Senior Cost Consultant/Cost Consultant

Arcadis is the world's leading company delivering sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets.

We are more than 36,000 people, in over 70 countries, dedicated to improving quality of life. Everyone has an important role to play. With the power of many curious minds, together we can solve the world’s most complex challenges and deliver more impact together.

Role description:

The Senior Cost Consultant will provide expert commercial and cost management support on major infrastructure projects, working within NEC4 ECC and PSC contract environments. The role focuses on delivering robust cost assurance, defined cost assessment, forecasting, and value management throughout the project lifecycle. The Senior Cost Consultant ensures effective contract administration, financial control, and governance compliance. This role involves collaboration with multiple stakeholders and requires 2–3 days per week on site or at client offices.

Role accountabilities:

Commercial Management & Cost Assurance

• Lead assessment of Defined Costs and Price for Work Done to Date (PWDD) under NEC4 ECC/PSC contracts.
• Conduct progressive and six-monthly audits of supplier accounts and cost records.
• Undertake clause 50.9 reviews and support Strategic Gateway Assessment Reviews (SGARs).
• Provide commercial input into Outline and Final Business Cases (OBC/FBC).
• Lead the assessment of Compensation Events and Budget Change Events (X22.6).
• Support dispute avoidance and supplier performance management.
• Identify and track commercial opportunities and efficiencies against project targets.

Cost & Budget Management

• Prepare accurate cost forecasts to ensure sufficient funding for contractual commitments.
• Support the Service Manager in achieving forecasting accuracy of ±4% monthly and ±2% annually.
• Manage and agree the cost and time impact of change, maintaining rigorous change control.
• Support the agreement of Target Outturn Costs and manage budgets, risk, and inflation allowances.
• Maintain and validate monthly supplier data and baselines for earned value reporting.
• Support accurate forecasting for land and property costs and provide challenge where required.

Contract Administration & NEC Support

• Support the NEC Project Manager in fulfilling duties under NEC4 ECC within public sector governance frameworks.
• Administer all NEC communications including acceptances, assessments, notices, certificates, and decisions.
• Lead contract administration meetings and produce monthly progress reports.
• Ensure 100% of PWDD assessments are completed accurately and on time.
• Monitor progress against the Activity Schedule and lead recovery planning where necessary.
• Maintain accurate data across systems (CEMAR, PRISM, riskHive, P6, etc.).
• Produce completion and hand-back reports confirming delivery against scope, quality, and budget.

Qualifications & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in Quantity Surveying, Commercial Management, Engineering, or related discipline.
• Chartered membership or equivalent professional qualification with RICS or CICES.
• NEC4 accreditation is desirable.
• Proven experience in commercial management and cost assurance within the infrastructure sector, ideally on major programmes or frameworks (e.g., National Highways).
• Strong knowledge of NEC4 ECC and PSC contracts, including Defined Cost and PWDD assessment.
• Demonstrated experience delivering projects from inception to completion.
• High level of commercial acumen, analytical ability, and attention to detail.
• Proficient in cost and project management systems (CEMAR and PRISM)
• Willingness to travel and work at client sites for 2–3 days per week (reimbursed).

Why Arcadis?

We can only achieve our goals when everyone is empowered to be their best. We believe everyone's contribution matters. It’s why we are pioneering a skills-based approach, where you can harness your unique experience and expertise to carve your career path and maximize the impact we can make together.

You’ll do meaningful work, and no matter what role, you’ll be helping to deliver sustainable solutions for a more prosperous planet. Make your mark, on your career, your colleagues, your clients, your life and the world around you.

Together, we can create a lasting legacy.

Join Arcadis. Create a Legacy.

Our Commitment to Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging

We want you to be able to bring your best self to work every day which is why we take equality and inclusion seriously and hold ourselves to account for our actions. Our ambition is to be an employer of choice and provide a great place to work for all our people. We believe that by working together diverse people with different experiences develop the most innovative ideas. Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the heart of how we improve quality of life and we work closely with our people across six ED&I Workstreams: Age, Disability, Faith, Gender, LGBT+ and Race. A diverse and skilled workforce is essential to our success.

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