Project Scheduler

About the role

LIGHTERA has one of the longest and most respectable corporate lineages in American business, tracing back to Alexander Graham Bell and the invention of the telephone. Our mission is to provide leading optical innovations and solutions by designing, manufacturing, and supplying the best optical fibers, fiber cable, components, and devices for our customers, with exceptional service that creates value for our shareholders, customers, and employees. As a Project Scheduler, you will partner closely with project managers, engineering, maintenance, procurement, operations, contractors, and site leadership to align scope, shutdown windows, equipment availability, material deliveries, and commissioning activities. The ideal candidate is comfortable working in an active manufacturing environment and can turn complex execution plans into clear, reliable schedules.

Responsibilities

• Develop Project Schedules: Build baseline schedules, work breakdown structures, activity logic, critical path analyses, and milestone plans for manufacturing capital projects from concept through closeout.
• Track Progress: Collect updates from engineering, procurement, construction, installation, commissioning, and operations teams and maintain accurate weekly schedule status.
• Coordinate Shutdowns and Production Impacts: Integrate outage windows, production constraints, equipment access, utilities tie-ins, and contractor activities into the project schedule.
• Analyze Risks and Delays: Identify schedule conflicts, long-lead equipment risks, permit constraints, resource bottlenecks, and start-up delays; evaluate impacts and recommend recovery plans.
• Communicate with Stakeholders: Prepare schedule updates, look-ahead plans, milestone reports, S-curves, variance summaries, and escalation items for project teams and leadership.
• Support Resource and Contractor Coordination: Coordinate labor, materials, equipment, vendors, contractors, and internal site resources to support project execution and commissioning milestones.

Requirements

• Proficiency with Oracle Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, and Excel-based schedule reporting.
• Understanding of critical path method scheduling, baseline management, schedule variance analysis, resource loading, earned value concepts, and change impacts.
• Ability to schedule work around operating equipment, maintenance windows, safety requirements, utilities, production constraints, and commissioning activities.
• Strong ability to gather schedule inputs from engineering, procurement, maintenance, operations, contractors, and leadership.
• High attention to detail, disciplined follow-up, and the ability to manage multiple concurrent capital projects or work streams.
• Demonstrate effective communications (verbal, written) skills.
• Proficient with MS Office Word and Excel.
• Maintain discretion when working with confidential and proprietary information.
• Strict adherence to Company safety policies and procedures.
• Exhibit Lightera’s “Standards of Conduct.”

Qualifications

• Education: A bachelor's degree in engineering, construction management, project management, operations management, business, or related technical field.
• Experience: 3 to 7 years of planning, scheduling, or project controls experience supporting manufacturing, industrial, facilities, equipment installation, or capital expenditure projects.
• Preferred Background: Experience with brownfield or active-site project execution, production shutdown coordination, contractor scheduling, equipment procurement, installation, start-up, and commissioning.
• Certifications: Credentials such as Project Management Professional (PMP), PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP), or project controls training are preferred but not required.

Benefits

• Competitive salaries
• Medical and dental coverage
• Tuition reimbursement
• Matching 401(k) plan

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States now and in the future. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.