Vessel Planner Advance Planning

About the Role

DP World Jeddah is seeking an experienced Vessel Planner Advance Planning to join their Planning team in Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. This full-time role is critical for optimizing vessel stowage and crane planning to enhance vessel productivity, berth performance, and overall terminal efficiency.

Key Responsibilities

• Review vessel profiles, ship structures, stack weights, reefer slots, hatch covers, and vessel limitations to validate planning inputs and identify constraints.
• Analyze BAPLIE, MOVINS, TOS data, and other planning information; investigate discrepancies, assess operational impact, and coordinate resolutions with stakeholders.
• Develop, validate, and optimize vessel stowage plans and crane programs in line with vessel stability, cargo requirements, terminal equipment capability, and operational procedures.
• Identify opportunities to improve twin lift, tandem lift, dual cycling, and other crane-planning methods, subject to vessel design, equipment capability, and safety requirements.
• Analyze crane intensity, bay gaps, heavy hooks, crane sequences, and workload balance; recommend plan changes to improve crane and berth productivity.
• Evaluate special and sensitive cargo requirements, including reefer, OOG, IMDG, breakbulk, and direct deliveries, ensuring plans incorporate necessary restrictions.
• Validate consistency between planning systems, identify data-quality issues, and coordinate corrective actions with IT/TOS and planning stakeholders.
• Coordinate with Central Planner, Dynamic Vessel Planners, Yard Planners, Operations, and vessel representatives to align optimized plans with yard capacity and terminal strategy.
• Monitor vessel-plan execution, compare planned versus actual performance, analyze causes of productivity loss, and recommend corrective actions.
• Support planning for complex vessel calls, major plan changes, and disrupted schedules by assessing alternatives, trade-offs, and risks.
• Ensure stowage plans, crane plans, and container weight lists (CWL) are reviewed and approved by the Chief Officer and authorized planning representatives.
• Maintain planning standards, optimization guidelines, analysis records, and vessel-specific lessons learned; coach Dynamic Vessel Planners on planning quality.
• Support TOS enhancements, planning tools, data-quality improvements, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Provide supervisors and management with concise analysis of vessel-plan quality, productivity opportunities, and operational risks.
• Ensure compliance with HSE policy, Fatal Risk Standards, Safe Work Practices, and relevant SOPs; escalate safety or stability risks immediately.
• Systematically identify and document available crane-productivity opportunities before vessel arrival.
• Prepare the loading plan in accordance with approved stowage instructions, ensuring accessible picking points and practical bay sequences.
• Develop and optimize vessel loading and discharge sequences, balancing crane productivity, cargo priorities, and operational constraints.
• Act as the planning focal point for coordinating loading and discharge sequences (Quay Commander function, where assigned).
• Obtain and record the shipping line’s approval of the loading plan before implementation and coordinate any required revisions.

Qualifications and Experience

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Logistics, Maritime Studies, Naval/Marine-related disciplines, Operations Management, Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience: 4+ years in container-terminal operations, including substantial vessel-planning experience and demonstrated capability in complex stowage or crane planning.

Work Environment

The role requires willingness to work day/night or general shifts, weekends, public holidays, and overtime as required under company policy and applicable labor laws.