Planning Lead

**Planning Lead - From £40,000 per annum - Away From Home - Permanent**
**At Costa Coffee, we are what we craft. We’re reimagining coffee experiences in over 50 countries and counting, as a key part of the Coca-Cola System. Whether you get your coffee in a store, from a machine, at home, or on the go - we’ve got you covered.

As a **Planning Lead**, you’ll work closely with the Planning Manager to deliver comprehensive planning solutions for Costa Express, ensuring a seamless and exceptional service for our partners and customers. You’ll also play a key role in supporting and developing our brilliant team of Planners, promoting a culture of excellence, driving performance against KPIs and identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and service delivery.

We may be a global brand, but we haven’t forgotten our roots. That’s where the Costa Foundation and our fantastic community agenda come in. Whatever your role, you can help us change lives in coffee growing communities, and help your local community too.

We also want to help you grow in your career through amazing experiences, our apprenticeship scheme, and development programmes. At Costa, you can go beyond the day-to-day.

And as **Planning Lead**there’s never been a better time to join.

**So, why Costa?**

We didn’t become a global coffee brand by sitting back. When you work here, you join a community that values passion, progression and integrity, with some pretty brilliant perks to sweeten the deal:

- Own a piece of Costa’s success by becoming a share owner in Coca-Cola with our Share Investment Plan (SIP)
- A annual discretionary bonus of up to 10%, based on both company performance and individual achievements
- A smart pension that saves you money on tax and national insurance, and matches your contributions up to 10%
- The Costa Financial Support Fund, supporting team members who find themselves in unexpected financial pressure
- 50% discount in all Costa-owned stores, and 25% off in other participating stores
- Private medical cover thanks to our Private Healthcare scheme

We’re passionate about being a great place to work, where you can bring your unique self into our mix. We firmly support diversity, equity and inclusion, and continue to work with our teams to shape the future of our culture and values: Disciplined to Deliver, Passion for Progress, Win with Warmth, Courage to Challenge and Trusted Team Players.

**What you’ll do**

Being a **Planning Lead** is about so much more than bringing our coffee to the world. It’s your chance to stir up real success - which means you’ll be:

- Lead on day-to-day planning of machine installations across both Express and We’re Serving propositions
- Collaborate with Brand Excellence leadership to provide planning support for new/existing site training
- Building genuine and productive relationships with a variety of internal and external stakeholders.
- Coach and develop the Planning team, providing goals and objectives so that they can support you in achieving all operational and financial KPIs
- Monitoring team and individual performance, delivering appropriate feedback and training when required
- Take ownership and act as escalation point for any operational challenges, particularly in the absence of the Planning Manager
- Delivering UK Ops initiatives and projects, ensuring new initiatives are cascaded and/or trained to the team on time and in full.
- Ensure that the planning team work effectively and efficiently, identifying opportunity for continuous improvement.
- Work closely with logistics partners to drive improvements in performance and success rates
- Supporting the Operations leadership team with the machine training priorities for Costa Express Engineers

**Who you are**

It’s your unique ingredients we’re interested in:

- Proven experience in operations delivery, with a track record of driving efficiency and results.
- Expertise in the design, implementation, and optimisation of processes, always striving for innovation and continuous improvement.
- Demonstrated success in leading and motivating teams to achieve performance goals.
- Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build strong relationships across all levels.
- Solid understanding of planning systems and operational processes.
- A customer-centric approach, with a growth mindset and a drive to exceed expectations.
- Proficient in Microsoft Office, with strong skills in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
- Desirable knowledge of refurbishment operations and fleet management.

**Location**: 2-3 days per week hybrid working based at our Loudwater Head Office.