Senior Cost Manager

Keel Infrastructure•Pittsburgh, PA

11d•$165,000 - $205,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Cost Manager is the developer and owner of the cost control function at Keel Infrastructure. This role stands up centralized cost management as a service to the business — building the estimating methodology, the standards, the cost data, and the tooling from the ground up, and then running that service across every data center project in the portfolio. This is a hands-on delivery role for someone who has personally controlled cost on projects through to close-out and wants to build the function, not inherit it.

Requirements

10+ years of cost management, quantity surveying, or project controls experience on large capital construction programs, with demonstrable hands-on delivery — not reporting-only experience.
Direct experience building or substantially rebuilding a cost control function, including the processes, standards, tooling, and data behind it.
Proven experience developing concept and preconstruction estimates that informed real capital and site selection decisions.
Experience carrying budgets through the full delivery lifecycle to final account and close-out.
Demonstrated ownership of change management and commercial negotiation on complex, multi-package builds.
Experience on programs of $200M+ in total installed cost; data center, mission-critical, hyperscale, HPC, heavy industrial, or utility-scale experience strongly preferred, owner or developer side preferred.
Expert knowledge of earned value management, cash flow forecasting, and cost-to-complete methodologies.
Deep familiarity with contract structures (GMP, lump sum, design-build, CMAR) and their payment, change, and claims provisions.
Data structuring and analytics capability — Power BI, SQL, or equivalent — sufficient to build and query a benchmarking database.
Proficiency with cost management and finance systems.
Understanding of data center design and construction: electrical distribution, power systems, mechanical cooling, structural and civil packages, and their cost drivers.
Sound financial acumen and the ability to interface credibly with senior finance and executive teams.
Builder's mindset — comfortable operating with no existing framework and creating the standard rather than applying someone else's.
Strong commercial judgment and negotiation skills; willing to hold a firm position with contractors and defend it with data.
Drives accountability across internal and external teams without formal authority.
Clear written and verbal communication; able to make a complex cost position understandable to non-commercial audiences.
Bachelor's degree in Quantity Surveying, Construction Management, Engineering, Finance, or a related field.

Nice To Haves

Professional certifications or memberships related to role are preferred.

Responsibilities

Establish and own the centralized cost control function for Keel Infrastructure, defining its scope, service model, and interface with development, project management, scheduling, procurement, and finance.
Serve as the single owner of the cost plan of record for every project in the portfolio, maintaining budgets centrally rather than leaving them distributed across contractors and project teams.
Build the cost management toolset and environment — cost breakdown structures, code of accounts, chart of accounts alignment, and system configuration — so cost rolls up cleanly from commitment to portfolio level.
Develop concept, order-of-magnitude, and feasibility estimates for prospective sites, translating limited early information into credible, benchmark-backed cost plans with clearly stated basis of estimate and confidence ranges.
Cost model site-specific drivers at concept stage — utility interconnection, substation and power infrastructure, site works, permitting, and constructability constraints.
Support site selection, capital planning, and investment approval with comparative cost scenarios, $/MW analysis, and sensitivity testing.
Own the project budget and cost report through design, procurement, construction, commissioning, and final account, maintaining continuity from the concept-stage baseline.
Manage commitments, accruals, cash flow forecasts, and cost-to-complete across all packages, contractors, vendors, and consultants.
Review and challenge contractor cost reports, pay applications, schedules of values, and invoices; verify progress claims against installed work and earned value.
Manage contingency and allowance drawdown with clear governance over what is released, when, and against what justification.
Author and roll out the cost management processes, procedures, and templates used across the portfolio — estimate development and approval, budget baselining, monthly cost reporting, accrual, forecasting, and change control.
Define cost reporting and commercial requirements for contractor and consultant agreements, then review submissions against those requirements and reject non-conforming reports.
Build and own the historical cost database, capturing actual unit rates, package costs, and final account outcomes from every completed and in-flight project.
Develop the benchmark set that underpins concept-stage estimating: $/MW, $/sqft, package-level unit rates, and realistic ranges rather than single-point assumptions.
Variance analysis between benchmark, estimate, tender, and final outcome, and feed those findings back into estimating assumptions and procedures.
Lead the change control process end to end — identification, pricing, assessment, negotiation, approval, and incorporation into the cost plan of record.
Independently price and challenge contractor change order submissions; negotiate commercial settlements and defend the owner's position on entitlement.
Produce portfolio-level cost dashboards, variance analysis, and narrative reporting for project leadership and senior executives.
Own forecast accuracy: maintain cost-to-complete and estimate-at-completion positions that hold up, with variance explained and quantified rather than discovered late.
Integrate cost with schedule to produce earned value, cash flow curves, and time-phased spend forecasts alongside the Program Scheduler.
Partner with Finance on capitalization, funding drawdown, capital plan alignment, and month-end close.