Overview
The Engineer (Cost Estimator) provides technical support for infrastructure construction, reconstruction, and rehabilitation projects. The role involves reviewing and verifying cost estimates and Bills of Quantities (BoQ) to ensure compliance with design documentation and assess budget risks.
Key Responsibilities
- Verify compliance of cost estimates/BoQ with design documentation.
- Assess quality of BoQ and design documentation.
- Review design drawings and specifications to confirm quantities and logic of BoQ items.
- Verify completeness of BoQ/cost estimate.
- Verify correctness of quantities, units, and calculation logic.
- Identify duplications or misallocation across disciplines.
- Assess budget risks and propose contingency approaches.
- Provide cost and quantity support for project changes.
- Review change requests for justification and compliance.
- Verify correct application of rates, coefficients, and mark-ups.
- Prepare/review new BoQ items.
- Reconcile with discipline engineers on technical validity of changes.
- Benchmark unit costs against market sources.
- Identify key cost drivers and items with risk of overpricing/underpricing.
- Verify additional expenses, risks, and miscellaneous administrative costs.
- Ensure consistency of pricing approach.
- Verify correct application of coefficients, indices, and mark-ups in specialized software.
- Identify overpricing/underpricing driven by coefficients.
- Prepare structured review reports with comments and recommendations.
- Maintain a comment log.
- Provide corrections and recommendations to cost estimates.
- Review and transform data from specialized software output into practical formats.
- Collaborate with UNDP and discipline engineers.
- Communicate with FBs and designers to verify data and clarify assumptions.
- Participate in technical coordination on project changes.
- Contribute to implementation progress reports.
Required Experience
- Applicants with a Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) are required to have a minimum of two (2) years of relevant professional experience in cost estimating / BoQ review and verification for construction, reconstruction and/or rehabilitation projects.
- Proven experience in preparation and verifying cost estimates/BoQs against design documentation.
- Hands-on experience with estimates prepared in specialized cost composition software.
- Experience in market benchmarking and reasonableness checks of rates/prices.
- Experience working within a multidisciplinary team and coordinating with designers/partners.
- Experience in government tender procedures.
- Experience of working with relevant stakeholders from governmental and non-governmental institutions.
- Experience in the field of procurement of civil works and services.
Qualifications
- Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Civil Engineering, Construction Engineering, Architecture, Quantity Surveying, Construction Economics or related field is required.
- A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in the areas mentioned above in combination with additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of Master’s degree.
