Forward Planner

  • United Utilities
  • Warrington, Cheshire
  • Oct 15, 2025
Full time

Job Description

Salary - £36,659

Work Type - Onsite

Job Location - Lingley Mere (UU), Lingley Green Avenue, Great Sankey, Warrington, WA5 3LP

Role Type - Permanent

Employment Type - Full Time

Working Hours - 37.0 Hours per Week

United Utilities' (UU) purpose is to deliver great water for a stronger, greener and healthier North West of England. We are committed to providing our services in a way that respects the environment, supports the economy, and benefits society.

We value diversity, inclusion and innovation in our workplace, and we foster a culture where our people can grow, excel, and be themselves.

We uphold our ethics, values and business model to fulfil our mission and, by setting clear goals and objectives, we create sustainable long-term value for our colleagues, customers and communities. Whether you work with a team that shares your vision or join a network of peers with similar interests, you will find a welcoming and supportive organisation to be part of.

We've got a lot to offer. You'll be part of a thriving FTSE 100 company and will enjoy a range of core benefits that reflect your value and value contribution.

Benefits

  • A generous annual leave package of 26 days, which increases to 30 days after four years of service (increases one day per year), in addition to 8 bank holidays
  • A competitive pension scheme with up to 14% employer contribution, 21% combined, and life cover
  • Up to 7.5% performance-related bonus scheme, as well as recognition awards for outstanding achievements
  • A comprehensive healthcare plan through our company-funded scheme
  • MyGymDiscounts - gym and wellness benefit that offers up to 25% off on gym memberships and digital fitness subscriptions
  • Best Doctors
  • Salary Finance
  • Wealth at Work courses
  • Deals and discounts
  • EVolve Car Scheme
  • Employee Assistance Plan
  • Mental health first aiders
  • ShareBuy
  • MORE Choices flexible benefits
  • Enhanced parental leave schemes

Job Purpose

In this role, you'll work with Planning and Scheduling and other teams to prepare and review monthly activities, ensuring alignment with resources and reactive work forecasts. You'll manage dependencies like materials, contractors, and permits, and support Field team training by coordinating course information with Learning and Development.

Accountabilities & Responsibilities

You'll be responsible for forward planning of all Preventative, Predictive & Corrective maintenance activities at UU sites that the Planning team schedule for. You'll ensure that all tasks are scheduled optimally, taking into account business needs which will enable us to have a full Holistic view when creating operational schedules for Field Staff. You'll also be responsible for:

  • Resource management activities, but not limited to: Training (classroom and E Learning), Van Servicing, Mandatory Health Appointments and Meetings for all operational Field staff within Work Management.
  • Additional areas within role would be to prepare and review
  • Ensuring work priorities and business drivers are aligned. Factors such as budget restrictions, resource restrictions, seasonal weather etc. could impact work priority & Identifying where it is effective and efficient to bundle work together to make the best use of resource.
  • Liaising with the Planning and Forecasting team identifying events that need to be forward planned to allow them to add to their forecasts.
  • Working alongside the in-day scheduling teams managing disruption on the day for any Forward Planning Events.
  • Ensuring all work is recorded, prioritised and scheduled in accordance with agreed business rules to maximise the effective and efficient delivery of work carried out by the field teams you support.
  • Maintaining all tasks, including further work to ensure all records are always kept up to date including job details, appointments, job statuses, relevant time & dates.
  • Responding quickly and efficiently to queries from internal and external customers.

Technical Skills & Experience

To be considered for this role you'll need to have an excellent understanding of the Water and Wastewater processes to a level that will enable sensible interactions with operations staff. Along with

  • an understanding of company policy and procedures. You'll also:
  • Be ideally experienced in using SAP applications - SAP Core / Click schedule with an understanding of RCM work bank for maintenance disciplines
  • Understand the lifecycle of a Work Order and how Work Orders should be generated and completed.
  • Have excellent, effective communication skills, both verbal and written, with good interpersonal
  • skills at all levels.
  • Be able to cope with fluctuating workloads and dealing with high volumes of work at any given time. Also have the ability to work under pressure, whilst still maintaining the required attention to detail.

A full UK driving licence is required for the role

This role may not be eligible for the visa sponsorship

We rely on every employee to ensure our customers receive the best possible service, day in, day out. In return, we ensure that you will be well rewarded for your efforts, from an excellent salary through to development opportunities that will really kick start a thriving career here at UU.