Cost and Estimating Lead

Salary up to £63,000 (depending on experience)

Location: Pity Me, Durham, County Durham

About the role:

We have an amazing new opportunity to become our Cost and Estimating Lead, reporting into the Integrated Controls Manager within our Asset Portfolio Management Office (PMO). We see this role as essential to realising our National Leader ambitions and we’re looking for a motivated governance and change professional, with direct experience of working in a fast-paced PMO environment.

You’ll act as the cost and estimating lead within the Northumbrian Water PMO and will lead a team of cost and estimating professionals in delivery of best practice project and programme cost planning, estimating and control. We’re looking for you to implement and oversee the cost team ethos and the drive to achieve objectives, along with the review and assurance of estimates prepared by the cost team estimators for projects and contracts at key project lifecycle stages and provision of ad-hoc estimates.

You’ll be delivering on the provision of NEC3 Framework and Contract costing support in line with stakeholder requirements, along with guidance on project CBS preparation and its integration with the WBS, in collaboration with project teams and scheduling and risk leads. You’ll also be reviewing our contractors’ estimates for completeness and reasonable basis that supports the project scope and deliverables.

We’re looking for you to be the PMO & Capital Delivery cost and estimating authority, attend and contribute to meetings and management forums on behalf of the PMO, along with owning the cost preparation controls model and associated guidelines for meeting forums, purpose, attendees, and materials, ensuring consistency of approach across the delivery programme.

About you:

We’re looking for you to have proven experience of developing and delivering the provision of high-quality cost and in-depth estimating support in a project controls or programme management environment, along with the successful development and deployment of project baseline cost structure build up, cost estimation, budgeting and cashflow management. You’ll also have demonstrable knowledge of contract and procurement management standards including NEC 3 forms of contract.

You’ll have a proven track record of accurate project cost monitoring, analysis, forecasting and reporting to completion in line with targets. You’ll also have experience of motivating high-performing colleagues or teams to a successful end, recognising the importance of training, development, safety, and well-being, along with having a close and effective collaboration with fellow PMO integrated function leads and supporting the Head of PMO.

We’re looking for you to have experience of using dedicated cost estimating, management systems and reporting tools and software, such as MS PowerBI, along with experience of performance dashboard development and information management to support senior level decision making.

If this sounds like you, then we’d love to see your application come through to us.

Here at Northumbrian Water/Essex & Suffolk Water, we embrace and value Diversity, Inclusion and Equity, and encourage all colleagues to bring their most authentic self to work. Our colleague network groups include our Rainbow Support Network (LGBTQIA+), REACH (Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Heritage), WiSTEM (Women in STEM) and Thisability (disability and neurodiversity) networks. They provide a safe space for colleagues from diverse backgrounds, welcoming all colleagues regardless of their personal characteristics to participate in valuable conversation that improves our organisational awareness, understanding and inclusivity.

We encourage and welcome all applications, as we strive to be an equal opportunity employer, committed to having diverse communities represented within all our teams, structures, and organisation.

Please note this role may require a DBS to be completed prior to employment. NWG are an inclusive employer who support the rehabilitation of offenders, we will not, however consider candidates who have certain unspent convictions to ensure our commitment to fostering a safe and secure working environment for all colleagues, suppliers, customers and third parties.

About us:

Here at NWG we strive to make Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) a Great Place to Work, for all. We embrace and value Diversity, Inclusion and Equity and encourage you to bring your full self to work. As an equal opportunity employer we’re committed to having a diverse community represented across our business.

We’re aware that not everyone will have every skill listed in the job description, however if you have some of the skills listed, we’d encourage you to apply.

NWG at a glance:

Our purpose at NWG is caring for the essential needs of our communities and environment, now and for generations to come. We do this by providing reliable and affordable water and wastewater services for our customers. We make a positive difference by operating efficiently and investing prudently, to maintain a sustainable and resilient business. Our vision is to be the national leader in the provision of sustainable water and wastewater services. To support us in achieving our vision, we have five core values which are the guiding principles, defining who we are, what we do and how we do it.

We’re a Great Place to Work because of the amazing people who work for us, and to say thank you we offer a range of benefits to colleagues. Our ‘Tap Into’ benefits include:

• Generous holiday entitlement of 26 days, plus bank holidays and additional time off on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. There’s also the option to buy or sell holidays.
• Company pension scheme, where we’ll double match your contributions up to an employer contribution of 10%.
• Free access to local attractions.
• A fantastic discount scheme, with savings on days out, shopping, travel and more.
• Award winning ‘Living Well’ wellbeing support, including access to a digital GP service for you and your family members.
• Support with sustainable travel – through salary sacrifice cars and a cycle to work scheme.
• Financial wellbeing support – access our community savings scheme, financial education and low cost loans through Salary Finance. We also provide 4 x Life Assurance and an Income Protection Scheme.
• Support with your development – we offer a range of development opportunities, can support you through an interest free qualification loan and we’ll even pay for any relevant professional body subscription.

About us:

NWG (Northumbrian Water Group) provides water and sewerage services to 2.7 million people in the North East of England as Northumbrian Water, and water services to 1.5 million people in the South East of England as Essex & Suffolk Water. We are proud to serve our customers and we’re committed to delivering great service, putting our customers at the heart of everything we do.

Our values:

Our values describe our main principles, qualities and attributes. They are the guiding principles which define who we are, what we do and how we do it. They make us different from our competitors and guide our decisions and actions to drive us towards our vision. Our values are:

• Results Driven: We take responsibility for achieving excellent business results.
• Ethical: We are open and honest and meet our commitments with a responsible approach to the environment and our communities.
• Customer Focused: We aim to exceed the expectations of our internal and external customers.
• Innovative: We continuously strive for innovative and better ways to deliver our business.
• One Team: We work together consistently, promoting co-operation, to achieve our corporate objectives.

We’re the great company we are because of you – our people. As our way of saying thanks, we offer you a wide range of benefits and discounts to take advantage of. To find out more about our benefits, see our benefits booklet attached to this advert.