Senior Cost Intelligence Manager in Cardiff

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Assume day‑to‑day delivery support for projects and demonstrate the ability to take on tasks without supervision.
• Strengthen our service delivery capability and promote knowledge capture, sharing and innovation.
• Prepare budget estimates, cost plans, cost reports, and client reports.
• Provide cost assurance services through data analysis, cleaning, estimating and benchmarking.
• Prepare cost and benchmark estimates, cost rates, cost models, and engineering definitions.
• Create cost hierarchies, break‑downs, and methods of measurement for bespoke cost calculations.
• Produce dashboard reports for external clients and manage related data capture, storage, analysis and reporting.
• Maintain the cost database, develop costing tools, and manage the internal cost intelligence database systems.
• Monitor industry and economic cost trends and maintain the index register.
• Deliver all work outputs accurately and on time to a high standard of quality.
• Support the implementation of strategic initiatives at service and sector levels.
• Ensure service delivery in accordance with company policies, particularly Health and Safety and Quality Assurance.
• Provide services in compliance with the client’s corporate governance procedures where applicable.
• Achieve all objectives as required by the annual performance review process.
• Demonstrate a commitment to continuing professional development and continuous improvement.
• Work to deadlines set by the Project Team Leader and maintain filing of project correspondence in accordance with requirements.
• Mentor and support team members, ensuring staff and new starters develop to support business growth.
• Ensure change control processes for the services we provide.
• Populate and submit accurate timesheets with useful descriptions weekly.
• Manage the delivery of work through proactive involvement and performance management of personnel.
• Support forecast of work through proactive management of the CI Programme.
• Provide costed risk, Monte Carlo simulations, and optimism bias assessments.
• Contribute to bid and tender preparation and business development.

Knowledge & Skills Required

• Communicate effectively and negotiate confidently with all levels of stakeholders.
• Cope with demanding and changing timeframes.
• Excellent team worker, contributing own thoughts and ideas.
• Work independently and provide progress updates.
• Dependable in high‑pressure situations.
• Passionate about adding value to cost intelligence services.
• Comfortable working with multiple sources of data and information.
• Driven to continuously improve and provide innovative solutions.
• Present complex information to senior management.
• Self‑learner, sharing knowledge verbally and in writing.
• Demonstrate a high degree of integrity.
• Prioritise and self‑manage in high‑pressure environments.
• Manage conflicting priorities and organise workloads with the appropriate Director.
• Lead a team and deliver results in a client‑facing role.
• Strong interpersonal and team‑building skills.
• Strong analytical skills, sound judgement and aptitude for forward planning.
• Excellent oral and written communication, and developing presentation skills.
• Excellent knowledge of construction industry technical matters with circa 5 years plus post‑qualification experience.
• Good awareness of construction contracts, best practice and cost estimating systems.
• Advanced IT skills, including MS 365, Excel and automating processes.
• Meticulous in reviewing and validating cost data, ensuring accuracy and identifying discrepancies.
• Experience of managing people and delivering multiple or complex projects.

Preferred Education and Experience

• Preferably degree‑qualified in construction, cost management, engineering, quantity surveying or another RICS‑accredited degree.
• RICS/MRICS/CaSA or other equivalent qualification or experience.
• Excellent core technical skills and a highly motivated, conscientious and inquisitive attitude.
• Objective, evidence‑based decision‑making skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills with both staff and clients.
• Strong ability to think clearly and make reasoned decisions, explaining the logic employed.
• Energetic and motivated with natural drive, innovative flair and resourcefulness.
• Ability to adapt to change and drive solutions and results.

Cumming Group is committed to creating a diverse workplace and is proud to be an equal‑opportunity employer. All job applicants will receive equal treatment without regard to age, sex, disability, sexual orientation, race (includes nationality, national/ethnic origin, colour), marriage & civil partnership, pregnancy & maternity, gender assignment, religion and belief.

We prefer to hire directly, and we will be in touch with agencies if this role is eligible for release. At Cumming Group, we are passionate about helping our clients execute large‑scale, complex projects on‑time and within budget. Our project and cost‑management services are specifically tailored to each client’s needs and add meaningful value at every step of a project’s development.

Cumming Group is committed to providing Equal Employment Opportunities through its personnel policies and practices. It is Cumming Group’s policy to recruit, hire, train and promote team members without regard to protected characteristics under UK and European law. All such decisions are based on individual merit, qualifications and competence as they relate to the particular position, and on the promotion of the principle of equal employment opportunity.