Cost Manager

HKA; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working environment

Inclusive ED&I culture

Global infrastructure exposure

Job summary

HKA in Sydney is seeking a seasoned cost controller to join our project controls team. You will work with project owners, contractors and clients across energy, transport, resources and data centres to manage budgets, forecast costs and drive value.

Reporting into the cost management group, you will integrate with scheduling and risk management, prepare cost plans and reports, and advise on variations and contract matters while enjoying a hybrid working environment and opportunities to influence

Qualifications

• Tertiary qualifications in construction, engineering or finance.
• Extensive experience in complex rail/transport and oil & gas projects with integrated project controls.
• Experience maintaining best practice project controls.
• Ability to integrate scheduling with cost control outputs.
• Strong communication of cost/contract information to leadership.
• Experience in consultancy environments and client-side teams.

Responsibilities

• Provide cost control across complex projects with multiple stakeholders, integrating with scheduling and risk management.
• Monitor and control budgets with robust forecasts and change management.
• Advise on contract management, variations and invoice disputes.
• Prepare and present Cost Reports and KPI analysis.
• Prepare Cost Plans including Cost flow and Cash flow.
• Identify cost saving opportunities and drive value for money.
• Ensure accurate allocation of Actual Costs and apply earned value management.
• Provide regular updates on projects and priorities.

Skills

Cost control

Budget management

Risk management

Stakeholder communication

Team collaboration

Governance

Education

Tertiary qualifications in construction/engineering/finance

Tools

Earned Value Management

Forecasting tools

Cost reporting tools

Job description

At HKA, you'll work with project owners, contractors and infrastructure investors across asset-heavy industries including Energy, Water, Transport, Resources and Data Centres, delivering complex programs reliably, on time and on budget.

We support clients across the capital lifecycle, from setting major programs up for success, through commercial advisory and supply chain engagement, to delivery assurance during execution. You'll contribute across this spectrum, combining strategic advice, capability building and hands-on support.

What sets HKA apart is where we've come from. We're globally recognised for claims and dispute resolution when projects don't go to plan. That experience shapes how we work day to day, grounded in what actually happens on projects.

You'll be part of a team helping clients make better decisions, deliver more reliably and avoid costly missteps.

At HKA, you'll work alongside experienced practitioners on real project challenges, with early responsibility and tangible impact.

What's on Offer?

• The opportunity to be a part of a rapidly growing team and be part of driving the future success and development of our global business.
• Develop your career working with a Management Consultancy firm that works on large, high profile infrastructure projects.
• Be a part of the complex decision making and judgments on the best strategies that can affect the three critical outcomes of customer service, safety, and cost effectiveness.

The Opportunity

• Provide cost control across complex projects with multiple stakeholder interests and interdependencies, raising standards and driving improvements in cost management, in adherence with governance standards and delegations, in tracking variances, with a key focus on a monthly integration with scheduling and risk management.
• Monitor and control budgets through robust forecast and change management.
• Provide expert financial and cost controls advice in relation to contract management, including supporting the management of variations, contractor payments, and invoice disputes on a regular /ad hoc basis.
• Preparation and presentation of Cost Reports, summarising performance, including KPI reporting and variance analysis commentary.
• Preparation of Cost Plans including Cost flow and Cash flow.
• Participate in efforts to analyse systems, processes, and procedures to support continuous improvement.
• Provide timely and authoritative advice to identify, manage and minimise actual and potential cost pressures and drive value for money outcomes.
• Contribute to and identify cost saving opportunities.
• Ensure accurate allocation of Actual Costs.
• Utilise Earned Value Management and other performance measurement techniques to monitor performance.
• Provide regular updates on key projects and programs, issues, and priorities.

Skills And Experience

The Ideal Candidate Must Have

• Appropriate tertiary qualifications in construction, engineering, finance, or related fields from a recognised tertiary institution.
• Extensive proven experience in the development and delivery of complex rail and/or transport infrastructure and oil & gas projects with specific experience in the development of integrated project controls.
• Experience maintaining effective, best practice project controls.
• Experience in analysing scheduling, risk management, change control including integration with cost control outputs on large infrastructure projects is essential.
• The ability to make complex judgements on the best strategies to maximise preparedness for future requirements and consistently communicating that all decisions can affect the three critical outcomes of customer service, safety, and cost effectiveness.
• Confidence to adapt to a dynamic work environment as it evolves and progresses through substantial change.
• Working collaboratively, exchanging information, and assisting other team members to achieve team objectives and outcomes.
• Experience working within client-side project teams, providing independent cost management and commercial advice.
• Experience in contract administration, variation assessment and change management, including evaluation of cost impacts and supporting commercial decisions.
• Strong understanding of claims, contractual and commercial matters associated with major infrastructure projects.
• Experience developing and improving cost reporting, forecasting and project controls processes to provide clearer management information.
• Ability to work across cost, commercial, planning, risk and project management disciplines, providing an integrated view of project performance.
• Experience communicating complex cost and commercial information to senior management and key project stakeholders.
• Experience working in a consultancy environment and embedded within client organisations, adapting to different project governance and reporting requirements.

What We Offer

At HKA we recognise that our people are critical to our ongoing success. Our priority is to provide an inclusive and collaborative culture aimed at providing the best opportunities for our people to thrive and develop in their chosen career path.

We offer a hybrid working environment.

ED&I At HKA

HKA has a thriving ED&I committee working hard to provide an inclusive and welcoming environment for a truly diverse set of employees. We are committed as a business on the continued improvement of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy, please visit our website for further information or feel free to ask our recruitment team for further information.

All HKA employment decisions are firstly made on merit and shall be made without regard to age, disability, gender or gender reassignment, marriage, and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation, or anyother basis in compliance with local legislation.

HKA is one of the world's leading consultancy of choice for multi-disciplinary expert and specialist services in risk mitigation and dispute resolution within the capital projects and infrastructure sector.

We also have experience advising clients on the economic impact of commercial and investment treaty disputes and in forensic accounting matters.

As trusted independent consultants, experts and advisors, we deliver solutions amid uncertainty, dispute and overrun, and provide the insights that make the best possible outcomes a reality for public and private sector clients worldwide.