Senior Cost Lead

Cenovus Energy; Toledo (OH); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous paid vacation

Annual bonus

Retirement savings plan matching

Medical & dental coverage

Job summary

Cenovus Energy seeks a Senior Cost Lead to steer Cost Control across FED and Project Execution. You will lead internal Cost Engineers, coach contractors, and drive standard cost-management practices across multiple projects, ensuring disciplined budgeting and forecasting.

You will partner with Project Managers, Engineering, and Finance to deliver actionable insights, optimize costs, and support strategic decision-making across the portfolio.

Qualifications

• Legally authorized to work in the US.
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Construction Management, Finance, or a related discipline.
• 8+ years of related experience in project cost engineering, project controls, or project management.
• Working knowledge of project controls systems such as SAP, EcoSys, Maximo, Primavera P6, and advanced Excel reporting tools.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Cost Control function across Front-End Development (FED) and Project Execution, providing governance and accountability for cost management performance.
• Provide leadership, coaching, and oversight for Cost Engineers, contract resources, and third-party providers.
• Own and continuously improve project cost management processes: budgeting, commitments, actuals, forecasting, cash flow, change management, variance analysis, and reporting.
• Ensure budgets/forecasts reflect approved scope, schedule, contractor progress, changes, risks, and opportunities.
• Deliver timely, accurate reporting and analytics to enable informed leadership decisions and portfolio health assessment.
• Collaborate with Project Managers, FED, Engineering, Estimating, Scheduling, Supply Chain, Construction, Finance, and external contractors to align project controls and improve cost competitiveness.

Skills

Cost engineering

Project controls

Forecasting

Advanced Excel

SAP

EcoSys

Maximo

Primavera P6

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Construction Management, Finance, or related field

Tools

SAP

EcoSys

Maximo

Primavera P6

Excel (advanced)

Job description

About this opportunity

Cenovus is seeking a Senior Cost Lead to serve as the functional leader for the Cost Control discipline across Downstream Site Project Execution and Front-End Development (FED), providing strategic leadership, governance, and accountability for cost management performance across a diverse project portfolio. Reporting to the Project Controls Manager, this high-impact leadership role is responsible for the development, continuous improvement, and execution of cost tracking, analysis, forecasting, reporting, and change management processes that deliver accurate, value-added insights to improve project performance, portfolio management, and project-related financial decision-making. The successful candidate will drive cost-efficient, lean, and system-optimized use of cost control resources while fostering predictable and competitive business performance through strong cross-functional integration with Project Management, Engineering, Supply Chain, Construction, contractors, and Finance. Location is flexible between Toledo, OH, Lima, OH, or Superior, WI, with occasional travel to other Cenovus sites, including Lloydminster, Alberta.

What you’ll do

Lead the Cost Control function across Front-End Development (FED) and Project Execution, providing governance, strategic direction, and accountability for cost management performance throughout the project lifecycle. Provide functional leadership, coaching, and oversight for internal Cost Engineers, contract resources, and third-party service providers, ensuring consistent application of standards, high-quality deliverables, and strong individual and team performance. Own and continuously improve project cost management processes, including budgeting, commitments, actual costs, forecasting, cash flow, change management, variance analysis and performance reporting to support disciplined capital stewardship. Ensure project budgets and forecasts accurately reflect approved scope, schedule performance, contractor progress, changes, risks, and opportunities, while integrating risk assessments into project and portfolio financial outlooks. Deliver timely, accurate, and decision-focused reporting and analytics that provide actionable insights into project performance, portfolio health, cost trends, risks, and opportunities, enabling informed leadership and decision making. Partner with Project Managers, Front-End Development, Engineering, Estimating, Scheduling, Supply Chain, Construction, and Finance and external contractors to drive integrated project controls alignment, challenge cost performance, and advance cost competitiveness through benchmarking, lessons learned, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Who you are

Legally authorized to work in the US.
Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Construction Management, Finance, or a related discipline.
8+ years of related experience, including progressive experience in project cost engineering, project controls, or project management.
Working knowledge of project controls systems such as SAP, EcoSys, Maximo, Primavera P6, and advanced Excel reporting tools.
We acknowledge the value of transferrable skills and may consider equivalent combinations of experience and education should you not meet a specific requirement.

Application deadline

Note: The application deadline for this position is 11:59 PM MT SEPTEMBER 23RD, 2026.

Cenovus ranking

Cenovus was ranked one of Canada’s Best Employers in 2025.

About Cenovus

Cenovus is an integrated energy company headquartered in Calgary. We’re committed to maximizing value by developing our assets in a safe, responsible and cost-efficient manner. We operate in Canada, the United States and the Asia Pacific region. Our downstream operations include upgrading, refining and marketing operations in Canada and the United States. We are currently the largest refiner in Ohio and transport products from our refineries in Lima and Toledo, Ohio and Superior, Wisconsin via pipelines, rail cars and trucks to customers throughout the United States. Other operations include oil sands projects in northern Alberta, thermal and conventional crude oil and natural gas projects across Western Canada, crude oil production offshore Newfoundland and Labrador and natural gas and liquids production offshore China and Indonesia.

Total rewards

We’re committed to being an employer of choice through competitive compensation and our comprehensive total rewards package, including:

• Generous paid vacation


• Annual bonus


• Retirement savings plan matching


• Long-term incentives*


• Medical & dental coverage


• Life insurance


• Disability benefits


• Employee assistance program


• Virtual healthcare coverage


• Generous leave of absence programs


• Fitness membership reimbursement


• *Eligibility for Total Rewards varies by position. This role may not be eligible for all Total Rewards offerings.

Our development philosophy

We foster a culture of continuous learning and development to support employees as they build meaningful careers. We offer a variety of employee development initiatives, including:

• Internal course offerings


• Education assistance for additional development


• Opportunities to work on special projects


• Leadership development programs for emerging and established leaders


• We actively promote internal job movement, recognizing the value of gaining new perspectives, building connections across teams, and applying expertise in new ways. As a fully integrated energy company, we believe that sharing knowledge across our business and operations creates stronger outcomes—for employees and for the company as a whole.

Our culture

Our purpose: We energize the world to make people’s lives better.
Our values: Protect what matters, Do it right, Make it better, Do it together.

Cenovus Cares

Employee Giving and Volunteering Program, Cenovus Cares, connects our people to our purpose inspiring action and elevating impact year-round. Support causes you care about with volunteer opportunities in and outside of work. Earn donation grants while volunteering (up to $1,000 per event). Receive donation matching up to $10,000 annually. Staff resource groups: We have various staff resource groups to help ensure our people feel a sense of belonging and can grow and do their best work. These voluntary groups are employee-led and all groups are open to all staff in all locations.

Equal opportunity employer

We believe a workplace where everyone has merit-based opportunities to grow, achieve career aspirations and feel a sense of belonging benefits our people, our company and the regions where we live and work. We embrace and encourage different perspectives and approaches, which help us make better business decisions. We believe that through this approach, we can solve challenges, seize opportunities and unlock innovative solutions. To achieve an unbiased and respectful workplace, individuals are evaluated based on qualifications, merit and abilities, and we encourage applications from all qualified candidates. We also acknowledge the value of transferrable skills and may consider equivalent combinations of experience and education should you not meet a specific requirement. For more information about working at Cenovus, visit cenovus.com. The requirements of this posting may be modified to support business needs. Title and compensation administration will be based on the skills and capabilities of the successful incumbent.