Position Summary
The Senior Cost Manager will lead financial governance, commercial strategy, and cost management across all project lifecycle phases. This role is responsible for safeguarding project margins, driving value engineering, mitigating commercial risk, and providing strategic financial counsel to executive leadership.
Key Responsibilities:
- Direct and maintain overarching financial control across project portfolios, establishing robust cost-baseline controls, contingencies, risk allowances, and inflation models.
- Provide strategic advice to executive leadership on macro-economic trends, cost forecasting, escalation risks, and market fluctuations.
- Formulate and manage advanced, strategic cash flow models fully aligned with complex development and procurement schedules to optimize capital working requirements.
- Oversee high-value variation evaluations, claims management, and commercial negotiations to ensure strategic alignment with FIDIC conditions of contract.
- Direct the review and authorization of Interim Payment Certificates (IPCs) and final accounts, safeguarding against overpayment and premature capital release.
- Enforce strict compliance in quantity takeoff and Bill of Quantities (BOQ) compilation across internationally recognized measurement standards (e.g., POMI, CESSM, NRM), with critical focus on preliminaries and general site requirements.
- Lead multidisciplinary Value Engineering (VE) workshops across early design and execution phases to maximize efficiency, reduce lifecycle costs, and optimize ROI.
- Synthesize complex financial data into high-level executive dashboards and performance reports, delivering actionable insights on cost variances, trends, and risk exposure to C-suite stakeholders.
Desired Skills & Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in Quantity Surveying, Civil/Construction Engineering, or a related field.
- Preferred: Professional chartership/certification (e.g., MRICS, RICS, or equivalent professional accreditation).
- 10–12+ years of progressive experience in commercial management and cost control within large-scale construction or real estate projects (Strong background with tier-1 main contractors required).
- Proven track record of managing multi-million dollar portfolios and leading commercial teams.
- Deep expertise in FIDIC conditions of contract (Red, Yellow, and Silver books) and advanced contract administration.
- In-depth, current knowledge of regional market pricing, supply chain dynamics, and prevailing trade rates.
- Mastery of standard measurement methods (POMI, CESSM, NRM).
- Advanced financial modeling capability, including complex cash flow structuring and risk forecasting.
- Expert proficiency in Advanced MS Excel (financial modeling) and industry-standard commercial software (e.g., CostX, or enterprise ERP systems like SAP/Primavera Unifier).
- Strong negotiation skill set with a proven ability to manage high-stakes disputes and change orders.
- Exceptional executive communication, presentation, and reporting abilities.
