Principal Project Controls - Cost

About the role

As a Principal Project Controls Specialist - Cost you will lead cost management and analytics across a portfolio of complex capital projects. You will blend traditional project controls with modern data integration and automation. Your work will require developing, overseeing, and implementing project cost management processes, and includes preparation and analysis of cost status for projects. We ask that you have flexibility to support a variety of delivery models ranging from a single large-scale project with a dedicated team to a portfolio of smaller projects with minimal direct support.

Key Responsibilities

• Implement project cost control practices during all project phases, across different delivery models. This may include serving as the primary cost lead on a major project, providing oversight for a mid-sized project, or managing a portfolio of smaller projects.
• Use knowledge of project controls concepts and best practices within project-specific context to support monitoring to accomplish department goals.
• Oversee cost control systems and reporting including variance analysis and forecasting for presentation to multiple organizational levels ranging from specific task level to senior leadership. Ensure accuracy and timeliness of reporting.
• Work with teams including project managers, estimators, schedulers, risk analysts, technical leads, and financial analysts to maintain an updated and risk-informed financial picture of projects and provide insights.
• Manage cost, schedule, and budget for assigned deliverables (e.g. Performance and Cost Control Plan) as standard-alone tasks, as a task-level project manager. Coordinate resources to ensure and quality submission of client deliverables.
• Ensure adherence to project management and project controls procedures. Plan and perform assessments of project controls processes to facilitate proactive identification of issues and promote continuous improvement.
• Contribute to functional strategy development and programmatic governance maintenance.
• Help develop work instructions, templates, checklists, and desktop guides to promote and reproducible work products.
• Identify systemic issues and support issue resolution. Participate in continuous improvement projects by formally documenting issues, observations, and lessons learned. Promote implementation of improvements.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (e.g., Engineering, Finance, Data Science) or equivalent experience
• 8+ years' experience in project management, project controls, or cost engineering.
• Familiarity with project controls systems such as Primavera P6 and EVMS platforms.
• Experience working with large datasets and integrating data across systems.
• Write code (e.g., Python, VBA, and SQL)
• Develop structured, scalable work processes.
• Experience with modern data tools (e.g., Power BI, SharePoint integration) is desirable.
• Advanced proficiency in Excel, including modeling, pivot tables, and complex formulas.

Pay

The base salary range for this position, which is dependent upon experience, qualifications and skills, is estimated to be $103,200 to $129,000 per year.