Engineering Lab Planner

The Engineering Lab Planner supports the Lab Portfolio Manager by developing and maintaining long-range plans and forward-looking schedules for lab resources in a technically complex environment. This role partners cross-functionally with NPI/NPD project teams, Technical Engineering, Lab Operations, Test Engineering, and program leadership to translate project demand into executable lab capacity plans across test cells, test technicians, and specialized test tools. The Planner evaluates capacity, capability, and resource constraints to identify conflicts, recommend scheduling tradeoffs, and enable timely decisions that protect project milestones and safe, efficient lab utilization.

Major Responsibilities

• Develops, publishes, and maintains long-range lab resource plans and forward-looking schedules for test cells, test technicians, and specialized test tools
• Builds and maintains resource-loaded schedules that account for capacity, changeover/set up time, and technical constraints; updates schedules as priorities and test definitions evolve
• Identifies capacity/capability conflicts and communicates risks and tradeoffs with recommended mitigation options
• Partners with Lab Operations to maintain a lab resource catalog and ensures planning assumptions are current and auditable
• Establishes and maintains lab planning cadence, intake, and prioritization views
• Surfaces conflicts and decision needs, document assumptions, and escalate resource/capability constraints to the Lab Portfolio Manager and relevant stakeholders (execution remains with Technical Engineering/Lab Operations/Test Engineering)
• Supports NPI/NPD planning by integrating test readiness, facility needs, and prerequisite activities into the schedule
• Facilitates alignment across accountable teams and escalates constraint impacts and decisions as needed
• Prepares and presents lab capacity and schedule health to the Lab Portfolio Manager and program stakeholders
• Drives continuous improvement of lab planning processes, scheduling governance, data quality, and tool utilization to improve visibility and reliability of long-range plans
  
  

Minimum Job Requirements

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical field (Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Technology, Industrial Engineering, or similar)
  
  

Work Experience

• 5 years’ experience in planning, scheduling, or project coordination roles supporting engineering and test preferred
• Experience in planning, scheduling, or program coordination in technically constrained environments, with demonstrated ability to identify schedule conflicts and escalate resource/capability risks
• Experience creating resource-loaded schedules, capacity models, and iterated project schedules to quantify the impacts of competing demand on constrained lab resources
• Experience building and maintaining forward looking schedules
  
  

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities

• Ability to plan work requested by project teams and functional groups to align demand, dependencies, and priorities into a single plan
• Comfortable working in dynamic environments where project priorities, test needs, and inputs shift, with the ability to adjust plans and clearly communicate any schedule impacts
• Understanding of test lab operations and the ability to learn and apply technical constraints and capabilities (e.g., load banks, fuel compatibility, floor space, HVAC/heat rejection limits, instrumentation/tooling availability).
• Strong planning and coordination capability and comfort building long-range schedules, resource allocation views, and capacity outlooks.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate lab capacity/capability constraints, resource conflicts, and schedule tradeoffs to project leadership, including recommendations and mitigation options.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Proficient with common planning, scheduling, and analysis tools such as Smartsheet and OnePlan
• Proficient in MS Office applications
  
  

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear; and use hands to manipulate objects or controls. The employee is regularly required to stand and walk. On occasion, the incumbent may be required to stoop, bend, or reach above the shoulders. The employee must occasionally lift up to 25 pounds. Specific conditions of this job are typical of frequent and continuous computer-based work requiring periods of sitting, close vision, and the ability to adjust focus. Occasional travel.