Amazon's Worldwide Grocery Stores, Growth & Development team is looking for a Cost Estimator to join our Store Development team.
Are you ready to play a critical financial role in one of the world's most ambitious physical retail expansions? In this role, your cost models and analysis will directly shape how Amazon builds hundreds of grocery stores across North America. You won't be tracking project budgets, you'll be building program-level cost baselines, driving portfolio analytics, and delivering the executive-level insights that help leadership make smarter investment decisions across a portfolio of 600+ locations.
Here's what makes this role different:
- You work at the program level, not the project level. Your job is to understand what it costs to build a store, why those costs shift, and how to keep our financial models current, contributing directly to how leadership makes smarter financial decisions at scale.
- Your work reaches the top. The baselines you build and the analyses you run feed directly into senior leadership conversations, monthly executive reports, and financial planning for the broader organization.
- You'll be a true cross-functional connector. You'll work closely with design, construction, finance, capital planning, and procurement teams, engaging directly with general contractors and external consultants, connecting you to some of the most important work in the business.
- You'll contribute to shaping the tools, not just use them. You'll provide input on the AI-powered analytics platforms and construction management systems our team relies on, supporting process improvements and governance that help the whole organization run more efficiently.
- You'll make the whole operation smarter over time. Every project you close out, every driver you identify, and every lesson learned feeds back into sharper baselines and better assumptions, so the next store format or new market benefits from everything we've already built.
If you're energized by the idea of bringing financial rigor to a fast-moving, large-scale retail operation, you have construction experience, and you want your work to compound in impact as the portfolio grows, this is the role for you.
Key job responsibilities
- Build and maintain program-level cost baselines across store formats and retail concepts, keeping financial models current as market conditions and construction costs evolve
- Execute portfolio-wide budget variance analyses and reconcile actual spend against planned baselines, covering both active and completed projects
- Support proforma updates as cost drivers shift, and collaborate with design, construction, capital planning, and procurement partners on trade-offs that impact financial goals
- Prepare monthly and quarterly cost performance data and supporting analyses for leadership review, contributing to executive review meetings and coordinating follow-up items
- Engage directly with general contractors and external consultants to gather cost data, validate assumptions, and support governance and cost validation processes
- Support process improvement, governance, and controls within construction management systems to improve data quality, consistency, and operational efficiency at portfolio scale
- Contribute to the team's AI and analytics strategy by gathering requirements, supporting tool adoption, and tracking the impact of new platform implementations
- Apply lessons learned from completed projects to continuously sharpen cost baseline assumptions and inform cost models for new store formats and capital programs
A day in the life
Most of your time centers on keeping cost models and financial baselines sharp: analyzing why costs are shifting, costing out new initiatives/formats, and making sure the right data is ready before big decisions get made. On any given day, you might be on a call with a general contractor validating cost assumptions, or working through how a design change affects an overall program cost. What you learn from each closed project feeds directly back into sharper models for the next store format. Beyond the routine, expect rapid executive requests, new concept launches, and engagement across the entire organization.
About the team
The Cost Management team is the financial accountability and controllership engine of our Store Development organization. We own the cost intelligence, vendor performance, and financial governance programs that help leadership invest smarter and operate more efficiently across 600+ grocery locations. We are a direct execution team: we do not advise on problems. We own and solve them. Every program we run is designed to scale with the business. If you join this team, you will be expected to execute with precision, build with rigor, and make the work better than you found it.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor's degree in Architecture, Construction Management, Engineering, or a related field
- Experience as an Architect, Engineer, Construction Manager, Development Manager, Owner's project management representative or in other Commercial Development and Construction related disciplines
- Experience with advanced use of Excel and using statistical analysis applications, or experience in construction or project management
- Experience in financial modeling, or experience with data analytics platforms (Power BI, Python, SQL, Tableau)
- Experience working with General Contractors and construction consultants on cost-related deliverables
- 5+ years of experience in cost management, financial analysis, or construction cost management
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience in commercial construction
- Experience in retail or grocery construction projects
- Familiarity with construction cost indices (e.g., CCI) and industry benchmarking methodologies
- Experience supporting external consultant relationships in a construction or real estate development context
- Track record of contributing to cost reduction strategies
The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.
USA, IL, Chicago - 77,400.00 - 135,400.00 USD annually
USA, NJ, JERSEY CITY - 89,000.00 - 155,800.00 USD annually
USA, TN, Nashville - 69,700.00 - 122,000.00 USD annually
USA, TX, AUSTIN - 77,400.00 - 135,400.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle - 82,700.00 - 135,400.00 USD annually
