Cost Assurance Lead

Balfour Beatty plc; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading construction joint venture in Birmingham is seeking a Cost Assurance Lead. This role involves implementing cost assurance strategies and collaborating with various stakeholders to ensure financial governance on the HS2 project. Ideal candidates will have substantial experience in cost assurance, strong analytical and communication skills, and the ability to engage with stakeholders at all levels. Flexible working options and a supportive environment are available.

Benefits

Flexible working available

Travel allowance for eligible candidates

Family friendly leave policies

Health risk assessments

Access to employee assistance programmes

Access to annual flu vaccinations

Qualifications

• Substantial experience in cost assurance or financial governance within large-scale infrastructure projects.
• Demonstratable leadership skills.
• Knowledge of cost accounting, budgeting and forecasting.
• Understanding of project risk management, audit processes, and financial controls.

Responsibilities

• Lead on rolling out the cost assurance strategy.
• Develop and implement risk mitigation strategies.
• Collaborate with commercial for quarterly reviews.
• Resolve audit findings with external stakeholders.
• Ensure integrity of submissions, managing review processes.
• Support the AfP process, addressing queries.
• Manage and report on cost in the fee budget.

Skills

Cost assurance

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Stakeholder engagement

Problem-solving

Job description

Recruitment | Sourcing Specialist | Talent Solutions Manager

Are you looking to progress your career by working on Britain’s biggest construction project?

Balfour Beatty VINCI is working with a range of organisations to design and build 90km West Midlands stretch of HS2 - Britain’s new high speed railway. Our work is essential to enable HS2 trains to travel between London and Birmingham as well as continue their journey up to Manchester. It’s an incredibly exciting time to join us - we’re at peak construction with work really ramping up on a broad range of assets including bridges, tunnels and viaducts. Plus you’d join 9,000 people across 72 nationalities working on this exciting section of HS2 across the region.

We currently have an exciting opportunity to join our team as a Cost Assurance Lead within the Finance Team. This role will be based on site in Birmingham.

Role Responsibilities

• Lead on rolling out the cost assurance strategy, maintaining and updating the risk heat map in collaboration with the BBV Assurance & Controls team.
• Develop and implement risk mitigation strategies, securing buy-in from accountable executives.
• Work collaboratively with commercial to develop quarterly deep dives to review lower-risk items and assess mitigation effectiveness.
• Work with external stakeholders (CVA, HS2, parent company internal audit) to resolve audit findings and maintain documented agreements.
• Ensure integrity of Cl50.8 submissions, managing ongoing review and reconciliation processes.
• Support the AfP process, addressing queries and bridging communication between cost assurance and client teams.
• Develop, manage, and report on the cost in fee budget, ensuring accurate tracking of financials. Working with budget owners

Experienced required

Substantial experience in cost assurance or financial governance within large-scale infrastructure projects
• Demonstratable leadership, analytical and communication skills.
• Ability to engage and influence Stakeholders at all levels
• Knowledge of cost accounting, budgeting and forecasting
• Understanding of project risk management, audit processes and financial controls
• Pro‑active and collaborative approach to problem‑solving and continuous improvement
• The role may require some travel, but will be predominantly based in Site offices

Please note candidates will need to have a current valid right to work in the UK to be considered for this role.

Benefits of working with us

• Flexible working available for some roles
• Travel allowance for eligible candidates
• Family friendly leave policies
• Health risk assessments
• Access to employee assistance programmes
• Access to annual flu vaccinations

About Balfour Beatty VINCI

Balfour Beatty VINCI is a long-established joint venture between two powerhouses for the delivery of critical infrastructure across rail, transport and other iconic projects in the UK and beyond. We started working together over 30 years ago to deliver the Channel Tunnel, as members of the TransManche Link consortium. In the Midlands, it is Balfour Beatty VINCI’s role to design and build the route, ready for tracks and signalling to be installed. Our work with HS2 Balfour Beatty VINCI have been awarded a 90km section of the HS2 project from Long Itchington in Warwickshire to the centre of Birmingham and then on to Handsacre in Staffordshire.

Overall, we will be building the following across all our sites:

• 9.3km of viaducts
• 2 twin bore tunnels and 2 cut and cover tunnels
• 28 underbridges and 11 underpasses

Diversity and Inclusion

Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV) is delivering equal opportunities for everyone that is part of the team and for people that are yet to join us. We are an inclusive employer and welcome people from all backgrounds to come and join our team, including people with different physical abilities and neuro diversities. We are working to represent the communities Balfour Beatty VINCI works in through our workforce. We have embedded Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (ED&I) Champions across our sites and are guided by strong accreditations that ensure we demonstrate our ability to support our people effectively. We care about being inclusive and that means we encourage applications from people with diverse set of backgrounds and experiences. BBV is a Disability Confident Leader and we welcome applications from candidates with a disability.

We recognise and respect that people work in different ways and we are open to discussing what flexibility you may need during the recruitment process, balanced against our project requirements.