Cost Controls Manager - Data Center Project Change Management
Location(s): Clarksville, AR Summary of Position The Cost Controls Manager is responsible for the overall project cost management, encompassing budgeting, forecasting, tracking, and reporting, and managing the entire change control process on a data center mega project. This role requires a strong background in project controls, construction estimation, and contract negotiation within the mission-critical or data center environment.
Key Responsibilities - Cost Management and Control:
- Develop, implement, and maintain the project's financial plan and budget, tracking expenditures against approved budgets.
- Perform detailed cost analysis, forecasting, and reporting, providing regular updates on budget status to project leadership and stakeholders.
- Review, verify, and approve contractor progress billings and payment applications, ensuring accuracy relative to actual construction status.
- Assist in cash flow forecasting and processing of payment requests.
- Leverage data visualization tools for financial modeling and reporting.
- Change Control and Risk Mitigation:
- Own and lead the end-to-end Change Control process, ensuring all changes in scope or cost are properly documented, reviewed, and approved by the necessary parties.
- Analyze and negotiate contractor change order requests, aiming to mitigate unnecessary cost and scope creep.
- Maintain the project Change Order Log, providing transparent tracking of all potential and executed changes.
- Work proactively with the design and construction teams to identify potential change drivers and implement mitigation strategies.
- Manage and finalize contract processes and documents related to RFIs (Requests for Information) and change orders.
- Stakeholder Collaboration:
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams (Engineering, Procurement, Finance, Legal) to ensure commercial and financial outcomes align with strategic organizational objectives.
- Serve as the key resource for cost reporting and cost management support for the project.
- Build trusted relationships with external vendors and general contractors to drive performance improvement and control costs.
- Process Improvement:
- Establish and lead cross-functional cost management programs to drive performance improvement.
- Ensure cost controls processes and tooling are optimized and consistently applied across the technical organization.
Required Qualifications - Education: Bachelor's degree in Construction Management, Engineering, Finance, or a related field is preferred.
- Experience:3-5 years of experience in cost control, estimating, or financial analysis, with a preference in data center or mission-critical facilities construction.
Skills - Strong proficiency in budgeting, forecasting, and cost control for large construction projects.
- Demonstrated experience managing and negotiating agreements, pay applications, and change orders with general contractors and subcontractors.
- Expert-level proficiency in cost management software and Microsoft Excel, MS Project, and PowerPoint.
- Deep knowledge of general construction market conditions and cost benchmarks for mechanical, electrical, and structural systems.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, negotiation, and analytical skills.
Work Environment: - Primarily construction site• based, supporting field teams and trailers.
- Occasional travel to regional job sites may be required.
- Requires regular use of computers, mobile devices, and standard office equipment.
