Principal Cost | Adelaide

BHP Group; Adelaide; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

BHP is seeking a Principal Cost Engineer to deliver high-quality cost engineering services across a portfolio of projects. You will establish budgets, monitor costs, forecast outcomes, and provide actionable insights to support delivery.

Working with Project Management, Development and Delivery teams, you will ensure robust cost control, identify risks and opportunities, and help projects achieve financial objectives.

Qualifications

• Experience in cost control and project cost management across EPCM or Owner environments.
• Broad project lifecycle experience from concept through close-out.
• Strong analytical, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Familiarity with cost management systems and forecasting techniques.

Responsibilities

• Apply cost engineering standards and best practices across projects and programs.
• Provide principal cost engineering support to project teams throughout the lifecycle.
• Develop and maintain project cost baselines aligned with business cases.
• Monitor costs and forecasts against approved budgets.
• Implement cost control frameworks based on project scope and contracting strategy.
• Record and maintain costs, commitments, accruals and forecasts in Cost Management Systems.
• Analyse cost performance and apply EVM techniques to forecast outcomes.
• Coordinate monthly project status and cost reporting.

Skills

Cost Engineering

Budgeting

Forecasting

Earned Value Management

Stakeholder engagement

Project controls

Education

Engineering/Quantity Surveying/Business (Finance or Accounting)

Tools

Ecosys

Prism

CMS

Job description

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Date: 1 Sept 2026

Job Posting End Date:

Job Country:

Australia

Job State/Province: South Australia

About BHP

At BHP we support our people to grow, learn, develop their skills and reach their potential. With a global portfolio of operations, we offer a diverse and inclusive environment with extraordinary career opportunities. Our strategy is to focus on creating a safe work environment where our employees feel strongly connected to our values and objectives, and where the capability of our people is key to our success.

Come and be a part of this success.

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Principal Cost Engineer to provide technical expertise and deliver high-quality cost engineering services across a portfolio of projects. In this role, you will support project teams by establishing and maintaining project budgets, monitoring costs and commitments, forecasting project outcomes, and providing actionable insights to support successful project delivery.

Working closely with Project Management, Project Development, and Delivery teams, you will play a key role in ensuring robust cost control practices, identifying risks and opportunities, and helping projects achieve their financial objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Apply cost engineering standards, methodologies, and best practices across projects and programs.


• Provide prinicipal cost engineering support to project teams throughout the project lifecycle.


• Develop and maintain project cost baselines, ensuring alignment with approved business cases and funding approvals.


• Monitor project performance and reconcile actual costs and forecasts against approved budgets.


• Implement and maintain appropriate cost control frameworks based on project scope, complexity, and contracting strategy.


• Ensure project costs, commitments, accruals, and forecasts are accurately recorded and maintained within Cost Management Systems.


• Analyse cost performance and apply Earned Value Management (EVM) techniques, where appropriate, to identify trends and forecast outcomes.


• Facilitate, monitor, and report project changes in accordance with project change management processes, assessing impacts on cost and schedule.


• Identify cost risks and opportunities and recommend corrective or preventative actions to support project objectives.


• Contribute to the continuous improvement of cost engineering processes, systems, standards, and reporting practices.


• Provide technical guidance, coaching, and knowledge sharing across project teams and cost engineering practitioners.


• Manage expectations and review deliverables from implementation partners, contractors, and third-party service providers to ensure quality outcomes.


• Coordinate and facilitate monthly project status and cost reporting activities.

About You

• Extensive experience in a project environment within Cost Engineering, Quantity Surveying, Engineering, Project Controls, or a related discipline.


• Demonstrated experience in cost control and project cost management, ideally within both EPCM and Owner's team environments.


• Broad project experience across the full project lifecycle, from concept and development through execution and close-out.


• Strong knowledge of project management methodologies, systems, and controls.


• Experience supporting capital projects across various project phases within an Owner's or EPCM environment.


• Proven ability to deliver accurate, high-quality work while managing competing priorities and deadlines.


• Strong analytical, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills.


• Commitment to quality, continuous improvement, and operational excellence.


• Experience using Cost Management Systems such as Ecosys, Prism, CMS, or similar platforms.


• Sound understanding of Cost Engineering principles, forecasting, budgeting, reporting, change management, and performance measurement techniques.


• Experience facilitating and coordinating monthly project reporting processes.


• Tertiary qualifications in Engineering, Quantity Surveying, Business (Finance or Accounting), Project Controls, or a related discipline are preferred but not essential.


• Equivalent industry experience will also be considered.

Applications are open until 15Sep 2026.

About Our Process

At BHP, we are committed to employing individuals who align with the BHP Charter Values and meet the requirements of the role. As part of the recruitment process, there are a number of checks which may be conducted to demonstrate applicants suitability for a role including police / criminal background checks, medical, drug and alcohol testing, due diligence checks, right to work checks, and/or reference checks.

Supporting a Diverse Workforce

The size, stability and magnitude of our business not only provides significant opportunity for professional development, but also attractive salary packages with performance-based bonuses and a best-in-class employee share program. We know there are many aspects of our employees' lives that are important, and work is only one of these, so we offer benefits to enable your work to fit with your life. These benefits include flexible working options, a generous paid parental leave policy, other extended leave entitlements and parent rooms.

At BHP, we know that we are strengthened by diversity. We are an Equal Opportunity employer that is committed to making BHP a safe and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive and be at their best every day. We are focused on creating a workforce that’s more diverse and represents the communities where we work and live. providing a work environment in which everyone is included, treated fairly and with respect.We are an Equal Opportunity employer and recognise that true diversity includesgender,age, race, disability status, sexual orientation, religion, neurodiversity, education levels, and many more aspects of your identity.

BHP is committed to providing a recruitment process that is fair, equitable and accessible for all. If you have a disability, we know that it may be helpful for us to adjust our process to make it equitable for your individual situation. If you would like to reach out to someone about your situation and our recruitment process, please email us at [e-mail].