Planning Manager - Construction Delivery

Zerra develops and operates hyperscale data centre campuses across Australia, Japan and India, delivering capacity at scale into markets driven by the growth of cloud and AI. Zerra's flexible campus developments support hyperscale and neocloud organisations, enabling some of the world's fastest-scaling technology businesses to grow with certainty and ambition. 

At Zerra, we empower exceptional people to challenge convention, drive innovation and make a real impact in digital infrastructure. Our culture fuses entrepreneurial agility with global expertise, enabling our teams to deliver results that matter. 

We believe that diverse perspectives, inclusive leadership and equitable opportunities are essential to building stronger teams and better outcomes. We are committed to fostering a workplace where everyone feels respected, supported and empowered to thrive. 

Zerra is part of AGP, an independently owned investor and asset manager that develops and operates real assets across the energy, digital and real estate sectors. 

Western Downs Digital Park
Western Downs Digital Park (WDDP) is a master-planned digital and energy precinct in regional Queensland, developed and operated by Zerra. Planned across multiple delivery phases, WDDP brings together AI-ready data centres, energy infrastructure and a purpose-built campus environment. 

Located close to major power infrastructure within the Western Downs Special Industry Area, WDDP represents a major investment in Queensland's digital future and an opportunity to help deliver the critical infrastructure supporting the continued growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Experience 

• 6+ years in programme or project controls roles within construction, infrastructure, or mission-critical facility delivery.
• Direct experience building and maintaining integrated master programmes across multiple, interdependent workstreams.
• Experience running project governance cadences (workstream syncs, PCG-style reporting, risk reviews) on a live construction project.
• Exposure to data centre, mission-critical, or comparably complex capital projects is highly regarded.
• Comfortable working directly with GC and OSE vendor scheduling teams to validate and integrate third-party programmes.
• Experience producing leadership-facing reporting packs under recurring deadlines.
• Australian construction delivery experience, ideally Queensland, is an advantage.

Skills 

• Proficiency in programme scheduling tools (Primavera P6 or MS Project) at master-programme scale.
• Strong dashboarding and reporting tool skills (Power BI, Smartsheet, or equivalent) for leadership-facing status packs.
• Working knowledge of risk register methodology and schedule risk analysis techniques.
• RACI-based governance design — able to build and run a meeting cadence that produces decisions, not just updates.
• Comfortable interpreting cost plan phasing well enough to connect programme and cost reporting.
• Strong document control and change tracking discipline across multiple contractor and consultant inputs.
• Clear written reporting — able to distil complex, multi-workstream status into a leadership-ready summary.

Desirable Qualifications and Professional Certification

• Bachelor’s degree in Construction Management, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• Project Management Professional (PMP), PRINCE2, or AIPM certification is highly regarded.
• Formal training in Primavera P6 or equivalent scheduling software.
• Postgraduate qualification in Project Management or Construction Management is advantageous.

Competencies
Execution Mindset — Keeps the master programme current and trusted, chasing closure on actions rather than letting them drift between reporting cycles. 
Analytical Thinking — Spots the pattern behind a slipping milestone — resourcing, design dependency, contractor performance — rather than just reporting the variance. 
Stakeholder Orientation — Runs governance forums that different workstream leads actually find useful, not just another meeting to attend. 
Adaptability — Rebuilds programme logic quickly when site conditions or sequencing assumptions change, without losing governance discipline. 
Integrity & Ethics — Reports status as it is, including bad news, rather than smoothing it for the next leadership pack. 
Collaboration — Gets BaseBuild, HV, and Commissioning leads to resolve sequencing conflicts in the room rather than escalating every clash.  The Planning Manager – Construction Delivery owns the integrated construction programme for WDDP’s first leased building, now in delivery. The role provides the Planning Leader and Construction Delivery Lead with a reliable view of progress, dependencies, critical paths, programme risk and delivery confidence. 

This role owns the integrated master programme for the leased building, the governance and meeting cadence (workstream syncs, PCG reporting, risk reviews), and the dashboards and trackers that make delivery status visible and auditable. 

Scope covers the leased building’s construction phase end to end, from pre-construction readiness through powered shell, warm shell, and customer fit-out. The role reports to the Planning Leader – WDDP, and receives a structured handover of each future building’s programme from the Planning Manager – Pre-Construction as it reaches financial close and mobilises — at which point it becomes part of this role’s construction delivery scope. Day to day, the role works closely with the Construction Delivery Lead, the HV Utilities Senior Project Manager, the Senior Manager Commissioning, the Commercial Leader – WDDP, and the on-site Safety function, and periodically with Design, Legal, and Finance on programme-driven dependencies. 

Success is a project team that always knows where it stands: a master programme that reflects reality rather than aspiration, milestone and risk reporting that reaches leadership without surprises, and a governance rhythm disciplined enough that decisions get made at the right forum rather than deferred.

Responsibilities 
Safety Leadership (Injury & Incident Free) 
This role carries personal accountability for maintaining an Injury & Incident Free (IIF) environment across all activities, teams, and sites it influences. 

• Embed safety checkpoints and readiness gates into the master programme so schedule pressure never overrides safety sequencing.
• Ensure programme and governance reporting surfaces safety performance and leading indicators alongside cost and schedule.
• Support the Safety function by maintaining accurate records of site inductions, training compliance, and access control tied to the programme.
• Flag any schedule compression or resequencing request that could compromise safe work method statements before it is approved.

Enterprise Risk, Issues & Analytical Insights 
This role maintains the leased building’s live risk and issues register and turns programme data into insight the 
Planning Leader – WDDP and Construction Delivery Lead can act on. 

• Maintain the risk and issues register for the leased building’s construction delivery, ensuring every entry has an owner, mitigation, and review date.
• Run monthly risk reviews with workstream leads, escalating unmitigated or newly emerging risks to the Planning Leader – WDDP and Construction Delivery Lead.
• Analyse programme and progress data to identify trends — recurring delay drivers, contractor performance patterns, resourcing bottlenecks.
• Provide clear, evidence-based reporting on programme certainty and risk exposure ahead of PCG reviews.
• Support post-milestone lessons-learned reviews and feed findings back into governance and reporting design.

Development & Capital Integration 
This role ensures programme reporting for the leased building connects directly to the cost and capital picture the Commercial Leader – WDDP and Finance rely on. 

• Align programme milestones with the cost plan phasing maintained by the Commercial Leader – WDDP, so schedule and cost reporting tell the same story.
• Flag programme slippage or acceleration that carries cost or cash-flow implications, ahead of monthly cost reporting cycles.
• Support Capital Project Controls with programme data needed for variance analysis and forecast updates.
• Ensure programme assumptions used in reporting to Finance and the Planning Leader – WDDP are current and traceable to the live schedule.

AI, Digital & Productivity Enablement 
This role owns the digital reporting and scheduling toolset for the leased building’s construction delivery, and drives its consistent use across workstreams. 

• Administer the project’s scheduling and reporting platforms, ensuring workstream leads and contractors update them to a consistent standard.
• Build dashboards that give the Planning Leader – WDDP and Construction Delivery Lead real-time visibility of programme, milestone, and risk status without manual compilation.
• Identify opportunities to automate recurring reporting packs and status compilation, reducing manual effort across the project team.
• Partner with Technology and Capital Controls to keep programme data structures aligned with broader Zerra reporting standards, and ready to absorb future buildings as they mobilise.
• Model safety-first behaviour in all site visits, meetings, and vendor interactions.

Portfolio Coordination, Governance & Consultant Management 
This role owns the leased building’s governance architecture — the forums, cadence, and reporting lines that keep BaseBuild, HV/Utilities, Commissioning, and Fit-Out workstreams aligned and escalations moving. 

• Design and run the project governance calendar: weekly workstream syncs, monthly Project Control Group (PCG) reporting, and monthly risk reviews.
• Produce the consolidated programme, milestone, and status pack for Planning Leader – WDDP and Construction Delivery Lead reporting, ahead of every reporting cycle.
• Coordinate scheduling consultants, programme software administrators, and reporting support vendors, ensuring outputs meet Zerra’s reporting standards.
• Maintain a single, current record of open actions, decisions, and escalations across workstreams, and chase closure against agreed dates.
• Standardise reporting templates and status definitions across workstreams so cross-workstream comparisons are meaningful.
• Facilitate cross-workstream interface meetings where BaseBuild, HV delivery, and Commissioning sequencing depend on each other.

Portfolio Programme Management & Delivery 
This role builds and maintains the leased building’s integrated master construction programme, translating individual workstream schedules into one coherent critical path. 

• Build and maintain the integrated master programme across BaseBuild, HV/Utilities, Quality & Commissioning, and Customer Fit-Out for the leased building, identifying the critical path and key interdependencies.
• Track progress against baseline, flag variances early, and work with workstream leads on recovery plans before slippage compounds.
• Maintain milestone trackers tied to contractual and lease-commitment dates, providing early warning on at-risk milestones.
• Run schedule risk analysis on major sequencing decisions (e.g. HV connection windows, commissioning readiness) and quantify float and exposure.
• Absorb each future building’s programme into this master programme as it is handed over from the Planning Manager – Pre-Construction at construction mobilisation.
• Ensure the programme reflects actual site conditions and contractor-submitted schedules, not just planned intent.
• Maintain document and drawing register discipline that supports programme milestones (design freeze dates, permit dependencies).

Enterprise Risk, Issues & Analytical Insights 
This role maintains the leased building’s live risk and issues register and turns programme data into insight the Planning Leader – WDDP and Construction Delivery Lead can act on. 

• Maintain the risk and issues register for the leased building’s construction delivery, ensuring every entry has an owner, mitigation, and review date.
• Run monthly risk reviews with workstream leads, escalating unmitigated or newly emerging risks to the Planning Leader – WDDP and Construction Delivery Lead.
• Analyse programme and progress data to identify trends — recurring delay drivers, contractor performance patterns, resourcing bottlenecks.
• Provide clear, evidence-based reporting on programme certainty and risk exposure ahead of PCG reviews.
• Support post-milestone lessons-learned reviews and feed findings back into governance and reporting design.

Development & Capital Integration 
This role ensures programme reporting for the leased building connects directly to the cost and capital picture the Commercial Leader – WDDP and Finance rely on. 

• Align programme milestones with the cost plan phasing maintained by the Commercial Leader – WDDP, so schedule and cost reporting tell the same story.
• Flag programme slippage or acceleration that carries cost or cash-flow implications, ahead of monthly cost reporting cycles.
• Support Capital Project Controls with programme data needed for variance analysis and forecast updates.
• Ensure programme assumptions used in reporting to Finance and the Planning Leader – WDDP are current and traceable to the live schedule.

AI, Digital & Productivity Enablement
This role owns the digital reporting and scheduling toolset for the leased building’s construction delivery, and drives its consistent use across workstreams. 

• Administer the project’s scheduling and reporting platforms, ensuring workstream leads and contractors update them to a consistent standard.
• Build dashboards that give the Planning Leader – WDDP and Construction Delivery Lead real-time visibility of programme, milestone, and risk status without manual compilation.
• Identify opportunities to automate recurring reporting packs and status compilation, reducing manual effort across the project team.
• Partner with Technology and Capital Controls to keep programme data structures aligned with broader Zerra reporting standards, and ready to absorb future buildings as they mobilise.