Lead Planner 3 – Parenteral Manufacturing

Lead Planner 3 – Parenteral Manufacturing

Company: EFOR Group

Location: Allentown, Pennsylvania

Employment Type: Full-time position with EFOR Group

Work Arrangement: Remote for the first three months, followed by full-time onsite work

Project Environment: New-build parenteral manufacturing facility

Base Salary: $170,000–$185,000 annually, depending on experience

About EFOR Group

EFOR Group is a global Life Sciences consulting organization supporting pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical-device companies across engineering, project management, project controls, commissioning, qualification and validation, quality, automation, digital transformation, and regulatory compliance.

As part of our continued growth in the United States, EFOR is seeking an experienced Lead Planner 3 to support the delivery of a major new-build parenteral manufacturing facility in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Position Overview

The Lead Planner 3 will lead the development, integration, maintenance, and analysis of complex project schedules across engineering, procurement, construction, equipment delivery, commissioning, qualification, startup, and operational readiness.

The successful candidate will work closely with project leadership, engineering teams, contractors, equipment vendors, project controls, CQV, automation, quality, and manufacturing stakeholders to ensure that project scope, milestones, dependencies, risks, and execution priorities are accurately reflected within the integrated master schedule.

This position requires a senior planning professional who can independently manage complex schedules, challenge contractor and vendor inputs, identify emerging constraints, communicate schedule risks to senior stakeholders, and lead the development of practical mitigation and recovery plans.

Work Arrangement

The position will initially be performed remotely for approximately three months. During this period, the Lead Planner will support onboarding, schedule development, stakeholder alignment, planning standards, and early project-execution activities.

Following the initial three-month period, the role will transition to full-time onsite work at the project location in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Candidates must be willing and able to relocate to or regularly commute within the Allentown area. Periodic site visits may be required during the initial remote phase based on project needs.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, and control detailed and integrated project schedules using Oracle Primavera P6.
• Establish and maintain schedule structures, calendars, coding conventions, milestones, activity logic, constraints, and progress-measurement methodologies.
• Integrate engineering, procurement, construction, equipment delivery, automation, commissioning, qualification, startup, and operational-readiness activities into the integrated master schedule.
• Coordinate schedule development and progress updates with project managers, workstream leads, contractors, equipment suppliers, and other project stakeholders.
• Review and challenge contractor and vendor schedules for logic, sequencing, completeness, resource assumptions, contractual milestones, and alignment with the overall project execution strategy.
• Perform critical-path, near-critical-path, float, constraint, interface, and schedule-health analyses.
• Identify schedule risks, delays, dependencies, and execution constraints that may affect project milestones.
• Develop mitigation strategies, recovery schedules, schedule-acceleration plans, and alternative execution scenarios.
• Lead weekly and monthly planning and schedule-review meetings.
• Prepare executive schedule reports, milestone summaries, variance analyses, schedule narratives, dashboards, S-curves, and rolling look-ahead schedules.
• Validate reported progress against supporting documentation, contractor updates, agreed progress-measurement rules, and observed site conditions.
• Assess the schedule impact of scope changes, design changes, late equipment deliveries, construction delays, and approved change requests.
• Coordinate schedule interfaces across engineering, procurement, construction, automation, CQV, operational readiness, and manufacturing workstreams.
• Support resource planning, workload forecasting, and schedule-driven staffing decisions.
• Maintain records of schedule assumptions, constraints, risks, decisions, changes, and approved baseline revisions.
• Provide planning guidance, technical leadership, and mentorship to planners and other project team members.
• Ensure compliance with project planning standards, governance requirements, and reporting expectations.
• Provide project leadership with clear, data-driven recommendations regarding schedule performance, risk exposure, and recovery actions.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, construction management, project management, or a related technical discipline.
• At least 12 years of experience in project planning, scheduling, or project controls.
• Advanced expertise in Oracle Primavera P6.
• Demonstrated experience developing and managing complex integrated master schedules.
• Experience supporting large pharmaceutical, biotechnology, advanced-manufacturing, or other regulated capital programs.
• Strong knowledge of engineering, procurement, construction, equipment installation, commissioning, qualification, startup, and operational-readiness sequencing.
• Demonstrated ability to review, challenge, and integrate contractor and vendor schedules.
• Strong understanding of critical-path methodology, schedule baselining, progress measurement, forecasting, change control, and recovery planning.
• Experience identifying and communicating complex schedule risks to senior project stakeholders.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, facilitation, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and lead planning activities across multidisciplinary teams.
• Ability and willingness to transition to full-time onsite work in Allentown following the initial remote period.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting a new-build parenteral, aseptic, biologics, or sterile-manufacturing facility.
• Experience leading a planning function or supervising other planners.
• Experience integrating schedules across multiple contractors, equipment vendors, and technical workstreams.
• Experience with earned-value management and cost-and-schedule integration.
• Familiarity with Acumen Fuse, Power BI, advanced Microsoft Excel, quantitative schedule-risk analysis, or similar project-controls tools.
• Experience supporting large greenfield pharmaceutical capital projects.
• Familiarity with GMP-regulated capital-project execution.
• Experience supporting construction through commissioning, qualification, startup, and operational readiness.

Compensation and Benefits

The anticipated base salary range is $170,000–$185,000 annually. Final compensation will be determined based on relevant experience, technical expertise, leadership capability, and overall alignment with the position.

EFOR provides a competitive benefits package, subject to plan eligibility and applicable employment terms, which may include:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Paid time off and company holidays
• Life and disability insurance
• Professional-development and technical-training opportunities
• Access to EFOR’s international network of Life Sciences experts
• Career-development opportunities across project controls, engineering, CQV, and program leadership
• Opportunities to support major pharmaceutical capital programs across the United States

Why Join EFOR

This position offers the opportunity to take a leading role on a complex, high-visibility pharmaceutical capital program while joining a growing international Life Sciences consulting organization.

The Lead Planner will have significant ownership of the project-planning function, direct interaction with senior stakeholders, and the opportunity to influence the successful delivery of a new parenteral manufacturing facility.