Expressions of Interest – Project Controls Professionals

We are currently seeking expressions of interest from experienced:

• Project Planners / Schedulers
• Cost Controllers
• Estimators
• Project Controls Leads

Whether your expertise is in planning and scheduling, cost estimation and or management, or broader project controls, we would like to hear from you.

Locations

These opportunities can be based in any of our offices in Australia. Please indicate your preferred location and which role you are applying for when submitting your application. Applicants must be based in Australia to be considered for these opportunities.

Project Controls Lead

Leadership and function management

• Lead the project controls team (planning, cost, estimating and, where applicable, risk) across a project or program; allocate resources, set priorities and manage workload against the reporting calendar.
• Mentor and develop schedulers, cost controllers and analysts, and review the quality and consistency of their outputs.
• Act as the project controls point of contact for the project manager, project director and Client; provide controls advice and analysis to the leadership team.

Systems, standards and governance

• Establish and maintain project controls standards, procedures and templates covering schedule control, cost control, EVM, change and reporting.
• Own the WBS, CBS, activity coding and metadata; ensure integration between the schedule (Primavera P6) and cost systems (PRISM, Ecosys, CMS, Quest or similar) and reconciliation to the Client ERP (SAP, Oracle, Ellipse, Maximo).
• Set, govern and protect the baseline; control baseline changes and maintain baseline integrity across all phases.
• Drive compliance and assurance against standards; identify quality and governance issues and lead corrective action.

Integrated schedule and cost control

• Oversee development and maintenance of the integrated master schedule; assure logic, critical path, key milestones and resource loading and levelling.
• Oversee cost control across all phases: budget management, monthly actuals and accruals, forecasting and EAC.
• Lead earned value measurement and progress measurement; reconcile physical progress against cost and schedule performance (SPI/CPI) and explain variances.
• Lead collation and analysis of schedule and cost impact assessments; quantify delay and disruption and recommend recovery and mitigation based on logic and experience.
• Interpret and integrate contractor schedules and cost data; provide feedback to contractors on schedule and cost quality, and evaluate contract bid schedules.

Risk and change

• Integrate cost and schedule risk analysis; maintain quantitative risk models and translate outputs into contingency and confidence ranges.
• Implement and govern the change management process; guide trend analysis and assess the cost and schedule impact of changes.

Reporting and stakeholder engagement

• Own the project controls reporting cycle aligned to the Client reporting calendar; deliver weekly and monthly progress, cost, schedule and performance reporting with variance analysis.
• Review and quality-assure key milestones and metrics used in reporting.
• Present integrated performance, forecasts and key risks to the project leadership team and the Client.
• Support the project controls manager and PMO, and contribute to continuous improvement of the controls function.

Planning & Scheduling

Schedule development and maintenance

• Develop new, logic-driven schedules for projects, assigned shutdowns or work areas within large capital projects and programs, aligned to project objectives.
• Update and maintain assigned project schedule(s) in a timely and diligent manner.
• Develop and maintain resource loading and levelling within the schedule; work with project managers to develop staffing and resourcing plans.

Integration and analysis

• Interpret and integrate contractor schedules into the project schedule.
• Perform integration across multi-discipline and multi-phase projects and programs of work.
• Lead schedule reviews to identify challenges and prevent or mitigate delays, recommending solutions based on logic and experience.
• Collate and analyse multiple schedule impact assessments and recommend solutions based on experience and logic.

Standards and governance

• Comply with standards and procedures for schedule control, including maintenance of resourcing, activity codes and metadata.
• Review and quality-assure key milestones used in reporting.
• Evaluate contract bid schedules and provide feedback to contractors on schedule quality.
• Identify quality and governance issues and recommend improvements.

Reporting and stakeholder engagement

• Perform reporting and monitoring, including variance reporting against the project calendar.
• Present schedules and analysis to the project leadership team.

Support

• Support the lead planner and project controls manager as required.

Cost Control

Cost control and forecasting

• Perform cost control tasks including monthly actuals and accruals, forecasting and budget management.
• Maintain the forecast/EAC across all phases of the project through timely communication with stakeholders at all levels.
• Perform progress reporting and earned value measurement.

Change management

• Implement the change management process; provide guidance on trend analysis and assess the cost impact of changes.

Systems and integration

• Demonstrated experience with cost control systems such as CMS, Quest, PRISM, Ecosys or similar.
• Familiarity with ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle, Ellipse and Maximo, and reconciliation between project controls and ERP.
• Engage with planning engineers to ensure contractor and internal schedules in Primavera P6 and other systems are integrated with cost data for forecasting.
• Understanding of estimating, procurement and contracts processes, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Experience cost flowing different procurement and contract package types.

Reporting and stakeholder engagement

• Establish, manage and monitor reporting requirements via weekly and monthly progress, cost and performance reporting aligned to the Client reporting calendar.

Support

• Support the cost lead and project controls manager as required.

Estimating

Estimate development and methodology

• Prepare cost estimates across the project lifecycle, from order-of-magnitude (AACE Class 5) through to definitive/control estimates (Class 1), matched to the applicable stage gate (FEL or PCEM phase) and supported by a documented Basis of Estimate.
• Define the estimate structure aligned to the WBS/CBS, and select the appropriate methodology per phase: parametric and analogous for early classes, transitioning to semi-detailed and fully detailed line-item estimating as definition matures.
• Produce and validate quantity take-offs from drawings, 2D/3D and BIM models, MTOs and bills of quantity; reconcile quantities against scope and design deliverables.
• Build and apply unit rates spanning labour, plant, materials, subcontract and indirects; develop and apply labour productivity norms with location, escalation and currency factors.
• Estimate and substantiate contingency and allowances as separate items, with contingency informed by risk analysis and historical outturn rather than a flat percentage.
• Run cost risk analysis (Monte Carlo) to establish P50/P90 ranges and confidence levels, and to size contingency.

Benchmarking, data and assurance

• Benchmark estimates against historical project actuals and external datasets; reconcile and explain movement between estimate classes and against prior estimates.
• Maintain the estimating norms library and cost database; capture closed-out actuals to improve future estimate accuracy.
• Document assumptions, exclusions, qualifications and the Basis of Estimate to a standard that withstands formal estimate review and stage-gate assurance.
• Comply with estimating standards, coding structures and procedures; align estimate breakdowns to the Client's cost-control coding and ERP structure.
• Lead or participate in estimate reviews and challenge sessions; identify quality and governance issues and recommend improvements.

Tendering, procurement and change

• Evaluate contractor and supplier bids against the owner's/reference estimate; identify commercial risk, pricing anomalies, abnormal loading and scope gaps.
• Prepare tender and budget estimates from scope and work packs, and support development of procurement and contracting strategy.
• Estimate variations and change; support trend analysis and assessment of cost impacts.
• Apply cost flowing across different procurement and contract package types.

Reporting and handover

• Present estimates, ranges and key cost drivers to the project leadership team, communicating confidence levels and the reasoning behind the numbers.
• Provide estimate inputs to budget setting and to the cost forecast/EAC, and support handover of the sanctioned estimate to cost control.
• Demonstrated experience with estimating platforms such as Cleopatra Enterprise, CostOS, RIB CostX or Candy (CCS), and risk tools such as @Risk, Safran Risk or Primavera Risk Analysis. Familiarity with P6 for schedule and resource integration.
• Support the lead estimator, cost lead and project controls manager as required.