Capital Project Scheduler, Facilities Construction - Princeton University

Overview:

The Capital Project Scheduler (CPS) will provide technical expertise and substantial construction industry experience in all matters related to the practical, accurate construct of large capital project construction CPM schedules.  The capital project scheduler will also be responsible for the development and implementation of best-in-class technical analysis processes that provide department managers critical insight and reporting that highlights schedule logic, work progress, variances, stacking of trade work, and clear identification of potential risks and subsequent risk mitigation planning.

 

Reporting to the Associate Director, Project Controls within the Office of Capital Projects (OCP), the capital project scheduler will oversee a Project Associate who maintains the OCP Oracle P6 EPPM cloud scheduling platform which serves as the centralized environment for third party Contractors and University staff to develop and consume schedule files and P6 templated reports.

 

The Facilities organization has long hosted a centralized P6 scheduling environment that is used for the creation of preliminary pre-construction capital planning schedules as well as monthly progress construction updates.  It is in this, cloud P6 environment, where third party contractors develop and maintain project CPM schedules.    The CPS will, in ways exemplified below, work closely with the Project Associate to refine and enhance the P6 platform’s:

• Organizational structure (OBS, EPS, WBS).
• Project templates
• Code structures (Project, Activity)
• Schedule quality analysis
• Templated reports (Variance, Critical Path, Stakeholder focused, Resource distribution).

Responsibilities:

Essential Responsibilities:

 

• Serve as industry leading expertise in the Oracle P6 EPPM scheduling environment and provide expert level CPM schedule analysis and reporting across the project portfolio.
• Build preliminary/conceptual schedules inclusive of activities, logic, durations and based on assumptions developed through working with OCP project teams
• Engage directly and routinely with third party contractor’s scheduling representatives to ensure best-in-class P6 scheduling techniques and protocols are being utilized.
• Provide comprehensive (technical and qualitative) review third-party contractors’ schedules for all aspects of accuracy, including completeness of representation of work activities, logic, duration, and provide assessment to OCP project teams, in particular with respect to contractors’ schedules used for basis of contract agreements (e.g. Guaranteed Maximum Price agreements).
• Provide experienced leadership and analytical support to project teams for all project schedules related specifically to schedule health, reasonability of assumptions, change management and risk mitigation.
• Review and correlate in-situ work to project schedule status for confirming accuracy of monthly project schedule updates provided by third-party contractors, as well as provide reporting and guidance to project teams for ensuring accuracy of monthly project schedules compared to work in place.
• Maintain an accurate and detailed awareness of project statuses across the entire portfolio.
• Provide timely, clear, and accurate reports and commentary to the ADPC that describes current statuses, floats paths, risk severity, delay mitigation measures and an informed narrative as to likely outcomes; ability to recognize concerns with monthly schedule reporting provided by third-party contractors.
• Maintain the P6 database as a single source of schedule truth as it relates to project and collaborate closely with stakeholders/audiences who benefit for consuming schedule information.
• Facilitate schedule review meetings and workshops to communicate schedule status, discuss issues, and drive resolution of scheduling conflicts; ability engage with all project team members (both external and internal) in order to review and assess “project health” from design/construction administration, construction, project management viewpoints.
• Monitor project progress against baseline schedules, identify deviations, and recommend corrective actions to keep projects on track.
• Ensure the timely distribution of a variety of monthly reports targeted at internal administrative audiences.
• Actively solicit participation from other stakeholders who would benefit from expanded use of the P6 data and reporting. Find opportunities for data integration with other stakeholders’ systems.
• Provide effective, strategic training and developmental support for OCP staff, including both project management and construction management staff, and as required for career advancement of the Project Associate role.
• Expand a network of P6 scheduling vendors and consultants that might be used on University projects.
• Provide guidance and mentorship to the Project Associate on best practices, techniques, and tools for effective schedule management.

Other duties:

 

• Function as the Department’s representative on committees and task forces of the University, external regulatory agencies, and other organizations in all matters related to the status of projects and their critical relationships.
• Develop and maintain training materials and make effective presentations to groups with disparate levels of technical knowledge of design and construction.
• May serve on various University committees.
• Identifies elements of project design and construction likely to give rise to disputes and claims.
• During onsite inspections, may perform examinations of installed products.

Qualifications:

This position will bring in depth industry project scheduling experience and insightful context to bear through direct engagements with university project managers, A&E firms, and the third-party Contractors that are responsible for the detailed scheduling and overall delivery of projects.   This engagement will require strong personal initiative in the following areas:                                    

• Rapidly acquire an intimate knowledge of the critical project activities, logic and duration for those activities that normally fall outside the control of the Contractor or AE such as:
• Capital planning priorities, land use, regulatory, governance approvals (financial and other), internal University reviews, final commissioning/acceptance, and turnover to operations
• Interface and dependence on work provided by entities other than Contractor, including utility providers, University Facilities’ entities, etc.
• Requirements and time required for testing and inspections performed by University Facilities’ entities, end users, or the state/local municipality.
• Develop an understanding of precedent University project deliveries, their durations, challenges, and successes to reconcile against, and inform, the assumptions being made in current and future project schedules.
• Validate, to the greatest reasonable extent, the activities, logic and durations assumptions being made by our project teams as they build upon preliminary schedules to develop detailed project schedules. The CPS will engage with the Associate Director of Project Controls, who is a strong internal estimating/quantity survey resource, and the third-party contractor estimator to understand each project’s construction quantities/complexities.  The CPS shall use industry metrics which relate building quantities to productivity to validate schedule duration assumption as well as provide, and or evaluate provided, estimates of labor required to meet anticipated schedule durations. 

 

MINIMUM Qualifications: 

 

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, construction management or architecture. 
• Minimum of 8+ years’ experience as manager of an enterprise scheduling environment with multiple, complex projects.
• Firsthand knowledge in the development of CPM schedules with assumptions for logic duration based on system specific productivity metrics and workflow.  
• Experience in project management of software application development and/or integration.
• Effective communication skills with the ability to convey technical information clearly and concisely to diverse audiences.
• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to interpret complex project data and draw actionable insights.
• Requires strong leadership and team building skills.
• Ability to identify process gaps, breakdowns in workflows and create, with the input of stakeholders, alternative solutions that will improve the work product.
• Demonstrated proficiency in: Primavera P6 EPPM, Autodesk BIM suite (ACC Build, BIM360 Next Gen, Glue and/or Field), PMWeb or similar collaborate web-based project management software (Procore, E-Builder, PlanGrid).

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Certification in project management (PMP) and/or scheduling (PSP)
• Primavera Advanced Training

 

Princeton University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

Standard Weekly Hours:36.25Eligible for Overtime:NoBenefits Eligible:YesProbationary Period:180 daysEssential Services Personnel (see policy for detail):YesComments Related to End Date:This is a five-year benefits eligible term position. Physical Capacity Exam Required:NoValid Driver’s License Required:No Experience Level:Mid-Senior Level:#LI-SB1