Senior Cost Manager / Quantity Surveyor - Industrial/Manufacturing Construction

Turner & Townsend; Charlotte (NC); On-site; USD 95,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Turner & Townsend in Charlotte, NC, seeks an experienced Senior Cost Manager/Quantity Surveyor for an industrial/manufacturing construction program. You will lead cost planning, change management, and value engineering, interfacing with clients and design teams to protect value and performance.

In this client-facing role you will drive estimates, cost control, and reporting across multi-package projects, mentor junior staff, and ensure governance, SOX controls, and commercial excellence

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in construction management, cost management, quantity surveying, engineering, or a related field.
• 5–7 years of experience in cost management, quantity surveying, or project controls within the construction industry.
• Experience delivering cost management on large, complex industrial or infrastructure projects.
• Consultancy experience preferred.
• Knowledge of procurement strategies, value engineering, and cost control methodologies.
• RICS accreditation or working towards certification is preferred.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to operate in a client-facing role.

Responsibilities

• Estimating and negotiating change orders across a complex, multi-package construction program.
• Provide estimate and cost planning, including producing and presenting final cost plans for large industrial facilities.
• Review and collaborate with design teams and general contractors in developing and validating cost estimates.
• Reconcile design and scope changes and ensure contractor data accuracy across multiple workstreams.
• Engage with contractors and project stakeholders to gather progress updates and maintain accurate cost forecasts.
• Prepare written commentary and executive summaries on contractor submissions and monthly reporting deliverables.
• Coordinate all sources of cost data, including contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and design teams.
• Inform and drive engineering and design decisions based on real-time cost impacts.
• Work proactively to resolve scheduling and commercial challenges on large-scale construction works.
• Manage cost checks, valuations, and financial controls across major industrial and infrastructure components.
• Support post-contract cost variance management and formal change control processes.
• Oversee cost impact assessments, contingency management, and commitment tracking logs.
• Prepare funding reports and participate in value engineering sessions to optimize cost without compromising performance.
• Develop and maintain cost plans through design milestones, ensuring alignment with project budgets.
• Provide commercial input to design development and value engineering exercises.
• Review contractor pricing and lead negotiations to ensure fair and market-aligned contract values.
• Perform quantity surveying, cost control, and change management throughout the project lifecycle.
• Ensure cost auditing, validation processes, and financial governance are effectively implemented.
• Produce and present monthly cost reports to stakeholders.
• Ensure final accounts are negotiated and closed out in a timely manner.
• Compile benchmark cost data from major industrial construction projects.
• Support team development through mentoring and collaboration.
• Demonstrate leadership excellence in service delivery aligned with company standards.
• Manage financial performance using internal systems, including margin tracking and forecasting.
• Implement business systems and methodologies to ensure consistent best practices.
• Promote a collaborative, high-performance culture across teams and stakeholders.
• SOX control responsibilities may be part of this role, which are to be adhered to where applicable.

Skills

Cost management

Leadership

Client-facing

Communication skills

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor’s degree in construction management

Job description

Senior Cost Manager / Quantity Surveyor - Industrial/Manufacturing Construction

• Full-time

Turner & Townsend is a global professional services company with over22,000 peoplein more than 60 countries.

Working with our clients across real estate, infrastructure,energyand natural resources, we transform together delivering outcomes that improve people’s lives. Working in partnership makes it possible to deliver the world’s most impactful projects andprograms as we turn challenge into opportunity and complexity into success.

Our capabilities includeprogram, project, cost, asset and commercial management, controls and performance, procurement and supply chain, net zero and digital solutions.

We are majority-owned by CBRE Group, Inc., the world’s largest commercial real estateservices and investment firm, with our partners holding a significant minority interest. Turner & Townsend and CBRE work together to provide clients with the premierprogram, project and cost management offering in markets around the world.

Turner & Townsendare looking for anexperiencedSenior Cost Managerto act as the key,day to dayclient interface, ensuring that clientobjectivesare met through the delivery of a value-added cost management service.

To be successful in this role you must havegreat communicationskills and becomfortable operating in a client-facing role.The ideal candidatewill beself-motivated,driven,and able to work independently as well as part of a team.In this significantposition,you willbe responsible forproviding leadership and direction, embedding, and promoting the purpose, values, and vision of Turner & Townsend.

Responsibilities:

• Estimating and negotiating change orders across a complex, multi-package construction program.
• Provide estimate and cost planning, including producing and presenting final cost plans for large industrial facilities.
• Review and collaborate with design teams and general contractors in developing and validating cost estimates.
• Reconcile design and scope changes and ensure contractor data accuracy across multiple workstreams.
• Engage with contractors and project stakeholders to gather progress updates and maintain accurate cost forecasts.
• Prepare written commentary and executive summaries on contractor submissions and monthly reporting deliverables.
• Coordinate all sources of cost data, including contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and design teams.
• Inform and drive engineering and design decisions based on real-time cost impacts.
• Work proactively to resolve scheduling and commercial challenges on large-scale construction works.
• Manage cost checks, valuations, and financial controls across major industrial and infrastructure components.
• Support post-contract cost variance management and formal change control processes.
• Oversee cost impact assessments, contingency management, and commitment tracking logs.
• Prepare funding reports and participate in value engineering (VE) sessions to optimize cost without compromising performance.
• Develop and maintain cost plans through design milestones, ensuring alignment with project budgets.
• Provide commercial input to design development and value engineering exercises.
• Review contractor pricing and lead negotiations to ensure fair and market-aligned contract values.
• Perform quantity surveying, cost control, and change management throughout the project lifecycle.
• Ensure cost auditing, validation processes, and financial governance are effectively implemented.
• Produce and present monthly cost reports to stakeholders.
• Ensure final accounts are negotiated and closed out in a timely manner.
• Compile benchmark cost data from major industrial construction projects.
• Support team development through mentoring and collaboration.
• Demonstrate leadership excellence in service delivery aligned with company standards.
• Manage financial performance using internal systems, including margin tracking and forecasting.
• Implement business systems and methodologies to ensure consistent best practices.
• Promote a collaborative, high-performance culture across teams and stakeholders.
• SOX control responsibilities may be part of this role, which are to be adhered to where applicable.

• Bachelor’s degree in construction management, cost management, quantity surveying, engineering, or a related field.
• Minimum 5–7 years of experience in cost management, quantity surveying, or project controls within the construction industry.
• Experience delivering cost management on large, complex industrial or infrastructure projects.
• Consultancy experience preferred.
• Knowledge of procurement strategies, value engineering, and cost control methodologies.
• RICS accreditation or working towards certification is preferred.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to operate in a client-facing role.

*On-site presence and requirements may change depending on our clients' needs.*

Our inspired people share our vision and mission. We provide a great place to work, where each person has the opportunity and voice to affect change.

We want our people to succeed both in work and life. To support this we promote a healthy, productive and flexible working environment that respects work-life balance.

Turner & Townsend is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and actively encourage applications from all sectors of the community.

Turner & Townsend does not accept any speculative or unsolicited CV’s that have been sent to our internal recruitment team or hiring managers from agencies outside of our preferred supplier list or that have not followed due process. Any speculative or unsolicited CV’s will be treated as a direct application.

#LI-MB1

Join our social media conversations for more information about Turner & Townsend and our exciting future projects:

It is strictly against Turner & Townsend policy for candidates to pay any fee in relation to our recruitment process. No recruitment agency working with Turner & Townsend will ask candidates to pay a fee at any time.

Any unsolicited resumes/CVs submitted through our website or to Turner & Townsend personal e-mail accounts, are considered property ofTurner & Townsend and arenot subject to payment of agency fees. In order to be an authorised Recruitment Agency/Search Firm for Turner & Townsend, there must be a formal written agreement in place and the agency must be invited, by the Recruitment Team,to submit candidates for review.