Director, Value Engineering and Product Management

X-Energy•Rockville, MD

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Value Engineering and Product Management at X-energy will work cross functionally across Project Controls, Engineering, Procurement / Supply Chain, Construction, Operations and Project Finance/Commercial Development. This role will help to inform engineering design and technical decision-making in real-time by providing relevant cost and value data and implications, enabling the organization to make smart design choices based on trade-offs between cost and value / efficiency and between CAPEX and OPEX to optimize the whole-life value of Xe products and projects. A major part of this role is to work with Engineering to identify and constructively challenge: Over-engineering, Excessive conservatism, Redundant scope, Complex interfaces, Low-value requirements. This role will be the ‘voice of the customer’ within our projects—enabling engineering teams to make design decisions with short and long-term cost and schedule implications fully in mind. They will build the connective tissue between disparate parts of the organization. They will sit alongside engineers, understand design challenges, and then turn around and deliver fast, usable cost estimates that help them make trade-off decisions. They will build both the framework and the habit: the tools that make rapid cost / value estimates possible, and the culture that incentivizes the engineering teams to use them. This work will directly influence which design paths X-energy pursues and how it successfully delivers its first-of-a-kind and nth-of-a-kind megaprojects. This role requires deep megaproject cost estimating experience, strong organizational savvy, ability to communicate effectively at all levels in the organization, and the confidence to build something from scratch. When people tell you something isn't possible, you find a way. This position serves as the executive voice of the customer within projects by translating technical decisions into short- and long-term cost and schedule implications and ensuring those trade-offs are visible, understood, and acted upon at the point of decision. The role builds and institutionalizes the connective structure between disparate parts of the organization by establishing the strategy, tools, processes, governance, and working relationships that allow engineering teams to access fast, usable cost and value estimates in real time. The Director, Value Engineering and Product Management also plays a key role in setting the enterprise approach to identifying and constructively challenging over-engineering, excessive conservatism, redundant scope, complex interfaces, and low-value requirements. This work directly influences design path decisions, portfolio outcomes, and the successful delivery of first-of-a-kind and nth-of-a-kind megaprojects.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in engineering, business, finance, or other.
10-15+ years experience in cost estimating, project controls, or value engineering, with deep experience in megaprojects (ideally $500M+ capital projects in energy, infrastructure, construction, or industrial sectors).
Strong knowledge of budgeting, forecasting, earned value management (EVM), and financial reporting.
Proficiency in SAP, Oracle, or equivalent ERP systems and expert use of Microsoft Excel.
Proven ability to interpret complex data, identify trends, and communicate financial implications.
Strategic thinker with excellent leadership, collaboration, and communication capabilities.
Entrepreneurial self-starter with ability to think about the next horizon of what is possible and eager to drive an organization to make it happen.

Responsibilities

Connect finance, commercial development, and engineering organizations around a shared understanding of project costs, value drivers, and trade-off implications.
Lead the development and implementation of cost control systems, plans, and procedures across project portfolios, building and leading a rapid cost estimating framework that enables engineering to evaluate design trade-offs in real time—creating the framework, tools, processes, and culture needed to make it a reality.
Monitor budgets, expenditures, and forecasts to ensure compliance with all project and corporate financial objectives; identify cost variances, potential risks, and savings opportunities, proposing corrective actions as required; prepare and maintain detailed cost reports, dashboards, and forecasts for project leadership and stakeholders; conduct variance analysis, cash flow tracking, and earned value performance reporting.
Serve as the ‘voice of the customer’ within project teams, translating technical decisions into cost and schedule impacts, CAPEX vs OPEX considerations, and construction and maintenance impacts, and ensuring that cost / value implications are visible and understood at the point of decision.
Embed oneself in the engineering organization— work across project management, engineering, procurement, and finance teams to build relationships, understand design challenges, and create trust so that teams reach for cost / value estimating as a tool as opposed to a burden.
Champion a culture of cost-conscious engineering—build the muscle within Project Controls to produce fast, usable estimates and help teams understand that cost estimating is not a constraint but an enabler of smart, faster decision-making.