Cost Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Wisconsin.

📋 Description

• Assist with capital projects across Georgia-Pacific’s North American facilities.

• Collaborate with project managers and project controls experts to define project cost frameworks, manage budgets, and implement cost-control procedures.

• Ensure precise project cost records encompassing budgets, commitments, actuals, accruals, forecasts, changes, contingencies, and management reserves.

• Oversee monthly cost-cycle processes, including data validation, accrual creation, contractor forecast assessments, period closing, and reconciliations.

• Evaluate cost performance, trends, risks, and variances; relay forecast changes through reports and dashboards; and suggest necessary actions.

• Merge cost and schedule data to assess progress, earned value, cash flow, anticipated phasing, milestone effects, and costs related to delays or accelerations.

• Track commitments, contracts, purchase orders, invoices, and payment statuses; pinpoint gaps, duplicate exposures, uncommitted scopes, and commercial risks.

• Work with scheduling, estimating, risk, and change-management professionals to assess cost implications and convert risks and opportunities into exposure scenarios, contingency plans, and forecast ranges.

• Ensure timely, precise, and auditable cost data with internal partners, contractors, and vendors.

• Transform and consolidate data from various systems into dependable, analysis-ready datasets and deliver ongoing or ad hoc insights.

• Mentor project team members and external partners on cost-control expectations, coding standards, forecast accountability, and prompt data submission.

• Provide timely, accurate, and traceable monthly cost reports; early identification of cost pressures and cash-flow effects; alignment of financial and scheduling records; and concise leadership reporting.

⛳️ Requirements

• A minimum of two years of experience in project controls, cost engineering, or a similar project-cost role in support of construction, capital, or other complex projects.

• Practical experience with budgeting, commitments, actual costs, accruals, cost forecasting, variance analysis, and change control across various work packages or commercial commitments.

• Proficient in using Excel and a project controls, enterprise resource planning, or financial system to reconcile and analyze extensive cost datasets.

• Proven analytical and problem-solving abilities, including the capacity to interpret intricate data and formulate actionable conclusions.

• Experience in communicating complex cost data clearly to project teams and business leaders through reports, dashboards, or presentations.

• Ability to collaborate across project disciplines and appropriately question unsupported cost, forecast, or progress information.

• Willingness and ability to travel up to 25% (dependent on project needs).

• A bachelor’s degree or higher in engineering, construction management, building science, business, finance, accounting, or a related field (preferred).

• Five or more years of experience in project controls or cost engineering (preferred).

• Background in supporting large or complex capital projects for an owner organization or within an engineering, procurement, and construction environment, especially in a manufacturing or industrial setting (preferred).

• Familiarity with EcoSys or a comparable Enterprise Project Performance (EPP) system and visualization tools like Qlik or Power BI (preferred).

• Understanding of earned value management, cost and schedule integration, and cash-flow forecasting (preferred).

• Relevant certification or progress towards certification, such as AACE CCP, CEP, or EVP; PMI-SP; PMP; or a similar project controls credential (preferred).

🏝️ Benefits

• Variable pay, provided as a monetary bonus or in another format.

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.

• Flexible spending and health savings accounts.

• Life insurance.

• Accidental death and dismemberment (ADD) insurance.

• Disability insurance.

• Retirement plan.

• Paid vacation and time off.

• Educational assistance.

• Potential for infertility assistance.

• Possibility of paid parental leave.

• May include adoption assistance.

• Remote work arrangement.