Senior Project Specialist - Planning at J.D. Irving, Dieppe, NB

AI Summary

This Senior Project Specialist - Planning role at J.D. Irving's Midland Transport in Dieppe, NB, focuses on leading the end-to-end deployment of advanced planning solutions.

The Planning Lead acts as a subject matter expert, ensuring new planning processes and tools are effectively transitioned across the terminal network.

Key duties involve assessing terminal readiness, onboarding Power Users, and supporting user validation for new planning capabilities.

A Bachelor's degree in Business or Supply Chain Management and 5-8 years in transportation or logistics operations are top requirements for this management-focused position.

About the Role: Driving Planning Deployment Across the Network

As the Senior Project Specialist - Planning, often referred to as the Planning Lead, you will play a pivotal role within Midland Transport's Transformation Program, based in Dieppe, NB. This operations-focused position requires a subject matter expert in planning capabilities to lead the end-to-end deployment of sophisticated planning solutions across the entire terminal network. Your primary objective will be to ensure that new planning processes, tools, and workflows are seamlessly transitioned from the development environment into live operations. This critical work enables terminals to confidently adopt and utilize these new planning capabilities with consistency and minimal disruption, driving significant operational improvements for the business.

The Planning Lead (Transition) develops a deep understanding of the future-state planning model, translating this knowledge into practical deployment activities. This includes conducting thorough terminal readiness assessments, facilitating user validation, ensuring process alignment, and providing essential go-live support. You will be instrumental in guaranteeing that each terminal deployment delivers operationally sound planning outcomes that accurately reflect real-world terminal conditions. This role demands close partnership with the Transition Lead, Terminal Power Users, Product Owners, Business Architects, Training, Change Management, and various terminal operations teams. Such collaboration ensures that all planning deployments are meticulously coordinated, sequenced, and supported, ultimately driving widespread adoption, building robust operational capability, and accelerating value realization across the entire network through effective project management.

Key Responsibilities and Impact

In this dynamic role, you will act as the primary planning subject matter expert, responsible for building and transferring critical expertise in future-state planning capabilities directly to terminal teams. Your leadership will guide the end-to-end deployment of new planning processes and solutions, from initial readiness assessments through to go-live and subsequent stabilization phases. A significant part of your work will involve assessing terminal readiness across various dimensions, including people, existing processes, data integrity, and technology infrastructure, identifying any gaps and proactively driving remediation efforts. You will also be tasked with onboarding and enabling Power Users, empowering them to effectively support testing, deployment, and ongoing adoption at each terminal location.

Collaboration is key; you will support user acceptance testing and validation to build confidence and ensure readiness before any cutover. Working closely with product, business, and solution teams, you will ensure that planning solutions accurately reflect real operational needs and contribute positively to overall business management objectives. Post-deployment, you will monitor adoption rates and performance, addressing any emerging issues and reporting valuable insights to leadership. This comprehensive approach ensures that every aspect of the planning solution deployment contributes to a more efficient and effective transportation and logistics business.

Qualifications and Company Culture

To thrive as a Senior Project Specialist - Planning, candidates should possess a Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Operations Management, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience. A minimum of five to eight years of experience in transportation, logistics operations, or supply chain management within LTL, freight, or distribution environments is essential. Certifications such as APICS CSCP, CLTD, or equivalent supply chain/logistics certifications are considered valuable assets, with a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt preferred. Proven experience with advanced planning processes, including load planning, route optimization, capacity management, or shipment sequencing in an operational setting, is a core requirement. Furthermore, demonstrated ability to deploy or implement new processes, tools, or systems across multiple operational sites is crucial for success in this role.

Experience working within Agile, hybrid, or phased delivery models in enterprise transformation or technology implementation programs will be highly regarded. Candidates must also bring deep operational knowledge of planning processes specific to a terminal-based transportation or logistics environment. A strong ability to translate complex future-state solution designs into practical, terminal-ready deployment activities is paramount. Excellent communication skills are required to effectively engage terminal leadership, frontline supervisors, and program stakeholders with clarity and credibility. J.D. Irving, Limited, including its Midland Transport division, is committed to fostering an inclusive workplace where talent thrives and careers are built for the long haul, valuing safety, continuous improvement, and results across all business operations. We encourage all interested candidates to apply, even if they don't meet every single requirement, as we prioritize a comprehensive assessment of skills and qualities.