Cost Engineer

By 2050, the planet could be using twice as much electricity compared to today. Are you interested in contributing and helping to shape the future of the world’s energy? If so, read on.

Fusion, the process that powers the Sun and Stars, is one of the most promising options for generating the cleaner, carbon-free energy that our world badly needs.

UKAEA leads the way in realizing fusion energy, partnering with industry and research for ground-breaking advancements. Our goal is to bring fusion electricity to the grid, supported by tomorrow\’s power stations. In pursuit of our mission, UKAEA embraces core values: Innovative, Committed, Trusted, and Collaborative.

As an employee of UKAEA you will benefit from:

• Outstanding defined benefit pension scheme, details of which can be found at the end of this advert.
• Corporate bonus scheme up to 7% and a Relocation allowance (if eligible).
• Flexible working options including family friendly policies and the right to request flexible working from the start of your employment.
• Employee Assistance Programme and trained Mental Health First Aiders.
• Generous annual leave allowance starting with 25 days, plus 3 days Christmas closure and 2.5 privilege days, in addition to UK bank holidays.
• Wide range of career development opportunities.
• A vibrant culture committed to equality and being fully inclusive.

Job Description

The salary for this role is £56,596 (inclusive of a Specialist Allowance- £6,285). Onsite working is expected for 3 days each week, however, we actively support requests for flexible working.

This role is based in Culham, Oxfordshire.

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions and possibly a search of open source data.

The Role

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to make a difference? Join our team and contribute to the future of fusion energy. As Cost Engineer, you will play a pivotal role and be instrumental in shaping the financial landscape of our projects. You\’ll collaborate closely with Project Controls staff and Project Managers, taking the lead on the cost estimation process for both new project proposals and existing projects within our diverse portfolio. As leader of the cost team, you will leverage your project controls expertise to provide crucial support to leadership, ensuring the financial strength and resilience of the entire division.

Key Accountabilities

• Develop early-stage project budgets and produce monthly earned value reports for project, programme, and portfolio-level monitoring.
• Lead the generation of project cost estimates across the portfolio and develop appropriate templates to standardise approach to enhance consistency and performance.
• Using planning data, produce forward looks and cost projections for projects.
• Proactively alert Project Managers to financial trends and potential problems and collaborate on solutions.
• Provide subject matter expertise on cost management issues in a range of forums.
• Be responsible for using the earned value data to monitor project costs and performance against budget, driving continual improvement in cost control processes and contributing to enhanced programme delivery within the portfolio.
• Calculate resource projections from data to inform recruitment and portfolio decisions.
• Manage and develop the project controls team, identifying skill gaps and improvement opportunities.
• Lead continual improvement in month end data flow
• Provide support to the project delivery group, challenging processes and identifying improvements.
• Provide training and coaching to others in financial management and earned value management.

Qualifications

• Recognised accountancy qualification.
• Demonstrable experience in cost accounting, budgeting or forecasting for projects and programmes, gained as a cost controller/cost engineer in a project management environment.
• Ability to present complex data in a simple manner, and to aid professionals with understanding their data.
• Excellent MS Excel skills and strong analytical skills.
• IT literate, fluent in Microsoft Office, including PowerPoint, Word and Excel.
• Self-starter, highly motivated with a strong track record in previous roles who enjoys problem solving and improving working practices.
• Excellent report/minutes writing skills.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to influence stakeholders.
• Exceptional planning and organisational skills.
• Ability to work autonomously, with initiative and minimum supervision
• Demonstrable experience presenting their work to senior staff and knowledge of wider department strategies and goals.

Additional Information

A full list of our benefits can be found here https://careers.ukaea.uk/life-at-ukaea/employee-benefits/.

We welcome talented people from all backgrounds who want to help us achieve our mission. We encourage applications from under-represented groups, particularly from women in STEM, people from BlackBritishCaribbean and African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi British, and other ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities, and neurotypical individuals. Our Executive team, supported by our \’Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion\’ (EDI) and Wellbeing and our EDI Networks actively promote Inclusion and takes steps to increase diversity within our organisation.

We reinforce best practices in recruitment and selection and evaluate approaches to remove barriers to success.

Please note that vacancies are generally advertised for 4 weeks but may close earlier if we receive a large number of applications.

For applicants applying from outside the United Kingdom or those who have spent time outside the UK in the last five years, please visit the following link for information on criminal records checks: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants If your country of residence or previous residence is not listed on the website or if the UK Government does not have information on obtaining a criminal records check from that state, we regret to inform you that we cannot process your application.