Senior Estimator – Civil Engineering

a Regional Civil Engineering contractor is seeking an experienced Senior Estimator to work on a portfolio of civil engineering projects from £10 – £50m each. These can include Highways, Rail, Water, Power and Infrastructure

The successful person will;

• Be Degree qualified and preferably chartered
• Have a Track record of leading the pre-construction team for a civil engineering main contractor
• Have Track record in successfully estimating, bidding and winning design and build contracts

Responsibilities

• Coordinate and work with the national work winning resource in liaison with the Business Unit Manager and General Manager;
• Maintain contemporary expert knowledge and understanding of the construction market and provide advice and information to the work winning business unit;
• Lead and manage the development of winning proposals in response to bid documents issued by clients;
• Take ownership of the tender process, from bid through to award, including the integration of commercial and quality proposals and ensure the defined company process and procedures are adhered to;
• Agree bid strategy at start up meeting with Senior Management. This may involve working in a Joint Venture or Alliance Partnership;
• Identify internal and external resource requirements, agree availability with Senior Management;
• Maintain effective client (and JV / Partner) liaison including dialogue, clarifications and tender presentations;
• Manage a realistic and up to date bid programme and deliverables register and ensure targets are met by the bid team through discussion and review meetings;
• Undertake technical review of estimating, planning and supply chain proposals, supported by Estimator(s);
• Lead and manage the development of high quality written and costed bid material with specialist support from the Proposals Manager and Bid Writer;
• Co-ordinate information for tender settlement in line with requirements of T66 agenda. Deliver tender settlement presentations to Senior Management. Disseminate actions to the bid team;
• Gather post-submission client feedback and attend meetings. Identify and disseminate learning / best practice to the bid team and Proposals Manager;
• Ensure full and smooth handover of bid stage information to the Operations Team and provide further input and advice as appropriate;
• Develop, manage and maintain a supply chain database to provide full regional capability;
• Contribute to the business market share through developing contacts and effective marketing and assist in PQQ submissions;
• Assist in seeking out work streams which increase profitability and enhance market value;
• Ensure compliance with Company systems and procedures;
• Assist in the recruitment and development of work winning staff.

Knowledge skills & experience

• Well-developed written and verbal communication skills;
• Ability to articulate clearly tender schemes internally with senior management and a range of contributing and support staff making up the bid team;
• Ability to take the lead role in tender communication (queries, responses etc) with the client;
• Confident in making persuasive presentations to clients;
• Strong estimating and bid management skills;
• Excellent resource management skills to ensure all bid deliverables are completed on time for both financial and quality submissions;
• Ability to manage the requirements of several concurrent tenders and potentially work with and manage design teams and Joint Venture / Alliance partners;
• Able to remain calm and work under tight timescales whilst maintaining the required high quality standard of work and good management practices;
• Innovative and forward thinking;
• Well-developed commercial acumen and proven ability to develop and maintain supply chain relationships;
• Ability to find a commercial advantage that provides a competitive tender and increases our margin;
• Ability to link what we can deliver to client centred benefits;
• Good knowledge and understanding of cost planning and estimating requirements;
• In depth understanding of construction forms of contract;
• Understanding of the impact of value engineering, risk and programme on the final tendered price;
• Experience in managing and delivering high quality submission deliverables;
• To be able to understand the tender assessment and marking regime and be able to shape the written response to maximise the quality mark;
• Have a methodical and thorough approach that ensures tenders are compliant, consistent and complete;
• To identify the deliverables early in the tender and ensure contributing bid team fully understands the requirements, standards and timeline of their part;
• Have a collaborative working style;
• Operate at the centre of a tender and be able to manage the best out of people and take a hands-on role as appropriate and when required.

Person

• Previous experience should ideally be in civil engineering infrastructure projects ranging in value between £5m and £50m;
• Management of a work winning business unit or bid team(s);
• Bid management responsibility;
• Tendering through estimating / project management role;
• Construction background, familiar with a range of clients operating in the region and sector;
• Construction related degree;
• Membership of professional body with Chartered status (MICE or equivalent) (Desirable);
• Experience/training in estimating of civil engineering infrastructure projects;
• IT literate in MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project planning and estimating software;
• Evidence of bid management skills and experience;
• Evidence of estimating skills and experience;
• Construction planning;
• Design co-ordination;
• Bid writing;
• Detailed knowledge of the regional construction market;
• Comprehensive understanding of the principals of construction law;
• Commercially astute and able to gain competitive advantage;
• Team player with collaborative behaviours;
• Ability to manage and develop teams;
• Client facing experience including the delivery of presentations.