Sr. Cost Control Engineer

Mariana Minerals; Houston, San Francisco (TX, CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Mariana Minerals is seeking a Cost Control Engineer to own the cost baseline, forecast, and change control on capital projects. You will build the cost breakdown structure, convert estimates to budgets, track commitments and actuals, and forecast to completion across engineering, procurement, construction, and finance.

You will implement earned value practices, manage contingency, and automate data flows from ERP systems into dashboards for leadership.

Qualifications

• Education: BS in engineering, construction management, finance, or related field.
• 5–12 years of project cost control on capital projects in mining, minerals, refining, chemicals, power, or heavy civil.
• Earned value management on live projects and ability to describe its application.

Responsibilities

• Set the baseline: build WBS with planner, convert sanctioned estimate into control budget.
• Track commitments and actuals: POs, subcontracts, change orders, field costs, reconcile to ERP.
• Forecast: maintain estimate to complete and estimate at completion with documented basis.
• Measure earned value and report cost/schedule performance for actionable insight.
• Manage contingency drawdown and track against risk register with transparent reporting.
• Produce cash flow and funding curve for finance and treasury.
• Verify payments against contracts and progress.
• Automate data flow from ERP to reports without re-keying.

Skills

Earned value mgmt

Project cost control

ERP systems

Data analytics

Change discipline

Accounting interface

Certification (AACE/ PMI)

Communication

Education

BS in engineering, construction management, finance, or related field

Tools

EcoSys

InEight

Prism

Procore

SAP

Oracle

NetSuite

Job description

About Mariana Minerals

Mariana Minerals is a software-first, vertically integrated minerals company on a mission to supply the critical minerals powering modern energy, AI, and defense technologies. We’re reimagining the minerals supply chain by combining deep industry expertise with advanced software, automation, and data-driven decision-making.

The role

We are hiring a Cost Control Engineer to own the cost baseline, the forecast, and change control on Mariana's capital projects.

You will build the cost breakdown structure, convert the sanctioned estimate into a control budget, track commitments and actuals, and produce the forecast at completion that the business plans against. The role sits between engineering, procurement, construction, and finance — the path where a commitment becomes an accrual becomes an invoice becomes a capitalized asset — and your job is to make sure the number is the same in all four places. Cost control here is not a monthly report assembled by hand. The reporting is expected to come out of the system and building that pipeline is as much the job as running it.

What you'll do

• Set the baseline. Build the WBS and cost breakdown structure with the planner and estimator, convert the sanctioned estimate into a control budget, and lock it

• Track commitments and actuals. Purchase orders, subcontracts, change orders, and field costs, reconciled to the ERP every month with no unexplained variance

• Forecast. Maintain estimate to complete and estimate at completion by control account, with the basis for each forecast written down rather than carried in your head

• Measure earned value. Set rules of credit with the planner, measure physical progress, and report cost and schedule performance at a level where someone can act on it

• Run the trend and change process. Identify potential changes early, quantify them, route them for approval, and keep the approved budget log clean

• Manage contingency drawdown. Track contingency and management reserve against the risk register and report what is left honestly

• Produce cash flow. Maintain the project cash flow and funding curve for finance and treasury

• Verify payments. Review contractor invoices and progress claims against measured progress and contract terms

• Report. Create, issue and present the project cost report and the dashboards leadership actually opens

• Automate the pipeline. Cost data should move from the ERP, procurement, and the schedule into the report/dashboard without re-keying. Build the connections, the reconciliations, and the exception checks that catch a bad number before a person does

Desired qualifications

• Education. BS in engineering, construction management, finance, or a related field

• Experience. 5–12 years of project cost control on capital projects in mining, minerals, refining, chemicals, power, or heavy civil. Senior candidates will have owned cost on a project above $100M total installed cost

• Earned value in practice. You have applied earned value management on a live project, not only in training, and can describe where it broke down

• Systems. Hands-on with a project cost management system such as EcoSys, InEight, Prism, or Procore, and with an ERP such as SAP, Oracle, or NetSuite

• Data fluency. Advanced Excel, plus SQL, Power BI, or Python at a level where you build your own reporting instead of requesting it

• Change discipline. You have run a trend and change management process end to end and can say what you would do differently

• Accounting interface. Comfortable with commitments versus actuals, accruals, capitalization, and funding authorization mechanics

• Certification. AACE Certified Cost Professional or Certified Cost Technician, or PMI credentials, are a plus

Our culture is built on four principles:

Everyone Gets Home Safe. We never put speed or cost ahead of people.

Extreme Ownership. We take full responsibility for outcomes, relentlessly driving toward solutions.

Engineer Out Requirements, then Automate. We simplify, optimize, and then automate for scale.

Share Your Legos. We collaborate openly, share knowledge, and empower each other to build bigger, better solutions.

Join us as we build the future of responsible mineral sourcing and supply!