Occupancy Planner

An occupancy planner works out how people and teams are physically arranged across an organisation's buildings - who sits where, how many desks and meeting rooms are needed, and what happens when a department grows, shrinks or moves. They sit within corporate real estate or workplace teams, either in-house at a large employer or at a property/facilities consultancy serving client organisations. The job is a mix of data work (headcount forecasts, space measurements, utilisation figures), drawing up floor plans, and negotiating with department heads who all want the good space.

Starting salary: £24k–£32k
Live graduate jobs: Search all jobs
Main way in: Graduate schemes at large real estate and property consultancies
They usually ask for: Degree subject is usually flexible

Approximate graduate salary

Typically around £24,000–£32,000 to start, with London and consultancy roles usually at the upper end and regional in-house or facilities-based roles lower. This varies widely by employer, sector and location, and is an approximation rather than a fixed range.

What you'd actually do

Maintaining the space database and floor plans - usually in a CAFM or IWMS system (computer-aided facilities management / integrated workplace management software, essentially a database linked to building drawings) so that every desk, room and person is correctly recorded
Producing 'stack and block' plans - a stack plan shows which teams go on which floors, a block plan shows how they're arranged within a floor - and reworking them repeatedly as requirements change
Meeting business unit representatives to collect headcount forecasts for the next 12-36 months, then challenging the numbers because teams routinely over-ask for space
Analysing occupancy and utilisation data - badge-swipe counts, desk sensors, booking system records or manual walk-round surveys - to work out how heavily space is actually used versus how much is allocated

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Planning and co-ordinating internal moves: sequencing who moves when, liaising with facilities, IT, AV and furniture suppliers, and producing the move lists and signage
Running scenario analysis for property decisions - for example, what happens to desk supply if a lease is given up, if a team doubles, or if the office moves to a different desk-sharing ratio
Writing up findings and recommendations for real estate or workplace managers, often as slide decks with floor plans, charts and options

How graduates get in

Graduate schemes at large real estate and property consultancies - these firms run corporate real estate, workplace consultancy and facilities management arms, and occupancy planning sits inside them. This is the most common structured graduate route, though the scheme is usually advertised under a broader banner like 'real estate' or 'workplace consultancy' rather than the job title itself.
Direct entry as a junior/assistant occupancy planner or space planning analyst, either at a consultancy or in-house at a large employer (banks, government departments, universities, hospitals, big tech and pharma all have internal teams). Advertised roles at this level are relatively uncommon, so monitoring property and FM job boards matters.
Moving across from a related graduate role - facilities management, workplace experience, CAD technician, property data analyst or move co-ordinator. Internal moves into occupancy planning are very common and it is often easier to get in sideways than directly.
Via a facilities management or building services apprenticeship or junior role, then progressing - this is a realistic non-degree route and a reminder that the role is not graduate-only.

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Architecture, interior design or building surveying graduates who want the data and strategy side rather than design sometimes convert into occupancy planning, bringing drawing and space-standards knowledge with them.
Unusual but real: coming in from pure data analysis backgrounds where an employer wants someone to make sense of utilisation data and will teach the property side.

What employers ask for

Degree subject is usually flexible, but real estate, geography, architecture, interior design, construction/building surveying, business or a numerate subject are the most common. There is no single required degree and plenty of planners come from unrelated subjects.
Most employers ask for a 2:2 or 2:1; consultancy graduate schemes are more likely to specify a 2:1 and sometimes UCAS points. Smaller in-house teams often care more about relevant experience than classification.
Strong Excel is close to universal - pivot tables, lookups and the ability to clean a messy headcount spreadsheet. Some roles ask for Power BI or similar.
Familiarity with AutoCAD (or at least the ability to read and mark up a floor plan) is frequently requested; some employers will train you, others expect you to arrive with it. Revit and CAFM/IWMS platform experience are a bonus rather than a requirement at entry level.

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Professional qualifications are optional but valued over time: RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) chartership is the recognised route if you move towards corporate real estate, while IWFM (Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management) membership and qualifications suit the facilities side. Neither is normally needed to get your first job.
Any experience of office moves, space surveys, student accommodation allocation, event layout planning or similar - including part-time or placement work - is genuinely persuasive because it shows you understand that space decisions involve people, not just squares on a plan.

Skills that matter

Spreadsheet and data modelling

Almost every recommendation starts as a headcount forecast reconciled against a desk count, and errors in that model lead to real people arriving with nowhere to sit.

Reading and interpreting floor plans

You need to see a drawing and immediately judge how many workstations fit, where the circulation routes and fire exits are, and which areas are unusable.

Stakeholder negotiation

Department heads routinely ask for more space than they need and resist moving, so most of the job is persuading people to accept a plan that works for the whole building.

Attention to detail under version control

Plans go through many iterations and a move list with one wrong name or desk number creates a visible failure on move day.

Clear visual presentation

Senior property and finance decision-makers approve options from a colour-coded floor plan and a short deck, not from a raw dataset.

Understanding of workplace standards and basic compliance

Desk densities, means of escape, accessibility and the employer's own space standards all constrain what you are allowed to plan, so plans that ignore them get rejected.

Putting these on a CV? We counted which skills 12,914 live graduate adverts ask for, and what to do with the answer — part of our application advice.

Where it leads

Assistant or junior occupancy planner / space planning analyst - maintaining data, updating plans, supporting moves. Typically the first one to three years, though this varies by employer.
Occupancy planner - owning a building, campus or client account, running your own move programmes and producing scenario options independently.
Senior occupancy planner or occupancy planning manager - leading a team or a portfolio, setting space standards, and feeding into property decisions such as whether to renew a lease.
From here the paths diverge: towards corporate real estate and portfolio strategy (often alongside RICS chartership), towards workplace strategy and change management (how people work, not just where they sit), or towards broader facilities/workplace management. Consultancy routes lead to client-facing consultant and associate director roles.
Timelines vary widely. In-house teams are often small and promotion depends on someone leaving, so moving between employers or between in-house and consultancy is a normal way to progress.

What people get wrong

“It's interior design - choosing furniture and making the office look nice.”

Design and fit-out are usually separate roles. Occupancy planning is far closer to data analysis and logistics: counting, forecasting, allocating and sequencing. You may never choose a chair.

“Hybrid working killed the job.”

The opposite happened in many organisations. When everyone had an assigned desk the planning was simple; once desks are shared, utilisation is uneven and portfolios are being shrunk, someone has to model it - which is exactly this role.

“It's a purely technical back-office job.”

A large share of the work is negotiation and politics. Space is a status symbol, teams defend their floors, and the planner is frequently the person delivering unwelcome news to senior managers.

“You need an architecture or surveying degree.”

Helpful, but not required by most employers. The common denominator is being comfortable with data and able to read a plan; both can be learned on the job or through short courses.

Where this varies

The job differs a lot depending on where it sits. At a property or facilities consultancy you are usually assigned to one or more client accounts, the work is more project-based and fast-moving, and there may be travel between client sites. In-house at a large organisation you own one portfolio long-term, know the people, and the role blends into general facilities and workplace work. Sector matters too: in corporate offices it's desks and meeting rooms; in universities it's timetabling-adjacent teaching space; in the NHS and government it's heavily constrained by compliance, older estates and statutory requirements. Job titles are inconsistent - the same work is advertised as space planner, workplace planner, space management analyst, occupancy analyst or CAFM/space data analyst, so searching only for 'occupancy planner' will miss most of the openings.

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General guidance about the role across the UK market, not about any specific employer. Entry routes and requirements vary — always check the individual job advert.