About Vantage Data Centers

Vantage Data Centers powers, cools, protects and connects the technology of the world’s well-known hyperscalers, cloud providers and large enterprises. Developing and operating across North America, EMEA and Asia Pacific, Vantage has evolved data center design in innovative ways to deliver dramatic gains in reliability, efficiency and sustainability in flexible environments that can scale as quickly as the market demands.

About the Role

As a Senior Planning Manager supporting Data Centre projects in Germany, you will take a central role in governance, control, and management of project schedules across all stages of delivery and development. Based in Berlin or Frankfurt, you will be responsible for ensuring that all project programmes accurately reflect the project scope, design and construction sequences, procurement requirements, and critical interfaces. A key focus of the role is to ensure full compliance with internal VDC planning standards, as well as to verify that all contractors develop, maintain, and report their programmes in accordance with these standards.

You will work in close collaboration with Project Delivery and Development teams (including design, procurement and commercial), contractors, and the Regional Planning Lead to ensure consistent planning governance and clear communication across all stakeholders. The role requires strong technical scheduling capability, hands‑on programme management, and the ability to consolidate multiple contractor schedules into a coherent master programme for reporting to internal leadership and clients.

The Senior Planning Manager will report directly to the Regional Planning Lead and will serve as the primary planning partner for project teams in Germany, providing technical leadership, planning governance, and schedule assurance across multiple delivery and development projects.

Key Responsibilities

1. Project-Level Planning & Scheduling

· Ensure that all contractor schedules are prepared and maintained in full compliance with internal Vantage Data Centers planning standards, including format, logic, reporting, and progress measurement requirements.

· Consolidate all contractor schedules into a controlled master programme, ensuring correct interfaces, milestones, dependencies, and sequencing before reporting internally and to the client.

· Manage schedule change control processes in strict accordance with VDC change management procedures, including evaluation, impact analysis, approval routing, and documentation of all programme changes.

· Prepare what‑if scenarios, impact studies, and mitigation options to support decision-making by project stakeholders.

· Create and maintain Integrated Master Schedules (IMS) that reflect design processes, permitting timelines, procurement strategies, client approvals, and key decision milestones ensuring regular updates and clear communication to internal stakeholders.

2. Collaboration with Project Teams

· Work closely with Project Directors, Delivery Managers, Development Managers, design teams, procurement, commercial, and construction teams to ensure schedules correctly reflect all project interfaces and dependencies.

· Act as the central planning contact for project teams, providing guidance, technical insights, and programme leadership throughout all project stages.

· Collaborate with the Regional Planning Lead and the wider planning team to ensure consistency in planning practices.

3. Progress Monitoring & Reporting

· Lead regular schedule reviews, capturing progress updates, analysing deviations, identifying impacts, and proposing corrective actions.

· Produce clear and concise programme reports for project leadership, the Regional Planning Lead, and other key stakeholders.

· Ensure transparency around critical path, milestones, procurement actions, and risks.

4. Risk Identification & Mitigation

· Conduct schedule risk assessments for delivery and development projects.

· Identify programme risks early, develop mitigation plans, and communicate them effectively to project stakeholders.

· Support recovery planning when delays or disruptions occur.

5. Quality Assurance & Compliance

· Ensure all schedules comply with VDC standards, internal governance, and project-specific requirements.

· Support continuous improvement in planning practices.

· Support standardisation efforts by working closely with the Regional Planning Lead.

6. Documentation & Stakeholder Communication

· Maintain accurate documentation of schedules, changes, decisions, and assumptions.

· Prepare presentations, dashboards, and reports for internal and external stakeholders, ensuring clarity, accuracy, and traceability.

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