Principal Cost Engineer

The Home, United Kingdom

6/24/2025

Job Description

As Principal Cost Engineer, you will be responsible for a small team of project control/ cost engineering resources, providing technical leadership.

Costain helps to improve people’s lives by deploying technology-based engineering solutions to meet urgent national needs across the UK’s energy, water and transportation infrastructures. Advisory set the standard for PMO and Project Controls across the business, providing resources, training and development, advice, and support for business development.

You will also be a conduit between Advisory, the wider Costain business and our clients, identifying opportunities and maintaining relationships and shaping project controls solutions for clients.

Alongside this, you will maintain their own commissions in the Energy Sector, generating and maintaining cost information and updating clients with progress.

This is a home-based, hybrid role with travel to client sites/office as per business needs, so flexibility is essential along with eligibility to obtain security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Establish and deliver Cost and PMO methodologies and practices
• Focal point, role model and SME for Cost Engineering good practice, sharing knowledge through task and line management, coaching, mentoring and supporting PMO and Project Controls continuous improvement initiatives
• Support resource planning and allocation across the business, actively seeking and identifying opportunities for additional business, and identifying and escalating issues to the PMO Leadership Team
• Provide timely and consistent communication to stakeholders on progress, impacts and changes associated with management of the portfolio or commissioned projects ensuring alignment between cost, schedule and risk
• Provide support and input to the Control Log through the lifecycle of the programme and ensure that change control is managed and implemented effectively
• Provide support and input to the risk review and escalation of risks, issues and dependencies and the translation of this into cost management, change control and variance analysis
• Stakeholder management both internally and externally
• Ensure the Cost team are following defined methodologies and practices and provide support to the Head of Cost Engineering to build and maintain those defined methodologies and practices
• Supports Business Development
• Contribute to lessons learned process at project close out and contribute learning to improve future success in projects, business development and training and development
• Thought leadership and development of best practice
  
  

Essential

QUALIFICATIONS

• Integration of Project Controls processes and tools to include EVM
• In-depth cost management project experience across multiple UK sectors in a senior role
• Financial and Commercial Integration Experience
• SAP
• Professional Membership of recognised body
• Degree in Engineering, Business or technical subject or equivalent experience
• Current or eligibility to obtain security clearance. (UK Citizenship or UK resident for 5 years)
  
  

Desirable

• Working knowledge of planning and risk tools
• Whole of Project Lifecycle experience on large scale projects and programmes with multiple internal and external stakeholders
• Breadth of experience in different cost tools and techniques
• Professional Qualifications from bodies such as Axelos, Acoste, APM and APMG
  
  

About Us

Costain helps to improve people’s lives with integrated, leading edge, smart infrastructure solutions across the UK’s energy, water, transportation and defence markets. We help our clients improve their business performance by increasing capacity, improving customer service, safeguarding security, enhancing resilience, decarbonising and delivering increased efficiency. Our vision is to be the UK’s leading smart infrastructure solutions company. We will achieve this by focusing on blue chip clients whose major spending plans are underpinned by strategic national needs, regulatory commitments, legislation or essential performance requirements. We offer our clients leading edge solutions that are digitally optimised through the following five services which cover the whole lifecycle of their assets: future-shaping strategic consultancy; consultancy and advisory; digital technology solutions; asset optimisation and complex programme delivery. Our culture and values underpin everything we do.

Costain appreciate the time and effort taken when applying for one of our positions but, due to the high volume of responses, we are unable to provide individual feedback on candidates at application phase.

We do share individual feedback following an interview .

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that disclose they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer.

It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people.

For more details please go to the Disability Confident website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/disability-confident-campaign

About The Team

Advisory is a core part of Costain’s strategy to broaden our mix of services and grow margin performance. We work with clients on multiple strategic fronts to understand, articulate and provide solutions for their most complex challenges and to facilitate further growth in multiple areas.

Our vision is to be recognised as a leading infrastructure consultancy who transform client capabilities and help them achieve enhanced value for money.

This is a key part of Costain achieving its mission to shape, create and deliver pioneering solutions that transform the performance of the infrastructure ecosystem.