. The role is responsible for managing the pre-sales and project planning teams, providing planning analysis and advice, ensuring schedule alignment and integrity, identifying risks and mitigation strategies, monitoring project progress, and providing clear reporting and insight to senior stakeholders to support successful bids and project delivery. The role is also responsible for producing overall monthly plans for projects and bids included in the forecast, to facilitate industrial and marine planning.

Your main duties will be:

• Lead and manage the Pre-Sales and Project Planning teams, providing direction and ensuring effective resource allocation, development of team capability, and consistent application of planning standards and methodologies.
• Ensure the production and maintenance of Bid and Project plans of work (“POWs”), and supporting documents, for Telecom proposals and projects, in the appropriate format. Ensure the POW is produced in line with the client expectations, based on the level of commitment defined by the sales management team and/or project management team.
• Produce all POW’s for the forecast bids, to facilitate workload planning for the plant and vessels for the Industrial Operations and Project Management departments.
• Ensure alignment with project management governance processes including change management, risk management, and documentation control practices, and alignment between engineering, procurement, manufacturing, installation, and commissioning activities.
• Support the interface between the various stakeholders on the bid and project teams for the development of POWs by analysing the specifics of the project (technical or operational constraints, nature of the tests to be performed, etc.). Gather key dependencies (plant workload, vessel utilization plan, permit constraints, etc.) from the Project Management, Industrial Operations, and Marine Operations departments, etc.
• Ensure the integrity and consistency of planning data inputs across project schedules, validating assumptions and dependencies provided by different departments.
• Monitor project progress against agreed internal and external schedules, ensuring timely identification of deviations and development of mitigation strategies.
• Lead the analysis of schedule risks, delays, and dependencies, supporting bid and project teams (including the Offer Quality Manager) in assessing impacts and developing recovery plans where necessary.
• Identify critical paths, inter-project dependencies, and resource conflicts, escalating potential bottlenecks or risks to project leadership.
• Provide structured planning insight and reporting to project teams and senior stakeholders, ensuring a clear and common understanding of project progress and risk exposure.
• Support project teams in preparing monthly reporting on project progress, schedule performance, and related metrics to both Directeur des offres commerciales and Head of Project Management Office.
• Coordinate the preparation and presentation of schedule updates for customers where required.
• Promote continuous improvement within the project planning function, including the development of planning tools, methodologies, and internal reporting processes.
• Support the bidding team during Handover Meetings (HOMs) from the Bids teams to the Project teams. Actively participate in bid process meetings (SFM, BAR, etc.) for all scheduling-related matters.
• Some travel to customer sites and ASN Locations will be required.

Wanted profil

REQUIRED EDUCATION & TRAININGS

• Degree in business, business administration, project management or equivalent 
• Proficiency in Gantt chart creation and Microsoft Project.
• PMI or Prince 2 certification preferred but not essential

REQUIRED EXPERIENCES & SKILLS

• Significant experience in project planning within large, complex multidisciplinary projects, ideally within infrastructure, engineering, or subsea environments.
• Experience leading or coordinating project planning activities and supporting bid and project teams in schedule development, monitoring, and reporting.
• Proactive and influential.
• Strong analytical capability with the ability to interpret complex planning data, identify risks, and propose mitigation strategies.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, able to convey planning insights clearly to internal teams, senior stakeholders, and customers.
• Able to build constructive relationships across diverse cultures and stakeholders.
• High attention to detail with strong organisational and problem-solving skills in fast-paced project environments.
• Advanced proficiency in project planning tools including MS Project and Microsoft Office (particularly Excel); experience with Primavera advantageous.
• Understanding of project management principles including risk analysis, change management, and documentation control.
• Strong teamwork skills enabling ability to work collaboratively across multidisciplinary teams and adapt to evolving project priorities.
• Willingness to travel internationally.
• Proficient in English, additional language skills (e.g., French or Spanish) are advantageous.
• Knowledge and understanding of ASN's activities and products

Our values

• ASN is actively committed to diversity and inclusion, where every talent is recognised and valued.

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