Cost Engineer

Job Title: Cost Engineer
Reporting to: Financial Controller
Location: Mayo
Salary: €45,000–€55,000 (DOE)
Experience: 3+ years (cost control / project costing ideally within HVAC, MEP, construction, building services, or engineering)
Contract: Permanent, Full-time

Role Overview
The Cost Engineer will support the Financial Controller in controlling and reporting project and operational costs across the HVAC business. This role focuses on accurate cost tracking, margin analysis, forecasting, and cost improvement initiatives to support profitable delivery of HVAC projects and service contracts.

Key Responsibilities

• Track and analyse project costs (labour, materials, subcontractors, plant, overhead allocations) against budgets.
• Maintain accurate cost-to-complete (CTC) and cost-to-date reporting for live projects and service contracts.
• Prepare weekly/monthly cost reports, highlighting variances, risks, and corrective actions.
• Support month-end close activities related to job costing, accruals, and WIP (where applicable).

• Assist in project budgeting and set-up (cost codes, baseline budgets, spend profiles).
• Produce forecasts in collaboration with Project Managers and Operations (including cashflow and margin forecasting where required).
• Identify cost overruns early and propose mitigation measures.

• Work closely with Project Managers, Service Managers, Procurement and Stores to validate costs and improve cost capture.
• Support procurement decisions through supplier spend analysis and pricing comparisons.
• Assist in evaluating change orders/variations and their cost impact (in coordination with commercial/ops teams).

• Improve costing processes, ensuring consistent coding, approvals, and documentation.
• Support audits by maintaining clear supporting files for costs, accruals, and project reporting.
• Develop and maintain dashboards/KPIs (e.g., gross margin by project, productivity, material usage, subcontractor performance).

Key Relationships

• Financial Controller (direct reporting line)
• Project Managers / Contracts Managers / Service Delivery
• Procurement, Stores/Warehouse, Accounts Payable
• Senior Management (for reporting and performance insights)

Required Experience & Skills

• Minimum 3 years’ experience in cost engineering / cost control / project accounting within HVAC, MEP, construction, engineering, or building services.
• Strong understanding of project cost structures and margin drivers.
• Advanced Excel skills (pivot tables, lookups, reporting); experience with ERP/job costing systems advantageous (e.g., Sage, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, COINS, etc.).
• High attention to detail and ability to handle multiple live projects.
• Confident communicator—able to challenge cost variances constructively with operational teams.
• Strong organisational skills and ability to work to month-end deadlines.

• Knowledge of WIP accounting, revenue recognition, or construction/engineering financial reporting.
• Experience producing Power BI dashboards or automated reporting.
• Exposure to estimating/tender support or post-project cost reviews.

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Gi Group Holdings Recruitment Limited are proud founding members of Menopause in business, corporate members for Neurodiversity in business, Disability Confident committed members, Gold status for the Armed Forces Covenant, Bronze trail blazers for Racial Equality matters and Age Friendly Employer pledge members.

Gi Group Holdings Recruitment Limited group of companies includes Gi Recruitment Limited, Draefern Limited, Gi Group Recruitment Ltd, INTOO (UK) Limited, Marks Sattin (UK) Limited, TACK TMI UK Limited, Grafton Professional Staffing Limited, Encore Personnel Services, Gi Group Ireland Limited and Kelly Services (UK) Ltd. Gi Group Ireland Limited are acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this role.

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