What does a senior planner do?
A senior planner is responsible for administering business proposals and strategizing techniques for clients' specifications and requirements, ensuring high-quality deliverables and satisfaction. Depending on the project, senior planners coordinate with suppliers and third-party vendors for essential materials to support business operations. They also delegate tasks to the staff and create progress update reports to discuss with the client and the management. A senior planner should have excellent communication and organizational skills, especially on handling budgets and adhering to agreed timetables.
Senior planner responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real senior planner resumes:
- Manage logistics functions to achieve metrics for service level and inventory control assessing risks and ensuring resolution of constraints.
- Manage applicable OEM products, insuring adequate worldwide inventory.
- Manage forecast and release of KANBAN orders to pertinent suppliers.
- Review SLA monthly with internal / external customers; manage ISO audits.
- Review ATP's, adjust destination breakdowns and POS to achieve an optimal sourcing target.
- Manage multiple transportation planning and construction projects, including sidewalk, bike lanes and traffic calming devices.
- Charge with implementing Manugistics (JDA) for the Wal-Mart and Murphy accounts.
- Evaluate public involvement effects using quantitativeanalysis and visualization methods.
- Negotiate regional infrastructure development projects and support regional-based grant development.
- Root cause MPS misses and understand what can be done in the future to change or fix.
- Complete development of EPC schedule for project.
- Negotiate a transfer pricing agreement with the OEM supplier.
- Submit data to HPMS, pavement management and FHWA.
- Create and deliver statistical forecasts and models from JDE and JDA databases.
- Prepare corridor studies, design concept reports, and access management plans.
Senior planner skills and personality traits
We calculated that 13% of Senior Planners are proficient in Project Management, Customer Service, and Autocad. They’re also known for soft skills such as Interpersonal skills, Negotiation skills, and Organizational skills.
We break down the percentage of Senior Planners that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Project Management, 13%
Exemplified successful negotiating, vendor management and project management skills resulting in greater customer satisfaction in delivery on access products.
- Customer Service, 9%
Managed department Key Performance Metrics to ensure monthly perfect order, customer service, operations and demand variability targets are achieved.
- Autocad, 6%
Created well plans using Compass, AutoCAD, and Microsoft Excel software.
- Logistics, 5%
Incorporated blanket orders with service centers in order to facilitate 24-hours logistics on raw material replenishment.
- MRP, 4%
Assisted management during manufacturing resource planning (MRP) system implementation and corporate merger.
- Critical Path, 4%
Worked closely with engineering on critical path components, recommending alternative COTS items meeting engineering specifications to maintain schedule.
Most senior planners use their skills in "project management," "customer service," and "autocad" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential senior planner responsibilities here:
Interpersonal skills. The most essential soft skill for a senior planner to carry out their responsibilities is interpersonal skills. This skill is important for the role because "meeting, convention, and event planners must establish and maintain positive relationships with clients and suppliers." Additionally, a senior planner resume shows how their duties depend on interpersonal skills: "established interpersonal relationships with department of community affairs & regional planning council staffs, code enforcement officers and development services personnel. "
Negotiation skills. Another essential skill to perform senior planner duties is negotiation skills. Senior planners responsibilities require that "meeting, convention, and event planners must be able to secure quality products and services at reasonable prices for their clients." Senior planners also use negotiation skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "directed the distribution of purchase orders, as well as led the pricing negotiation of raw materials. "
Organizational skills. This is an important skill for senior planners to perform their duties. For an example of how senior planner responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "meeting, convention, and event planners must multitask, pay attention to details, and meet tight deadlines." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a senior planner: "identify, plan, and manage logistics operations to meet organizational goals. ".
Problem-solving skills. For certain senior planner responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "problem-solving skills." The day-to-day duties of a senior planner rely on this skill, as "meeting, convention, and event planners must be able to anticipate potential issues and prepare creative solutions that satisfy clients." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what senior planners do: "identified process improvement opportunities, developed solutions and worked with cross functional teams to implement. "
Communication skills. A commonly-found skill in senior planner job descriptions, "communication skills" is essential to what senior planners do. Senior planner responsibilities rely on this skill because "meeting, convention, and event planners exchange information with clients, suppliers, and event staff." You can also see how senior planner duties rely on communication skills in this resume example: "developed and maintained effective communication and cooperation between inventory and production planning department and marketing. "
The three companies that hire the most senior planners are:
- CBRE Group326 senior planners jobs
- JLL36 senior planners jobs
- Stantec33 senior planners jobs
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Compare different senior planners
Senior planner vs. Urban design consultant
An urban design consultant is in charge of many projects, and so they have to oversee tasks and plan assignments. They are skilled in creating interior design solutions, space planning, sketching, and product selection. They have to analyze information and data gotten from market research studies and censuses. They also have to do presentations and prepare reports.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a senior planner are more likely to require skills like "project management," "customer service," "autocad," and "logistics." On the other hand, a job as an urban design consultant requires skills like "urban design," "landscape architecture," "design guidelines," and "cad." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Urban design consultants really shine in the telecommunication industry with an average salary of $63,199. Comparatively, senior planners tend to make the most money in the technology industry with an average salary of $89,170.On average, urban design consultants reach higher levels of education than senior planners. Urban design consultants are 23.3% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Senior planner vs. Housing grant analyst
An urban renewal manager has a multitude of roles he/she performs in the organization he/she finds himself in. They conduct detailed economic and statistical analysis of market trends. They also develop initiatives to support pricing, brand positioning, and other marketing communications efforts. They may have to design and develop commercial strategic platforms for development planning. They may also need to hire and train new staff.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real senior planner resumes. While senior planner responsibilities can utilize skills like "project management," "customer service," "autocad," and "logistics," housing grant analysts use skills like "provide technical assistance," "grants management," "affordable housing," and "appeals."
Housing grant analysts earn a lower average salary than senior planners. But housing grant analysts earn the highest pay in the education industry, with an average salary of $55,298. Additionally, senior planners earn the highest salaries in the technology with average pay of $89,170 annually.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Housing grant analysts tend to reach similar levels of education than senior planners. In fact, they're 2.5% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for senior planners in the next 3-5 years?
Alec Brownlow Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Director, Graduate Program in Sustainable Urban Development, De Paul College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Senior planner vs. Urban renewal manager
When it comes to planning an internship, an intern's duties will depend on the directives of supervising staff or a manager. Typically, an intern's responsibilities will revolve around performing clerical tasks such as processing documents, producing reports and presentations, responding to calls and correspondence, and managing schedules. There are also instances where an intern must share ideas and insights, attend meetings, maintain records, update databases, and assist staff in various tasks while under more experienced colleagues' supervision.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, senior planners are more likely to have skills like "project management," "autocad," "logistics," and "mrp." But a urban renewal manager is more likely to have skills like "salesforce," "crm," "on-time closure," and "saas."
Urban renewal managers typically earn lower educational levels compared to senior planners. Specifically, they're 5.5% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.5% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Senior planner vs. Planning internship
Types of senior planner
Updated January 8, 2025
