Position Summary
This role performs forensic and project-controls level analysis of construction schedules, primarily in Oracle Primavera P6, to identify, quantify, and document delay, disruption, acceleration, and schedule variance on active and disputed projects. The analyst compares multiple schedule versions (contract baselines, permit or design schedules, revised or unapproved baselines, and periodic updates), isolates the controlling path and the drivers of any slippage, and translates the findings into clear, defensible written and tabular deliverables that clients can rely on in negotiation, change-order pricing, and dispute proceedings.
The position is analytical and document-driven. The analyst does not manage field crews or produce the field schedule for a general contractor. The focus is on interrogating existing schedules, reconstructing what happened against what was planned, and producing evidence-grade analysis.
3. Key Responsibilities
- Import, open, and validate Primavera P6 schedules: load XER and XML files, reconcile against native P6 databases, and confirm data integrity (calendars, constraints, relationships, activity codes, WBS) before analysis.
- Perform multi-schedule variance analysis: compare contract baseline, permit or design schedules, revised or unapproved baselines, and monthly updates to quantify changes in activity durations, logic, start and finish dates, total float, and the project completion date.
- Identify and trace the critical and near-critical paths: determine the longest path, the controlling activities, and the specific fragnet or scope area driving any change in the forecast completion date.
- Quantify delay and its character: distinguish excusable, non-excusable, compensable, and non-compensable delay; evaluate concurrency and pacing; and separate owner or GC-caused impacts from subcontractor-caused impacts.
- Apply recognized forensic methods: as-planned versus as-built, contemporaneous period (windows) analysis, time impact analysis (TIA), and impacted-as-planned or collapsed-as-built (but-for) modeling, selecting the method appropriate to the available data and the dispute posture.
- Apply firm calendar and working-day conventions: compute durations and variances using firm-standard conventions, including a 6-day (Monday through Saturday) working-week basis where specified, and convert P6-reported working days accordingly.
- Build variance and tracking workbooks in Excel: produce multi-tab workbooks that reconcile P6 exports, present activity-level and milestone-level variance, and support obligation and deadline tracking.
- Maintain source discipline: cite every factual claim to a primary document (schedule file, correspondence, contract, daily report), flag ambiguities and data gaps rather than resolving them by assumption, and avoid subjective or conclusory language.
- Review and audit third-party schedule data: including timesheet and labor records where an analysis requires reconciliation of schedule activity to reported labor. This will typically entail, export from PDF into P6 to perform analysis so native files will not always be available.
4. Required Software Skills
Core (required)
- Oracle Primavera P6: Professional and/or EPPM. Must be able to open, build, update, and analyze CPM schedules; import and export XER, XML, and XLS; and work fluently with WBS, activity codes, calendars, constraints, relationships and lags, total and free float, layouts, filters, grouping, and Global Change. Resource and cost loading familiarity required.
- Microsoft Excel (Basic / Intermediate): Basic / intermediate skills with the ability to communicate to our executive support staff to create advanced Excel products.
- Microsoft Word (Basic / Intermediate): Basic / intermediate skills with the ability to communicate to our executive support staff to create advanced Word doc products.
Preferred (strong plus)
- Microsoft Project: ability to read, interpret, and convert schedules from parties who deliver in MSP rather than P6.
- Bluebeam Revu: for markup of drawings, exhibits, and schedule prints.
- Common construction platforms: Procore, SharePoint, or comparable document and project-management environments.
5. Schedule Analysis Competencies
Beyond software operation, the analyst must understand the underlying method well enough to explain it.
- CPM fundamentals: critical path and longest path, total and free float, driving and non-driving relationships, calendars, constraints, open ends, and the effect of logic and lag changes on the forecast.
- Baseline management and variance: identifying what changed between schedule versions and why, and distinguishing progress from re-planning and from logic manipulation.
- Recognized forensic methods: as-planned versus as-built; contemporaneous period (windows) analysis; time impact analysis; and impacted-as-planned or collapsed-as-built modeling. Understanding of when each method is and is not appropriate.
- Fragnet development: constructing delay-event fragnets and inserting them into the accepted schedule to model impact.
6. Construction and Technical Domain Knowledge
- Construction sequencing and means and methods: preferably for data center, mission-critical, and industrial construction.
- Subcontract structure: prime, subcontractor, and lower-tier relationships, and how scope, coordination, and schedule obligations flow through them.
7. Education and Experience
- Education: Education formal / informal – on-the-job construction management, engineering architecture, or a related field, or equivalent demonstrated experience.
- Demonstrated Primavera P6 experience: on active projects is required, not classroom-only exposure.
- Writing sample expectation: candidates should be able to produce or show a schedule analysis narrative or variance summary as evidence of written-analysis capability.
8. Certifications
- Not required: certifications are valued but strong demonstrated project experience is the key metric.
9. Work Product Standards
All deliverables must meet the firm's fixed output standards. Candidates should be comfortable working to a defined house style.
- Every factual claim is sourced to a primary document.
- Numerals are used rather than spelled-out numbers.
- Ambiguities and data gaps are flagged, not resolved by unstated assumption.
- Subjective and conclusory language is avoided; analysis is neutral and defensible.
- Work product is framed as consultant analysis, not legal advice, and client-facing correspondence is drafted for the client to adopt and issue at its own discretion.
10. Attributes
- High precision and attention to detail across large data sets.
- Demonstrated fluency in the English language is an absolute necessity.
- Comfort working independently on document-heavy analysis with limited supervision.
- Clear technical writing for a mixed audience of clients, counsel, and opposing parties.
- Discretion with confidential project, client, and dispute information.
- Must reside within and be a citizen of the US
Pay: $30.00 - $45.00 per hour
Work Location: Remote
