Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Intake Planner

🎯 Role Definition

An Intake Planner is responsible for receiving, validating, prioritizing and scheduling incoming work requests or permits; coordinating resources, materials and timelines; ensuring regulatory and safety compliance; and maintaining accurate records and dashboards to meet SLAs and operational KPIs. This role acts as the central routing and scheduling authority between customers, field crews, vendors and internal stakeholders to optimize throughput, reduce delays and improve first-time completion rates.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Scheduling Coordinator
Permit Specialist / Permit Coordinator
Customer Service Representative (with operations exposure)

Advancement To:

Senior Intake Planner / Scheduling Lead
Resource Planning Manager / Capacity Planner
Operations Manager / Field Operations Supervisor

Lateral Moves:

Project Coordinator
Dispatch Supervisor
Continuous Improvement Analyst

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Receive and triage incoming requests, work orders, permits and service tickets from multiple intake channels (customer portals, email, phone, external vendors), validate completeness and prioritize according to SLAs, safety risk and business rules.
Create, update and maintain accurate work orders and intake records in the company’s work order management system or ERP (e.g., SAP, Oracle), ensuring each entry includes scope, location, required permits, customer contact information and estimated duration.
Route and assign validated work to the appropriate field crews, contractors or project teams based on skill set, geographic proximity, crew capacity and safety qualifications, balancing workload to maximize efficiency and minimize travel time.
Coordinate scheduling across internal stakeholders, vendors and subcontractors to ensure single-point scheduling ownership, confirm technician availability, and lock in appointment windows while minimizing rework and cancellations.
Review technical attachments, site plans and permit documents submitted with intake requests to confirm compliance with regulatory and contract requirements; escalate incomplete or non-compliant submissions to requestors or regulatory contacts.
Maintain and publish daily/weekly schedules and resource rosters, communicating changes proactively to field teams, dispatch and customer contacts to avoid downtime and missed expectations.
Manage intake escalations, including urgent or emergency work, competing priorities and service-impacting conflicts; recommend and implement temporary schedule realignments to meet critical needs.
Conduct capacity planning and forecast resource demands using historical intake data, upcoming project pipelines and seasonal trends to inform crew staffing, overtime planning and contractor utilization.
Track and report SLA performance, intake backlogs, lead times, first-time completion rates and other KPIs; present findings and proposed corrective actions to operations leadership.
Run quality checks and audits on intake records to ensure accuracy of addresses, job codes, billing codes and regulatory attachments; correct data entry errors and coordinate with billing/finance teams as needed.
Coordinate materials staging and logistics with procurement and warehouse teams so that scheduled field activities have required parts and equipment on-site at the planned time.
Execute pre-job readiness checks (virtual or on-site confirmations) to ensure permits, access agreements and safety documentation are in place prior to dispatching crews.
Maintain up-to-date intake procedures, routing matrices and SOPs; document workflow changes and ensure the intake process reflects current regulatory, contractual and operational requirements.
Act as the central communications point for customers and internal teams during intake lifecycle, providing timely status updates, appointment confirmations and post-completion follow-up as required to ensure high customer satisfaction.
Use GIS tools, mapping and location validation logic to resolve address ambiguities, confirm network connectivity or identify right-of-way issues that may affect scheduling or resource allocation.
Analyze rejected or delayed intakes to identify root causes (missing documentation, permit delays, schedule conflicts) and drive continuous improvement initiatives to reduce repeat failures.
Build and maintain effective vendor relationships and scheduling agreements, verifying contractor qualifications, insurance and permit compliance prior to assignment.
Support billing and invoicing by ensuring work order time entries, material usage and job completion notes are captured accurately and submitted to finance on schedule.
Participate in cross-functional planning meetings (construction planning, outage coordination, customer projects) to align intake priorities with larger program schedules and minimize conflicting resource commitments.
Train and mentor new intake staff, develop knowledge base articles, and provide ongoing coaching on tools, intake criteria, and exceptional case handling.
Leverage automation and workflow rules (e.g., auto-triage, auto-routing) to streamline intake throughput while monitoring exceptions for manual review and continuous tuning.
Maintain a compliant audit trail of intake communications, approvals and schedule changes for regulatory inspections, dispute resolution and post-project reviews.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis for operations, finance and leadership stakeholders to inform resource decisions.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap by recommending intake-related metrics, system enhancements and integration points.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements and intake-system configuration updates.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering or operations IT teams to prioritize intake system improvements and bug fixes.
Assist in coordinating outage planning windows and communicate any intake impacts to customers and stakeholders.
Help maintain training materials and run periodic refresher sessions for field and dispatch teams on intake system changes and process updates.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Advanced proficiency with work order management and scheduling systems (examples: Oracle Field Service, ClickSoftware, IFS, IBM Maximo, SAP PM).
Strong Excel skills (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, macros) for schedule modeling, capacity analysis and reporting.
Experience with ERP/finance integration basics (SAP, Oracle) to align intake data with billing and cost centers.
Familiarity with CRM or ticketing platforms (Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zendesk) for customer-facing intake workflows.
Ability to use GIS/mapping tools and address validation services to resolve location-based routing and permitting issues.
Working knowledge of permit management systems and regulatory permitting workflows (municipal and state permitting environments).
Basic SQL skills or exposure to querying databases to extract intake metrics and build ad-hoc reports.
Experience with BI and visualization tools (Power BI, Tableau, Looker) to create intake dashboards and KPI reports.
Understanding of workforce planning concepts, crew scheduling rules and resource leveling techniques.
Knowledge of safety, regulatory and compliance requirements relevant to field operations (OSHA basics, local utility codes).
Familiarity with automated intake workflows and rule engines to implement triage and routing logic.
Competency in maintaining audit trails and documentation for compliance, billing and dispute resolution.

Soft Skills

Excellent verbal and written communication skills for clear status updates, stakeholder coordination and documentation.
Strong prioritization and time-management skills to balance competing intakes and urgent requests while protecting SLA commitments.
High attention to detail and accuracy when validating documentation, codes, addresses and compliance items.
Customer-focused mindset with patience and professionalism when interacting with external customers and field personnel.
Problem-solving and critical-thinking skills to diagnose intake issues, determine root causes and propose practical resolutions.
Collaborative team player comfortable working cross-functionally with operations, procurement, permitting and IT teams.
Adaptability and resilience in fast-paced, often changing scheduling environments.
Negotiation skills to resolve scheduling conflicts and align expectations among multiple stakeholders.
Training and coaching ability to onboard new intake staff and reinforce procedural best practices.
Continuous improvement orientation, using data to drive process optimizations and automation opportunities.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:
High school diploma or equivalent with relevant vocational training or certifications in scheduling, logistics or operations.

Preferred Education:
Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Business Administration, Civil Engineering, Construction Management, Urban Planning or a related field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Supply Chain / Logistics
Operations Management
Business Administration
Civil Engineering / Construction Management
Urban Planning / Environmental Studies

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:
2–5 years of experience in scheduling, intake coordination, work order management, dispatch or related operational roles.

Preferred:
3–7 years of progressive experience handling intake workflows in utilities, construction, field services, public works or municipal permitting environments, including demonstrated use of work order systems, scheduling tools and reporting/BI platforms. Prior experience coordinating contractors, managing permits and working with cross-functional stakeholders is strongly preferred. Certifications in project management (CAPM/PMP), Lean or Six Sigma are a plus.