Senior Presales

BCITS PVT LTD; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 2,500,000 - 4,000,000; Full time

Job summary

BCITS Private Limited, Bengaluru, is seeking a Presales – Utility Solutions cost estimation specialist. You will translate RFPs into an itemised deliverables list and build a complete internal cost model for AMI, metering, billing and revenue management projects.

You will own the cost workbook across the full contract term, including escalation, O&M, and compliance considerations, ensuring accurate, auditable estimates for leadership decisions.

Qualifications

• Must read utility RFPs/tenders and explain scope, SLAs and milestones in operational terms.
• Should own bottom-up cost estimates/BOQs for multi-component projects with software, hardware and O&M elements.
• Advanced Excel workbooks with clear assumptions, lookups and scenario tabs are essential.

Responsibilities

• Read tender pack scope of work, extract deliverables, supply, install, integrate, operate and maintain.
• Identify explicit vs implied deliverables and cost drivers.
• Flag ambiguities and draft pre-bid queries that affect cost model.
• Lead Deliverable Breakdown Structure per bid with quantities, specs, milestones and acceptance.
• Build and maintain internal cost workbook with rates, assumptions and auditable logic.
• Validate breakdown with delivery/solution/O&M leads and present to CEO and bid committee.

Skills

RFP literacy

Cost estimation

Excel modelling

AMI domain knowledge

Attention to detail

Delivery realism

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering

Tools

Excel

Job description

Powering Utility Digitalization Since 1999

JOB DESCRIPTION

Presales – Utility Solutions (AMI, Metering, Billing & Revenue Management)

Department: Presales & Business Development

Reporting To: Chief Executive Officer

Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka (travel for pre-bid meetings and site visits as required)

Industry Domain: Power, Water & Gas Utilities AMI, Smart Metering, MDAS/MDM, Billing & Revenue Management

Employment Type: Full-Time

ABOUT BCITS

BCITS Private Limited, incorporated in 1999 and headquartered in Bengaluru, is a technology partner to the power, water and gas utility sector. Over 25 years, BCITS has delivered more than 100 projects across India as an OEM and system integrator in Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), Meter Data Acquisition, Revenue & Billing Management, Meter Data Management, CIS, CRM, GIS and Smart/Spot Metering solutions.

Empaneled by the Power Finance Corporation (PFC) as a Meter Data Acquisition Solution Provider under R-APDRP, BCITS works with state distribution utilities and large System Integrators/EPCs (AMISPs) on turnkey programs that reduce losses, improve revenue and enhance customer service. BCITS is strengthening its presales function to bid accurately and competitively across AMI, RDSS and digital utility transformation programs.

WHY THIS ROLE EXISTS

Every bid BCITS submits rests on one internal document: the cost sheet. It converts the RFP's scope, deliverables, SLAs and contract terms into every rupee BCITS will spend to execute the project. If the sheet misses a cost, BCITS wins the bid and loses money. If it overstates cost, BCITS prices itself out and does not win. This role owns that sheet.

This is a domain-first estimation role, not a generalist bid-coordination or proposal-writing role. We are looking for someone who has worked inside utility metering, billing or AMI projects, can read an RFP the way a delivery head reads it, and can independently produce a complete, defensible cost workbook that leadership can price from with confidence.

ROLE PURPOSE

Own the translation of utility RFPs/tenders into:

(a) a clear, itemised list of what BCITS must deliver

(b) a complete internal Excel cost model covering every component and expenditure BCITS will incur across the full contract term with no omissions, no double-counting and no padding.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Read the entire tender pack scope of work, technical specifications, SLAs, payment terms, GCC/SCC, annexures, corrigenda and pre-bid clarifications and extract precisely what BCITS is obligated to deliver, supply, install, integrate, operate and maintain, and for how long.
• Distinguish explicit deliverables from implied ones (e.g., a data-migration obligation hidden in an integration clause, a training obligation inside a go-live milestone, a DR requirement inside an uptime SLA).
• Identify eligibility, compliance and technical conditions that affect cost or bid fit (certifications, MeitY cloud, BIS/IS standards, local-content rules, consortium terms).
• Flag ambiguities, contradictions and scope gaps and draft pre-bid queries whose answers directly change the cost model.
• Prepare a Deliverable Breakdown Structure for each bid: every item BCITS must deliver, the quantity, the specification, the phase/milestone in which it falls and the acceptance condition.
• Validate the breakdown with delivery, solution and O&M leads so that nothing in the RFP is left unowned internally.
• Build the internal cost workbook in Excel for each bid, itemised across the cost heads listed below, with quantities, unit rates, sources of rates, assumptions and the calculation logic visible and auditable.
• Model costs across the full contract life implementation, warranty, O&M/AMC including escalation, replacement cycles, SLA penalty exposure and cash-flow impact of milestone-linked payments.
• Obtain and validate rates from OEMs, telecom/communication partners, cloud providers, subcontractors and internal delivery teams; maintain a current rate library so estimates are not built from stale figures.
• Run sensitivity and scenario views (consumer count, read frequency, hosting model, manpower mix) so leadership can see where the estimate is most exposed.
• Present the cost sheet to the CEO and bid committee with a clear statement of assumptions, risks and confidence level; support margin and pricing decisions with facts, not opinions.

4. Bid Support

• Attend pre-bid meetings and site visits; capture clarifications and corrigenda and reflect their cost impact immediately in the workbook.
• Support commercial bid preparation (BOQ/price schedule) so that the submitted price schedule reconciles exactly with the internal cost model.
• Support post-submission clarifications, negotiations and reverse-auction rounds with a clear view of the floor price.
• Maintain a standard cost-sheet template and estimation checklist for AMI/metering/billing bids and improve it after every bid.
• Compare estimated vs actual cost on won projects with delivery and finance teams; feed variances back into the template and rate library.
• Maintain a tender tracker with bid outcomes, L1 pricing intelligence and win/loss reasons.

COST HEADS THE ROLE MUST COVER

The candidate should be able to identify, size and price the following from an RFP without being prompted:

Software & Licences

HES, MDM/MDAS, billing/CIS, CRM, GIS, prepaid, analytics, mobile apps; third-party licences (DB, OS, middleware, cloud); customisation and integration effort with utility legacy systems.

Hardware & Field Devices

Meters, communication modules, DCUs/gateways/RF concentrators, network equipment; spares, DOA/warranty replacement, testing and lab charges.

Communication & Connectivity

RF mesh / RF-PLC / NB-IoT / cellular; SIM and data charges over contract life; telecom partner terms.

Infrastructure & Hosting

Data centre / cloud (on-prem vs MeitY-empanelled cloud), DR, sizing for consumer count and read frequency, bandwidth, security compliance, escalation over term.

Manpower

Project management, solution and integration teams, field survey, installation and commissioning crews, helpdesk, O&M staff — by role, location, duration and rate, including deployment ramp-up/ramp-down.

Site survey, meter installation and replacement, testing, consumer indexing, data migration, UAT, go-live support, training.

O&M / AMC / FMS

Multi-year operations, SLA-linked penalties and liquidated damages, annual price escalation, obsolescence and technology refresh.

Commercial & Compliance

EMD, PBG/security deposit cost, insurance, taxes/GST treatment, payment-milestone cash flow and working-capital cost, retention money, price-variation clauses.

Quantified contingency for scope ambiguity, exchange rate, delayed site readiness, AMISP/SI consortium dependencies and change-request exposure.

MUST-HAVE REQUIREMENTS

• Domain Hands-on utility domain experience: 6–12 years in the power/water/gas utility sector in AMI, smart metering, MDAS/MDM, billing/revenue management or metering-communication projects in a delivery, solution, project-management, estimation or presales capacity. Candidates without direct utility-domain exposure will not be considered.
• RFP literacy Has read and worked from utility RFPs/tenders (DISCOM, AMISP, SI/EPC, RDSS, R-APDRP, IPDS, SMNP) and can explain scope, SLAs, payment milestones and penalty clauses in operational terms.
• Costing track record Has personally built or owned bottom-up cost estimates / BOQs for multi-component technology projects with software, hardware, manpower and multi-year O&M elements; can show a sample or walk through one in interview.
• Excel Advanced Excel structured, auditable workbooks with clear assumptions, lookups, scenario tabs and reconciliation checks. This is the primary working tool of the role.
• Delivery realism Understands the practical cost drivers of an AMI/metering rollout where projects overrun (site readiness, communication coverage, consumer indexing, integration with legacy billing, O&M manpower) and how those translate to money.
• Attention to detail Demonstrated habit of checking work line by line, reconciling totals and questioning numbers that look wrong. Comfortable being accountable for the accuracy of the estimate.
• Education Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Electrical / Electronics / Instrumentation / Computer Science) or equivalent.

GOOD TO HAVE

• MBA (Finance/Operations) or formal exposure to project costing, cost accounting or financial modelling.
• Working relationships with meter OEMs, communication technology providers, cloud/hosting partners or AMISPs.
• Exposure to public procurement norms GeM, e-tendering portals, EMD/PBG, L1/QCBS evaluation, reverse auctions.
• Experience reconciling estimated vs actual project costs post-award.

HOW WE WILL ASSESS CANDIDATES

Shortlisted candidates will be given an extract from a real utility RFP and asked to

(1) list the deliverables,

(2) build a cost sheet in Excel

(3) present their assumptions and identify what they would raise as pre-bid queries. Selection will be based on completeness, domain judgement and clarity of the workbook not presentation polish.

KEY COMPETENCIES

• Utility domain depth (AMI, metering, billing, revenue management)
• Analytical rigor and numerical accuracy
• Ownership and accountability for outcomes
• Clear communication of assumptions and risks to leadership