Industrial Infrastructure, Pre-FEED, CAPEX and Project Controls Specialist - Remote

Axyde Analytics; Houston (TX); Hybrid; USD 207,000 - 393,000; Full time

Job summary

Axyde is seeking a Senior Industrial Infrastructure consultant to support pre-FEED, CAPEX, and project controls for global mining, energy, and infrastructure projects. This remote US-based role may require international travel and collaboration with diverse sponsors and engineering teams.

The selected specialist will assess technical bases, execution strategies, and cost/schedule assumptions, delivering defensible, order-of-magnitude conclusions from incomplete data while ensuring compliance

Qualifications

• Engineering degree or closely related discipline required.
• Minimum 10 years of relevant industrial-project, infrastructure, or project-control experience.
• Experience in concept engineering, FEL, pre-FEED, FEED, EPC/EPCM, or related scopes.
• Ability to translate incomplete data into fit-for-purpose scopes and risk mitigation.
• Ability to draw order-of-magnitude conclusions with limited information.
• Strong analytical writing skills and ability to work under compressed schedules.
• Contract-required status: US citizen or lawful permanent resident; US-based consultant.

Responsibilities

• Develop or review project design bases, owner requirements, and facility concepts.
• Evaluate site development, civil, structural, geotechnical, and supporting infrastructure.
• Assess definition and recommend FEL/pre-FEED/FEED/feasibility tasks.
• Create scopes, qualifications, deliverables, staffing plans, and budgets.
• Develop CAPEX/OPEX assumptions, cost bases, contingencies, and FX.
• Assess integrated schedules, critical paths, permitting, and milestones.
• Evaluate execution strategies, packaging, EPC/EPCM interfaces, and supply risk.
• Review cost/schedule risk analyses and change-control methods.
• Identify interfaces among mines, processing plants, water systems, and transport.
• Identify information gaps and suggest validation and diligence activities.
• Participate in sponsor/interviews, technical-diligence calls, site visits.
• Contribute to concept reports, sector analyses, and recommendations.
• Clearly state estimate maturity, assumptions, exclusions, and qualifications.

Skills

Analytical writing

Working under tight schedules

Cost estimating awareness

Education

Engineering degree or related discipline

Job description

Industrial Infrastructure, Pre-FEED, CAPEX and Project Controls Specialist

Opportunity track: SEA / GLOBAL / MENA-EE
Engagement: Contingent individual consultant; engagement may be direct or through an eligible U.S. consulting firm
Location: Remote — United States, with possible international travel
Primary promotion location: Houston, Texas 77002
Anticipated consulting fee: $150–$285 per hour, or a negotiated fixed price by work package

The opportunity

Axyde is building a senior expert bench for anticipated U.S. government-funded project-scoping assignments involving mining, mineral processing, energy, utilities, transportation, digital facilities, and other industrial infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East, Europe and Eurasia, Latin America, and other global markets.

The selected specialist will help Axyde determine whether proposed facilities have a credible technical basis, an implementable execution strategy, commercially reasonable cost and schedule assumptions, and an appropriately designed next-stage feasibility study, technical-assistance assignment, pilot, pre-FEED, or FEED effort. Assignments may begin with incomplete data and require rapid, independent, and defensible conclusions.

Axyde welcomes specialists whose principal strength is engineering definition, cost estimating, scheduling, constructability, procurement, or project controls. Applicants are not expected to be equally expert in every discipline listed below.

Potential responsibilities

• Develop or review project design bases, owner requirements, facility concepts, plot plans, process and utility interfaces, and preliminary engineering assumptions.
• Evaluate site development, civil, structural, geotechnical, buildings, water, power, fuel, communications, transportation, logistics, waste, and other supporting infrastructure.
• Assess project definition and recommend proportionate concept-engineering, FEL, pre-FEED, FEED, feasibility, pilot, owner-engineering, or technical-assistance tasks.
• Develop or review technical scopes, required qualifications, deliverables, staffing plans, work breakdown structures, schedules, and budgets for subsequent studies or project-preparation assignments.
• Develop or test preliminary CAPEX and OPEX assumptions, estimate classifications, quantity and unit-rate bases, allowances, contingencies, escalation, foreign exchange, taxes, duties, and owner-cost assumptions.
• Assess integrated schedules, critical and near-critical paths, permitting dependencies, long-lead equipment, procurement sequencing, construction windows, commissioning, startup, and ramp-up assumptions.
• Evaluate execution strategies, packaging, contracting approaches, EPC/EPCM interfaces, modularization, prefabrication, local-content assumptions, constructability, and supply-chain risks.
• Review cost and schedule risk analyses, change-control methods, progress-measurement approaches, reporting systems, and decision-gate criteria.
• Evaluate interfaces among mines, processing plants, generation and grid assets, water systems, pipelines, roads, rail, ports, airports, data centers, and other enabling infrastructure.
• Identify material engineering and project-delivery information gaps and recommend practical validation, survey, testing, design, and diligence activities.
• Participate in sponsor interviews, technical-diligence calls, and occasional site visits involving project sponsors, host-country stakeholders, financiers, engineering firms, contractors, and prospective U.S. suppliers.
• Contribute to concept consultations, initial assessments, project reports, presentations, sector deep dives, and technical-economic recommendations.
• Clearly state estimate maturity, accuracy limitations, assumptions, exclusions, qualifications, and matters requiring validation by an appropriately licensed professional or discipline specialist.

Required qualifications

• Degree in engineering, construction management, quantity surveying, project controls, or a closely related discipline; directly relevant equivalent experience may be considered for senior cost and schedule professionals.
• At least 10 years of directly relevant industrial-project, infrastructure, engineering, construction, estimating, scheduling, or project-controls experience.
• Demonstrated experience in one or more of the following: concept engineering, FEL, pre-FEED, FEED, EPC/EPCM, owner’s engineering, cost estimating, scheduling, risk analysis, procurement, construction planning, commissioning, or major-project delivery.
• Experience translating incomplete early-stage information into fit-for-purpose scopes of work, cost ranges, schedules, decision criteria, and risk-mitigation measures.
• Ability to produce useful order-of-magnitude conclusions without implying a greater level of engineering definition or estimate accuracy than the available information supports.
• Strong analytical writing skills and the ability to work under compressed schedules.
• Contract-required status: The individual performing the work must be either a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident of the United States (green-card holder). Other forms of U.S. work authorization do not satisfy the stated requirements of the anticipated contracts. A consultant engaged directly as an individual must maintain a principal place of business in the United States. A consultant proposed through a firm must be employed or engaged through an entity that independently satisfies the solicitation’s U.S.-firm requirements.

Preferred qualifications

• Professional Engineer, AACE, PMI, RICS, or another directly relevant professional credential.
• Experience with AACE estimate classifications, schedule-quality assessment, quantitative risk analysis, and risk-based contingency development.
• Experience with mining, mineral processing, power, oil and gas, LNG, hydrogen, geothermal, water, transportation, regulated facilities, data centers, or other complex infrastructure.
• Experience preparing or independently reviewing feasibility-study, technical-assistance, pilot, pre-FEED, or FEED scopes and budgets.
• Familiarity with lender or investor technical due diligence and the engineering inputs required for project economic and financial analysis.
• Experience evaluating U.S.-supplied equipment, services, technologies, or potential export opportunities within international projects.
• Emerging-market experience and familiarity with international project sponsors, host-country governments, U.S. government agencies, or development-finance institutions.

Engagement conditions

This is a contingent consulting opportunity, not an offer of full-time employment. No award, assignment, minimum number of hours, or minimum compensation is guaranteed. Engagement depends on contract award, assignment fit, eligibility, conflicts, availability, successful completion of Axyde’s due diligence, and agreement on scope and pricing. The stated fee range is an anticipated range; the final rate or fixed price will depend on experience, role, work-package requirements, and applicable cost-reasonableness requirements.

Some assignments may require rapid turnaround, irregular coordination across time zones, or international travel. Travel requirements, approvals, insurance, and reimbursable costs will be addressed in the applicable consulting agreement or work order.

Participation in a U.S. Trade and Development Agency project-scoping assignment may make the participating consultant or subcontracting entity ineligible to compete—whether as a prime contractor, subcontractor, or otherwise—for certain USTDA-funded follow‑on activities resulting from that assignment, unless USTDA grants a waiver. Axyde will disclose the applicable restriction and obtain written acceptance before issuing a work order.

Selected specialists may be asked for written permission to include their name, qualifications, and resume in a proposal. Applying does not by itself authorize Axyde to represent that an applicant has committed to a proposal or assignment.

Work performed under an awarded contract will be subject to applicable confidentiality, data‑rights, information‑security, professional‑responsibility, and conflict‑of‑interest requirements. Any background intellectual property, proprietary estimating data, or licensed tools should be identified before an assignment begins.