Position: Data Centre Campus Planning Lead

Salary:  Excellent, plus bonus + benefits 

Location: Groningen, The Netherlands

This is an exciting opportunity for a driven Campus Planning Lead to oversee the end-to-end project planning and coordination of multiple large-scale hyperscale data center projects on a single campus in Groningen, Netherlands. This is a senior leadership role requiring exceptional organisational capability, deep infrastructure project knowledge, and the ability to align complex, interdependent workstreams across multiple stakeholders simultaneously.

As the Campus Planning Lead, you will serve as the central planning authority for the campus programme, ensuring that all three projects are delivered on schedule, within scope, and in alignment with master programme objectives. You will work closely with construction management, engineering, procurement, and client teams to maintain an integrated master schedule and drive rigorous planning governance.

Key Responsibilities

Campus Programme Planning:
•    Develop, maintain, and own the integrated master programme schedule across all three hyperscale data center projects on the Groningen campus.
•    Identify and manage cross-project dependencies, shared infrastructure milestones, and critical path activities.
•    Establish and enforce planning standards, methodologies, and reporting cadences across the programme.
•    Lead planning governance forums, schedule review meetings, and risk workshops with senior stakeholders.

Project Schedule Management:
•    Collaborate with individual project planners and construction leads to develop detailed level 3/4 schedules that roll up into the campus master programme.
•    Monitor schedule performance, identify variances, and drive corrective actions to maintain planned delivery dates.
•    Produce regular schedule performance reports, earned value analysis, and forecasting updates for programme leadership and client.

Stakeholder & Interface Management:
•    Act as the primary planning interface between the campus programme team, client representatives, and third-party contractors.
•    Coordinate planning activities across civil, structural, MEP, and fit-out workstreams, ensuring seamless integration.
•    Present schedule status, risks, and mitigation strategies clearly to executive-level audiences.

Risk & Change Management:
•    Lead schedule risk assessments and maintain the programme risk register in relation to schedule impacts.
•    Manage the impact of change events on the integrated master schedule and provide timely change impact assessments.
•    Proactively identify schedule risks and opportunities and work with the team to develop mitigation strategies.

Requirements
Essential:
•    Minimum 10 years of experience in project planning or programme controls on major construction or infrastructure projects.
•    Proven track record of delivering complex, multi-project programmes as a lead planner or planning manager.
•    Strong proficiency in Primavera P6 (required); familiarity with MS Project and planning analytics tools is advantageous.
•    Deep understanding of construction planning methodologies, including critical path method (CPM), earned value management (EVM), and schedule risk analysis (SRA).
•    Excellent communication skills with the ability to engage confidently with technical teams and senior client stakeholders.
•    Holder of a valid European Union passport.
•    Willingness to relocate to Groningen, Netherlands, or able to commit to working on-site in Groningen five days per week.

Preferred:
•    Prior experience planning hyperscale or large-scale data center construction projects (strongly preferred).
•    Background in mission-critical facilities, large industrial, or campus-scale infrastructure programmes.
•    Experience working within a multi-contractor, multi-workstream campus environment.
•    Relevant professional qualification such as APM, PMI-SP, or equivalent planning/project management accreditation.

Applicants without EU work authorisation will not be considered

To find out more please contact Oli Coote: o.coote@capstone-recruitment.com or Sam Lee: s.lee@capstone-recruitment.com