Senior Cost Intelligence Data Analyst

AtkinsRéalis; City of Westminster; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading infrastructure consultancy in the United Kingdom seeks a Senior Cost Intelligence Data Analyst. In this pivotal role, you'll provide robust cost intelligence for major infrastructure clients while analyzing large datasets. Your analytical conclusions will influence crucial business decisions, necessitating clarity in communication and rigorous data integrity. The position offers a hybrid working model, competitive salary, and a commitment to professional development and diversity.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Employee rewards

Flexible holiday allowances

Training and professional development

Qualifications

• Experience working with large and imperfect datasets.
• Ability to explain complex analysis to non-technical audiences.
• Exposure to cost and commercial environments.

Responsibilities

• Own the analytical integrity of cost intelligence outputs.
• Shape how cost data is interpreted by senior stakeholders.
• Analyse large datasets to understand distributions and variance.
• Defend analytical conclusions under scrutiny.

Skills

Analytical integrity

Data quality assessment

Analytical reasoning

Mathematical soundness

Complex dataset analysis

Project/cost systems knowledge

Stakeholder communication

Skeptical reasoning

Tools

EcoSys

P6

CostX

Unifier

Job description

Overview

The Senior Cost Intelligence Data Analyst provides rigorous and defensible cost intelligence for our major infrastructure client. Working with large and imperfect datasets, the role applies structured analytical reasoning to understand cost behaviour, variability, and uncertainty. The analyst is expected to explain, justify, and defend analytical conclusions in high-scrutiny environments where decisions have material consequences. This is a senior analytical position grounded in mathematics, reasoning, and judgement, rather than reporting. This position sits within the specialist Cost Data Intelligence and Analytics team who support a variety of complex infrastructure programmes across transport, water, energy, aviation, and defence. Outputs generated by the team inform business cases, comparator schemes, assurance reviews, and investment decisions, and are frequently subject to independent challenge.

Your Role

• Own the analytical integrity of cost intelligence outputs.
• Ensure conclusions reflect data quality, uncertainty, and context, not convenience.
• Shape how cost data is interpreted, challenged, and relied upon by senior stakeholders.
• Set expectations for analytical rigour, proportionality, and governance.
• Analyse large and complex datasets to understand distributions, variance, outliers, and structural drivers.
• Design analytical approaches that are mathematically sound, proportionate, and transparent.
• Challenge assumptions, methodologies, and narratives using evidence and structured reasoning.
• Explain complex analysis, uncertainty, and limitations clearly to senior, non-technical audiences.
• Defend analytical conclusions under challenge, including from assurance reviewers and subject-matter experts.
• Develop analytical outputs and visualisations only where they improve understanding or decision quality.
• Work closely with cost, commercial, and programme teams to ensure analysis aligns with scope maturity and delivery context.
• Contribute to shared analytical frameworks, benchmarks, and standards.
• Promote disciplined approaches to data quality, lineage, and governance.
• Knowledge of governance frameworks such as AACE, IPA, or Green Book guidance.
• Experience with project or cost systems (e.g. EcoSys, P6, CostX, Unifier).
• Intellectually rigorous and sceptical of weak inference.
• Comfortable operating under challenge and defending analytical positions.
• Values clarity and proportionality over false precision.
• Motivated by improving decision quality, not producing volume.
• Exposure to cost, commercial, or capital programme environments.
• Familiarity with benchmarking, comparative analysis, or assurance activity.

Company and Culture

Explore the rewards and benefits that help you thrive - at every stage of your life and your career. We offer competitive salaries, employee rewards and a range of benefits you can tailor to suit your health, wellbeing, financial and lifestyle choices. We support training and professional development to grow your skills and expertise, and offer a hybrid working culture and flexible holiday allowances to balance work and personal life. We are committed to diversity and inclusion and do not discriminate based on gender, ethnicity, national origin, sexual identity and orientation, age, religion or disability.